2013 has been a groundbreaking year for songstress Natalie Cole who was nominated for three Latin Grammy Awards for her first Spanish-language album, Natalie Cole en Espanol. I spoke with Ms. Cole to discuss her success in this new arena, the impact her legendary father Nat King Cole has had in her life and the personal philosophies that have sustained her.
I saw you perform on Martha's Vineyard and I was pleasantly surprised when you sang songs from your latest album Natalie Cole en Espanol. The audience loved it. It took some courage to try something so different at this stage of your career. What led you down this path?
You know, I think that it's my nature is to keep experiencing different things, musically, not everything in my life (laughing) but musically I am kind of fearless and if you look at just the range of music I've done throughout my career you know it's never been one thing all the time and so this time I think I was kind of full with the jazz and pop and I was feeling like I don't want to do another jazz record right now. I can always do that, I can always come back to that and I felt like I wanted to be a little more international and broaden my horizons if you will. And although I do have a fan base overseas, I thought, "What if I did a non-English speaking record?"
So I spoke with my mentor David Foster, who I've worked with for many, many years. And I said I might want to do a Spanish record and he said, "Well, if anyone can pull it off, you probably could," and I did not know then at the time that a year or so later he was going to be the CEO of Verve (Universal Music Group). And he signed me and I was so grateful and shocked that he would because I've known David for 30-plus years and he is not an easy guy to get around. He's very picky and he likes to win. And now he's rebuilding the label.
So that's how it started and our A& R guy he suggested a producer named Rudy Perez in Miami. So He put us together and we wound up getting along like peas in a pod. And there started a great relationship and this record. He helped me pick the songs and you know this is not unlike what I did with Unforgettable, the Latin classic version of the American songbook.
It very exciting, you've been on the Billboard charts for many weeks. How does it feel?
It's been so gratifying, first of all ... it's like Unforgettable when everyone thought I pretty much lost my mind doing a record like that. And when this record started having success, I felt very grateful you know because I basically invested in myself and a few other people were crazy enough to follow me. And also probably the biggest privilege is getting acceptance from the Latin community. They just love this record and that is so gratifying and I feel emotional because they didn't have to.
I had the serendipitous pleasure of sitting next to you on the plane back to New York.
(Laughing) I know!
I was struck by your enduring youthfulness and how you express that through your sense of joy gratitude about where you find yourself at this point. What are your personal philosophies about life that keep you so grounded and optimistic?
I think it's just my nature. Every since I was a little girl, I've been a pretty optimistic kind of person, a pretty happy person. I can make myself happy. I learned very long ago that happiness is on the inside, it's -- it can be the little things. I really like comfort food and comfort people and comfort environments. I think that basically we all have that same shield.
You know, it is one thing to go outside of your comfort zone when you're working, but it's another thing [to do this] in your personal life. I've worked really, really hard throughout my life to get the pleasantries and I am very grateful for them. As much as I love shopping, I'm not that materialistic, you know, umm, I have walked away from a house full of furniture in the middle of a marriage that went very badly and I just took my son and my clothes and his clothes. I just left it. And I said you know what? Money don't make me, I make money.
Right! Oh that's a wonderful, wonderful philosophy. That's right!
I never worry about what's going to happen to me. God has always been in my life. God has been so good! You know, ridiculously good, for no apparent reason. I keep remembering -- I always want to remember this. And even when I got into drugs and got off the path and you know messed up, there were so many things I learned in rehab in the recovery process and one of the things is just be grateful. That's one of the things I learned -- gratitude, [to have] an attitude of gratitude.
When you complain a lot nobody wants to be around you, first of all and second of all, it limits your own world. I don't want to be around people who are feeling sorry for themselves. When you are grateful, people want to be around you and they feel nurtured and they feel positive around you.
Some people say, "My life is miserable, what am I here for?" Well you're not here to moan and groan and you're not here to have a pity party. Go out and give to someone, go help someone, do good for someone and you will be surprised at how good it makes you feel. And it comes back to you. Be grateful!
Something happened a long time ago, someone said to me, "You're like a well and you give 90 percent of your fullness away and you better take that 10 percent and run like hell!"
And that's the kind of person I am, I give away so much that sometimes I forget to save some for myself. But that's what we're really here for -- to be of service.
Do you meditate?
I do a lot of praying, a lot of praying. I just go right to the Source. God is my healer. He is my everything. You know sometimes I don't have time to meditate!
Yes! Whatever works. Connecting with the Source is the key.
Definitely.
How did your relationship with your father impact your life as a girl and who you are as a woman and artist?
Well, obviously, as an artist my dad left a legacy for me. Just the way that he saw things, the way he heard things, the way he wanted his music to sound -- that had a lot of impact on me, especially when I started doing the Unforgettable music.
As a little girl, my dad and I were just very close. I took on a lot of his ways -- if he liked, it I liked it. And I was a tomboy so you know I could really hang with my dad. We used to watch wrestling and boxing and he taught me how to play baseball and when he passed I just could not go to a baseball game for years after that. I just couldn't do it.
And I think as a woman they say that women do kind of look for a man that has qualities like their father -- and that can be good and bad. Okay? I'm very serious; you know what I'm saying? Or if you didn't have a father then you're looking for a father figure or if you did not have him, as in my case, for very long.
You know, I was 15 when my father passed away, and that's a very sensitive, crucial time for a young woman. And you can spend the rest of your life trying to recreate and remember what you liked -- or not -- about that person. And without the benefit of therapy to process what happened with your dad -- you know, I did not have that then, so I went into a lot of relationships very poorly because I was looking for love in all the wrong places. You know it's funny -- it's a wicked, wicked lesson but, you know, its okay.
It is. Wow, I can really relate to that one. I can.
Yeah? Is your dad still living?
No, and he was there but he was emotionally unavailable, so in many ways it sent me out into the world on that same path -- looking for love in all the wrong places. Yes, but it's wonderful to see it, to come full circle and find myself whole again and I feel like you feel whole again as well.
Amen, Amen, yeah. It took time but what it does is help you to make decisions about the things you don't want in your life. Whether its people, whether its situations, anything. It helps you be stronger and helps you make decisions about what's right for you, what is going to work for you and what's not.
You are a testament to African American women, to women of a certain age, to women in general, to humanity -- just how you walk the earth and how you have surmounted so many challenges and how you are still able to open up your heart and embrace the joy and the fun and the blessings that you are having at this time in your life. Is there anything you want to say in closing just to wrap it all up?
Hmmm, I say don't let anybody steal your joy because joy is what feeds your spirit. And it does come and go and I think a feeling of happiness, it comes from within. And just I believe you can give it to yourself. It doesn't have to be given to you because if you give it to you it means it cannot be taken away. So I would say give yourself joy and thank God because He has not forgotten any of us so far. Always, you know, to have that power in your life -- that force.
