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Cher opens up about life with Sonny
It took too long for Cher to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “I thought, what do I have to do?” she said. “I’ve had number one records in all these decades. I had a song [“Believe”] that changed music forever. And so, what is it that I’ve gotta do?”
This year she finally made it. At her induction ceremony last month, she said, “It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!”
It also took forever for Cher to write her story. This week, “Cher: The Memoir – Part One” finally comes out. Asked what she wanted to say with the book, she replied, “In the beginning, I didn’t wanna say much. And then at some point, I just thought, Cher, do it or give the money back.“
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The book centers on her years with Sonny, and her itinerant childhood with a mother who married at least seven times. She writes of how she had to be a grownup from the beginning: “One time we were driving in the car and she said, ‘Cher, I don’t know how we’re gonna pay the rent. What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Okay, how is this gonna work? How are we gonna do this?'”
In 1962, Cherilyn Sarkisian met Sonny Bono in a coffee shop. He was wearing a mohair suit and a mustard-colored shirt with a white collar. “I thought it was like when Tony met Maria,” she said. “Everybody disappeared, and it was just the two of us.”
But she said it was not love at first sight. “It was something,” Cher said. “I never felt it before.”
Sonny was 27, Cher was 16. “It wasn’t passionate; I just loved him,” she said.
What did she love about him? “How he was different than anyone else. And he made me laugh. And we had a dream.”
That dream came true. By the mid-1960s, Sonny & Cher had five songs in the top 50 at the same time. They had a #1 hit with “I Got You Babe.”
In the 1970s, on “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour,” they’d become America’s favorite couple, with their banter, their songs, and that Bob Mackie wardrobe: “And then, when they started to realize that people were tuning in because of what I was wearing, then they just gave us all the money we needed,” she said. “It was so much fun.”
But Sonny began to change. “He just started not to care,” Cher said.
About what? “About me.”
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He didn’t like her going out, or even talking with their band. But one member had his eye on her: A guitarist by the name of Bill. One night Cher met up with him. “We walked back to this place where the guys used to get high before the show. And then he kissed me, and it was like, Oh, my God.“
Somehow word got back to Sonny. “I don’t know if I can actually say what happened because it’s so personal, and it’s so … it’s embarrassing,” Cher said.
But it’s in the book: After Sonny asked her what she wanted to do, Cher writes: “I said, ‘I want to sleep with Bill.’ It all seems crazy now. I didn’t mean it, but I thought saying those words was the only way that he would let me go.”
“I thought if I do this, it’s over,” she said. “He’s not gonna be able to come back. We’re not gonna be able to be Sonny & Cher. I just wanna blow it up. But I didn’t know I wanted to blow it up until I was blowing it up.”
They offered her anything to keep up appearances: “Because everybody was afraid I was gonna blow up the show. They just said, ‘What do you want?’ And I said, ‘Well, I want my own place in Malibu. And I want $5,000 a month. Hello? And I want freedom.'”
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But Sonny & Cher kept up the façade for two more years, until Cher’s new boyfriend, record executive David Geffen, got a copy of her contract, and she learned the shocking truth: “Sonny owned 95 percent of the company and his lawyer owned five,” she said. “And it was called Cher Enterprises, but I own nothing! And we’d worked together for almost 12 years.”
She confronted Sonny: “I said, ‘When was the moment that you thought this would be a good idea?’ And he said, ‘I always knew you’d leave me.’ And I said, ‘That’s not a reason! Son, how could you do it? I was there by your side working, all those nights, all those days, through good, through bad.’ He didn’t have an answer.
“And we were still friends after that,” she said.
Even after Cher married Gregg Allman and was pregnant with their son, she rejoined Sonny for a revival of their TV show.
Mason asked, “Can you explain why it was that up on that stage all the other stuff seemed to go away?”
“Because we had fun with each other,” Cher replied. “And because on stage, there was no marriage. There was no discord. There was no word for our relationship. And you couldn’t cut it with a chainsaw.”
WATCH ANTHONY MASON’S EXTENDED INTERVIEW WITH CHER:
Cher would go on to win an Oscar, for “Moonstruck.” But that’s for part two of her memoir, which she still has to write.
As for her music, she says she’s got another album she wants to make. When? “After I get rid of this book!” she laughed. “Because talking is harder on your voice than singing. And I want to record an album, and 78 is not exactly a time in your life when you want to. I hope I’m Tony Bennett!”
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READ AN EXCERPT: “Cher: The Memoir – Part One”
For more info:
Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Steven Tyler.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters says workers at seven Amazon facilities will begin a strike Thursday morning in an effort by the union to pressure the e-commerce giant for a labor agreement during a key shopping period.
The Teamsters say the workers, who authorized walkouts in the past few days, are joining the picket line after Amazon ignored a Dec. 15 deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it doesn’t expect any impact on its operations during what the union calls the largest strike against the company in U.S. history.
The Teamsters say they represent nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, a small portion of the 1.5 million people Amazon employs in its warehouses and corporate offices.
Amazon is ranked No. 2 on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies.
At a warehouse in the New York City borough of Staten Island, thousands of workers who voted for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022 and have since affiliated with the Teamsters. At the other facilities, employees – including many delivery drivers – have unionized with them by demonstrating majority support but without holding government-administered elections.
The strikes happening Thursday are taking place at an Amazon warehouse in San Francisco and six delivery stations in southern California, New York City, Atlanta and the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois, according to the union’s announcement. Amazon workers at the other facilities are “prepared to join” them, the union said.
“Amazon is pushing its workers closer to the picket line by failing to show them the respect they have earned,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement.
“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed. We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it,” he said.
The Seattle-based online retailer has been seeking to re-do the election that led to the union victory at the warehouse on Staten Island, which the Teamsters now represent. In the process, the company has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board.
Meanwhile, Amazon says the delivery drivers, which the Teamsters have organized for more than a year, aren’t its employees. Under its business model, the drivers work for third-party businesses, called Delivery Service Partners, who drop off millions of packages to customers everyday.
“For more than a year now, the Teamsters have continued to intentionally mislead the public – claiming that they represent ‘thousands of Amazon employees and drivers’. They don’t, and this is another attempt to push a false narrative,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a statement. “The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union.“
The Teamsters have argued Amazon essentially controls everything the drivers do and should be classified as an employer.
Some U.S. labor regulators have sided with the union in filings made before the NLRB. In September, Amazon boosted pay for the drivers amid the growing pressure.
NEW YORK — The Teamsters union is launching a strike against Amazon at numerous locations across the country, including in Maspeth, Queens.
The Teamsters are calling it the largest strike against Amazon in United States history, and it’s set to begin at 6 a.m. Thursday. In addition to New York City, workers will be joining picket lines in Atlanta, Southern California, San Francisco and Illinois.
In a video announcement released Wednesday night, workers voiced their frustrations.
“Us being strike ready means we’re fed up, and Amazon is clearly ignoring us and we want to be heard,” one worker says in the video.
“It’s really exciting. We’re taking steps for ourselves to win better conditions, better benefits, better wages,” another worker in the video says.
The union says it represents about 10,000 Amazon employees and that Amazon ignored a deadline to come to the table and negotiate. The $2 trillion company doesn’t pay employees enough to make ends meet, the union asserts.
At the height of the holiday season, many are wondering what this means for packages currently in transit.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said, “If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed.”
Amazon says Teamsters are misleading the public
An Amazon spokesperson says the Teamsters are misleading the public and do not represent any Amazon employees, despite any claims.
“The truth is that the Teamsters have actively threatened, intimidated, and attempted to coerce Amazon employees and third-party drivers to join them, which is illegal and is the subject of multiple pending unfair labor practice charges against the union,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
An Amazon representative says the company doesn’t expect operations to be impacted.
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