As a celebrated actress, producer and philanthropist, Rita Wilson has remained busy as a musician in quarantine throughout 2020: the veteran artist, who’s been prolific since issuing her debut album AM/FM in 2012, has released a string of singles following last year’s full-length, Halfway to Home.
Earlier this month, Wilson unveiled “What I Would Say,” a meditation on a loved one battling addiction; earlier this year, she released “Everybody Cries,” from the film The Outpost, and “Where’s My Country Song?,” an ode to working class women who often lack representation in popular music. And of course, she teamed up with rap greats Naughty By Nature for an inspired remix of their beloved 1992 hit, “Hip Hop Hooray,” with net profits being donated with the MusicCares Foundation Inc. COVID-19 Relief Fund.
After celebrating her latest single release, Wilson checked in with Billboard and answered questions about her musical background, recent listening habits and making new songs while socially distancing.
1. What’s the first piece of music that you bought for yourself, and what was the medium?
I can’t remember buying it but the first music I couldn’t get enough of was Meet The Beatles. A neighbor worked at Capitol Records, and she would bring us the new albums on release day. It was vinyl, of course, and we’d put it on the turntable inside the “Hi-Fi” cabinet my dad made. Tuner, TV and Turntable all in one.
2. What was the first concert you saw?
Led Zeppelin. The Forum in Los Angeles. I later worked at the Universal Amphitheater as a ticket taker. It was the best way to see free shows. I’ll always regret not seeing the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl and Elvis in Las Vegas.
3. What did your parents do for a living when you were a kid?
My mom was a homemaker and my dad was a bartender at the race tracks. Either Santa Anita or Hollywood Park, depending on the season. On Saturday mornings we would count my dad’s tips that he kept in a Crown Royal felt bag. We’d sort all the coins and put them into those little paper bank rolls.
4. Who made you realize you could be an artist full-time?
This is a multi-part answer. First, I guess you could say, it was me. I started working at 14 as a model, then got my SAG card at 16 doing an episode of The Brady Bunch. I went to junior college but was working so much as an actor (I missed a lot of classes) that I began to realize that I could be an actor full-time.
The second time was when a director of a play I was doing, Merwin Goldsmith, suggested I train classically in London, since he felt I enjoyed being on the stage. I went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. At LAMDA, I started to realize there was a craft to being an actor. I started so young, I didn’t know you could train and get better.
Third, was when I had put out my first album, AM/FM. I had done Chicago on Broadway, and a few years later met the songwriter Kara DioGuardi, who had also done Chicago. She knew I had put out an album of cover songs, and asked what I wanted to do. I told her I’d love to write songs but that I couldn’t play an instrument. She said, “Neither do I. But do you have something you want to say?” Kara wrote my first two songs (with Jason Reeves) with me. Songwriting has truly made me feel the most creative.
5. What’s at the top of your professional bucket list?
I don’t think like that. I have accomplished so many things I never thought I would. Those things came out of a passion for doing what I love to do. Awards and things like that have never been a goal. So, I guess it would be to continue working with people who are at the top of their creative game and to get better.
6. How did your hometown/city shape who you are?
In every possible way. I was born and raised in Hollywood, California. It was my hometown and yet, world renowned. I grew up in the shade of the Hollywood sign and graduated high school from the Hollywood Bowl stage. Wait! That might be a bucket list item; performing at the Hollywood Bowl!
I drove by Capitol Records weekly. Hollywood Blvd. was our Main Street, USA. Yet, it was also where I worked at the local grocery store, cashed Coke bottles in for dimes, and took the bus to Santa Monica beach during summer. People would come from all over to live the dream, but seeing it as my hometown gave me perspective that you could also live a normal life.
7. What’s the last song you listened to?
Does listening to a mix of one of your own songs count? Probably not. So, I’d say Bob Dylan’s new album, Rough and Rowdy Ways.
8. If you could see any artist in concert, dead or alive, who would it be?
I really regret not having seen Elvis when he was in Vegas, and Frank Sinatra. I’d love to have seen Bobby Gentry.
9. What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen happen in the crowd of one of your performances?
At one of my acoustic shows, there was a loud gasp and the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. A guy had passed out and we had to stop the show while the paramedics came and took him out on a stretcher. Thankfully, we heard that he ended up being okay. That was so nice of them to let us know. I mean, I’ve heard of killer shows but…..
10. How has the pandemic affected the way you’ve created music in 2020?
Well, can you say “FaceTime”? I wrote a lot during quarantine and that continues to this day. I recorded “Where’s My Country Song?” socially distanced with everyone recording their parts at their home studios and my co-producer, Mikal Blue, working his magic at his studio. I did the “Hip Hop Hooray” remix with Naughty By Nature during quarantine. That was sort of spontaneous and awesome.
11. As a song about addiction, what does “What I Would Say” represent for you artistically?
Writing songs about subject matter that is hard to look at can be cathartic. Sometimes, songs are expressions of fears or emotions that you tend to avoid dealing with because it’s painful or frightening. Putting that into music is a way to process some of that.
12. Why did you feel like your recent track “Where’s My Country Song?” was a song that needed to be written?
Sometimes, how women are written about in music is idealized. Women can be portrayed as a man’s fantasy of what she should be like. In my song, I imagined women that are single moms, working hard, or women that we encounter every day that help to make our lives run a little smoother, or nurses on the frontline, women who work in offices and warehouses that we may never see; the women who aren’t wearing high heels in somebody else’s fantasy life. I thought about them getting into their cars after a long day of work, turning on the radio, and wondering why their lives aren’t being sung about on the radio. There’s room for everything, but there could be more room for women‘s stories than what we currently have going on.
13. 2020 has been a wild, tumultuous year. What are you hoping for in 2021, generally and personally?
Good health. For everyone.
14. As a longtime philanthropist, what would you recommend to someone who wants to make a difference this year, but isn’t sure where to start?
It’s simple. Vote. Your voice needs to be heard. The best thing you can give to yourself is to exercise your right to vote.
15. What’s your karaoke go-to?
Hello??? “Hip Hop Hooray” by Naughty By Nature.
16. What movie, or song, always makes you cry?
“I Will Always Love You” – Dolly Parton.
17. What TV series have you watched all the way through multiple times?
Not a one.
18. What’s one thing that even your most devoted fans don’t know about you?
That I speak French.
19. If you were not a musician, what would you be?
An athlete or a detective.
20. What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
It’s okay to say “no,” because the “no’s “ define you just as much as the “yes’s” do.
