Cyndi Lauper doesn't want to scare you. So, when she bebops into Michigan for the True Colors Tour sequel, those bright-and-blinding '80s get-ups – what she calls her "own personal museum pieces" – aren't escaping from her New York attic.
The others? "They just kind of wore out. I kind of got rid of them – or they're sitting in a box somewhere rotting," Lauper tells BTL in her mile-thick New York accent.
Two decades-plus after Lauper tried to convince her egg-crackin' ma that girls just wanna have fun, the unpredictable pop icon, whose kitschy wardrobe looked like something borrowed from Rainbow Brite, is now proving to us that while she's totally for merrymaking, even at 54, she wants to use her voice for more than just singing. And – "She Bop" fans – we don't mean pro-masturbation propaganda.
When Lauper's inimitable cords console with an aw-worthy one-liner – "I will always be your friend" – on disco-infused "Set Your Heart" from her latest long-overdue dance disc, "Bring Ya to the Brink," it wouldn't be too out-there to think, "Hey, Cyn's talking to me!"
"I'm kind of like an extended member of the family," she says. "Kind of"? Heck, we should be calling her auntie.
After all, Lauper, whose sister is a lesbian, proudly wrapped herself in a rainbow-colored dress during the 2006 Gay Games VII Chicago, and she'll star as herself on "As the World Turns" July 3 for a Pride episode. Before that, on June 11, she'll join the B-52s, Rosie O'Donnell and Tegan & Sara at DTE Energy Music Theatre for the 24-date True Colors Tour, a joint call-for-equality venture with the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG, CenterLink and the recently created True Colors Fund of the Stonewall Community Foundation.
"Equality truly is only, I think – and I'm not a mathematician, so you can quote me, but I'm just saying I could be wrong, 'cause instead of the math class I took the liberal arts – ," Lauper says, "but I always thought that equality meant to equal the sum of all the parts, right?"
When Lauper's voice bursts into an emotional wail as she soothes by singing, "Don't be afraid," during a live acoustic take on "True Colors" from her 2004 "Live … At Last" DVD, and then breaks while the audience mimics her clenched fist in the air, try not to reach for a tissue. Why? Released in 1986 and written by pop songwriter Billy Steinberg, the timeless feel-better ballad has taken on a life of its own, as Lauper has said, as it morphed from her ode to a late pal into an anthem for the queer community.
"I kind of sang it because I was heartbroken, and it was a healing song," she recalls. "And I sang it for my friend who had passed away and who wanted me to sing a song like 'That's What Friends Are For.' … It was sung for him – and now there's a tour. It all came to mean so much."
The tour concept ignited after Lauper caught the B-52s at an HRC dinner, and she instantly had a vision: One day, she thought, they'd have a new album – and she was right ("Funplex," their first album in 16 years, was released in March) – and she'd release "Bring Ya to the Brink," which follows current dance and pop trends but dresses them in traces of new-wave. And they'd hit the road together with classic jams, newbies – and glow sticks, glittery crowns and rainbow flags.
"I like that stuff!" she cheers. "It's Pride month."
But there's another reason to celebrate: Her 55th birthday is in June, too. "I wanna party!"
That, she will. Anyone who's seen Lauper live knows she's no party pooper – or statue. The way she lays down on her back, runs up staircases, straddles railings, rolls around on the piano, you'd think she'd have to chug a six-pack of Red Bull before hitting the stage. Truth be told, she doesn't use any energy boosters – but it might not be a bad idea for us to. When she urges, "Keep with me forward all through the night," on her 1984 hit "All Through the Night" – well, she definitely doesn't make it easy.
"I remember I used to have to, like, stand there," she says. "And I tried really hard to stand in one spot and I just couldn't."
Zigzagging through the crowd, she often tends to bebop off the stage – but isn't she afraid some crazy might try to violate her?
"Hey! Who do you think you're dealing with? I'm from New York," she laughs.
En route to New York, Lauper is as peppy as her latest album. A danceable fusion of synthy, bouncy and definitely funky beats, her 12th career disc is also her first all-new one since 1997's message-delivering "Sisters of Avalon." Culled from a line in "Lyfe," a soulful meditation on living, "Bring Ya to the Brink" is like dating a hot professor – on the surface it's all smokin' shake-it sounds, but beneath the beats Lauper reveals much more, like surviving being used on "Same Ol' Story" and offering a sociopolitical commentary on "Raging Storm." Her pretty pipes radiate on more-mellow "Rain on Me" – which exudes sounds and lyrics remarkably similar to "Time After Time."
"It's just snippets of pieces of life," she says of the album's lyrics. "I tried to do things that came out of conversation, that people normally say."
Or do. Take Prince's Super Bowl XLI halftime show in '07, where the rain caused him to nearly slip. To Lauper, the way he braced nature – who, she says, was telling him, "You think you're doing this, but, ay, ya know, really we're in charge" – was awe-inspiring, and triggered "Same Ol' Story," the fierce first single.
Lauper recites the lyrics to us: "People slippin' in the rain/I watch them get up again/It makes me feel that I can too." Co-written by Richard Morel, the f-bomb-dropping track packs a percolating rhythmic punch – and, on the album, he aids Lauper on two other numbers, including "Set Your Heart."
"We were all talking about the (gay) community and what was going on," she says of the song. "And at that time, there were professional people talking to me, saying things like they'd given up, and I felt really bad about that. I thought, instead of giving up maybe, ya know, we shouldn't."
Lyrically, Lauper and Morel mimic the core sentiment of Carole King's "You've Got a Friend," but she made every effort to keep away from corny. She says, "It's, 'Don't think that way. Stand up for yourself. Stand in your spot. I got your back.'"
That she does – time after time.
True Colors Tour
6 p.m. June 11
DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston
http://www.truecolorstour.com
