We chat up Terri Nunn for her naughty tour-bus tales, her thoughts on today’s music biz pop tarts, and the scoop on how she was almost Star Wars‘ Princess Leia.
Long before Madonna flashed her navel on MTV and woke up our collective libido, synth-pop pioneers Berlin got banned on Top 40 radio stations across the country as lead singer Terri Nunn‘s declared, “I’m a slut!” in the raunchy hit “Sex (I’m a…).” Hits like “The Metro,” “No More Words” and “Take My Breath Away” followed, the latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Song as the love theme for 1986’s Top Gun.
The Los Angeles-based band split apart soon after, but Nunn bought the rights to the name and formed a new Berlin in the mid-’90s, releasing a live album and a remix CD in 2000. We caught up with Terri as the band is on tour to support Voyeur, Berlin’s first studio album since 1986, and preparing to film a live DVD in Los Angeles.
What is the feel of the latest Berlin album, Voyeur?
It’s melodic, romantic electronica–not techno, not as heavy as industrial. Billy Corgan co-wrote a song called “Sacred and Profane.”
How hard is it for women over 40 in the music business?
There aren’t as many Sheryl Crows out there as Britney Spears knockoffs. There is music that transcends age, and I think to overlook that is to miss what great music is about and what people want. They don’t just want someone with great tits who is throwing them around for you to look at. That’s just porn.
In the ’80s, Berlin’s eroticism was groundbreaking. Does it irritate you now to see Britney Spears tease her audience with coy lyrics and a lack of clothing only to back off and say, “Oops, but I’m a virgin”?
At that age, that’s the way every girl was. We wanted to know everything about sex, but we didn’t know anything. We had no experience, we were terrified, so there is a lot of bravado and posturing because that’s all we had! Your sex life at that time is touch and go, and you’re lucky to have a relationship longer than a month. Kids want to hear from someone who is going through the same thing.
The Berlin tour bus must have been a party back in the day.
We had the James Bond Award at the end of every tour for whoever had the most sex. David Diamond, who was gay, won every time. He got more action than any of us.
You got married in 2001. How did you meet your husband?
He was a mortgage broker and I was getting a divorce and had to sell my house and buy something else. He looked at my financial statements to see what I could afford. The first thing he said was, “We normal people think you rock stars make a lot of money. What happened?” I laughed my ass off. Within two months we started going out.
Before you joined Berlin, you were an actress. Is it true that you were almost cast as Princess Leia in Star Wars?
Yes! I read for it in this warehouse with nothing in it but a few folding chairs: one with George Lucas, one with Harrison Ford. Harrison wasn’t an actor yet–he was a carpenter at Lucas‘s house who was just helping him read with the actors. They gave me a scene
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or two with lines like, “R2-D2, grab the phaser! We will lose Darth Vader if we don’t jump to light speed!” I’m saying this stuff, trying to be emotional and make it real and honest, but I don’t know what I’m saying. Harrison Ford is looking at me like he doesn’t know either, and doesn’t care. And George Lucas is intently interested in everything we’re both doing, so I left as confused as when I got there.
They asked me back one more time for a screen test, then I didn’t hear about it for months. I ran into Mark Hamill in the unemployment line because, back then, you could get unemployment between jobs. I said, I remember you from the screen test. Did you ever hear anything about that Star World or whatever? He said, “No, I didn’t get it.” Then I saw him up on the screen as Luke Skywalker! When they finally release Star Wars on DVD, you’ll probably find my audition in the bonus material.
Your life would have gone in a completely different direction if you got that part. Do you ever get the acting bug now?
Having to rely on acting to make a living is scary. Am I going to eat next month? It’s akin to being a constant temp. I would like to do a sex talk show, though. I’m so excited by series like Sex and the City. It’s as close as anything I’ve seen to what women really go through with relationships and sex. I’ve always wanted to share that kind of reality with women. The most damaging reality about sex is misinformation, or no information.
Berlin has a loyal fan base, but is it difficult to break people into new
material? Are listeners kind of lazy in that respect?
Yeah, that’s why radio play is so helpful because it gives people a chance
to hear what you’re doing. It’s harder to get them into new stuff because
most of the time they don’t hear it unless they come to a new concert and
it’s harder to get them to take a chance. It’s easier to buy a “Best Of.”
How do you define success now? Is it important where your song or album
places on the Billboard charts?
It’s always nice and certainly nothing I’d stick my nose up at, but it’s not
important anymore. The longer a band or an artist is working, the less
important it becomes. In fact, I’m making more money now in this stage of my career
than I ever did in record sales when we were number one! I guess the longer you stay in music the better it gets.
After 20-some years in this business, do you have any regrets?
Just one. I wish I would have sang “Take My Breath Away” at the Academy Awards the year it won. Every year my mom brings it up. She says, “I just watched the Oscars and I remember when your song won and you weren’t there.” The Awards people called that year and said they were doing a medley of the nominated songs and invited me to just sing a chorus. I said, Well, then I’m not doing it. I just needed that screen time, I guess. Lou Rawls and Natalie Cole stepped in and turned it into a duet for the show. Now I have to write another song for a movie and go win again or my mother will never forgive me!
