Pop Star Debby Boone: Faith in the Boone Family
Updated: Sep 26
" You Light Up My life" was the biggest song of 1977, the biggest song of the decade of the 70s and set a record as the number one song on Billboard's Top 40 for 10 weeks in a row. But there was some behind the scenes drama with the recording of that song. She'll tells that story and much more.
The Boone Family, like the Jacksons and the Osmonds made music together under the leadership of their dad; Pat Boone. That, plus a three generation legacy of music was the backdrop for Debby’s career. Jesus was, and still is a big part of her story and you'll hear it all in this episode of Amazing Greats.
DEBBIE BOONE AT A GLANCE
Recording artist, singer, actress, wife and mother best known for "You Light Up My Life," whose musical legacy spans three generations and whose Christian faith has continued to evolve throughout her life.
Topics
Music · "You Light Up My Life" · Faith · Prayer · Family · Pat Boone · Red Foley · Rosemary Clooney · Motherhood · Marriage · Acting · Live performance
Her Faith Journey
Christian upbringing → lifelong childlike faith → questioning inherited beliefs → exposure to different Christian traditions → deeper trust in God → spiritual integrity without certainty
This Episode Explores
Growing up performing with the Boone family
Learning professionalism from the Osmonds
Debbie Boone's Christian upbringing
Her evolving understanding of faith and Scripture
Her relationship with her father, Pat Boone
The surprising story behind "You Light Up My Life"
Praying with her mother in the recording-studio bathroom
Why she has always understood the song as a connection with God
The immediate impact of the song's success
Three generations of musical family history
Her marriage into the Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer family
Motherhood, identity and letting children find their own paths
Her love of cycling and live performance
The music and artists inspiring her today
Questions Answered
Who is Debbie Boone?
What is Debbie Boone best known for?
What is the story behind "You Light Up My Life"?
Why did Debbie Boone pray in a recording-studio bathroom?
Who was Debbie Boone singing "You Light Up My Life" to?
How did Debbie Boone's faith change over time?
How did Pat Boone influence Debbie Boone?
Who was Red Foley?
How is Debbie Boone connected to Rosemary Clooney?
What has Debbie Boone learned from being a mother?
What music does Debbie Boone listen to?
What does Debbie Boone want to do with her music today?
Core Story
Debbie Boone grew up in a deeply musical and Christian family before becoming a solo recording star almost overnight with "You Light Up My Life." She shares the unexpected story behind the recording, including a tense studio session that led her and her mother to pray together in a bathroom. The song became a historic hit, but Boone's story extends far beyond her biggest record: she discusses her evolving faith, her relationship with her father Pat Boone, three generations of musical heritage, marriage and motherhood, and learning to let her children follow their own paths. She also reflects on the enduring spiritual meaning she finds in the song and her desire to return to live performance.
Podcast Transcript: Debbie Boone — You Light Up My Life, Faith & Family Legacy
Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen
Introduction
Ric Hansen:Hey, hi, how are you? Ric Hansen here with the Amazing Greats Podcast, the podcast that specializes in uplifting, inspiring stories from successful authors and athletes and actors. And yes, definitely musicians.
This episode digs deep into the life of a recording artist who was the first ever to maintain the number one spot on Billboard's Top 40 for 10 weeks in a row.
We're talking about Debbie Boone here.
It was 1977, and the song was "You Light Up My Life."
Now, she was a teenage heartthrob to us young boys, but there was a crazy story behind the scenes about the recording of that particular song that ended up with prayer in the bathroom.
That's right. You'll hear her tell that story right here.
Plus, trying to keep up with the Jackson family, it was the Boone family story.
Your host for the interview is my longtime friend and cohort, Joe Michaels, who, too, he and I were teenagers back in the day when we first met.
Joe, among other things, will explore Debbie's three generations of family musical legacy and what she is up to today.
If you enjoy this episode, let us know by hitting the like button. And if you like uplifting, inspiring stories like this, click subscribe and we'll let you know when one comes your way.
Your support is truly a blessing for us.
Let's do this.
Family, Acting and Music
Joe Michaels:Yeah, well, thank you, Ric.
And by the way, Ric is the guy who has put together Amazing Greats. He's responsible for all this.
So I'd like to welcome you to my humble warehouse studio here.
And welcome a wife, a mother, an actor, and a singer. In fact, the number one song for the whole decade of the 1970s.
Please welcome Debbie Boone.
Debbie.
Debbie Boone:Hello, hello.
Joe Michaels:It's great, great to spend this time together with you.
Debbie Boone:Well, thanks for asking me.
Joe Michaels:You have four kids, right?
Debbie Boone:Well, it's hard to call them kids anymore since the oldest is 40, but yes.
Joe Michaels:Right. And one of your daughters is following in your footsteps, right, as an actor.
Debbie Boone:Well, yes. I don't, even though I've done some acting, I never really call myself an actor. It's not my first trade, really, but it is hers.
She's trained and gifted in it. And her name is Tessa, and she's just finishing up work on a new series, even as we speak.
Joe Michaels:Can you tell us the name of it?
Debbie Boone:Yeah, it's called Swagger for Apple TV, and it's based loosely on Kevin Durant's life coming up in basketball.
Joe Michaels:Oh, well, Kevin played in Seattle.
Debbie Boone:Ah, well, there. Okay.
So she plays a youth basketball coach.
Joe Michaels:Yeah, great. Well, we'll watch for her.
Debbie Boone:Yeah, I'm excited to see it. She's been gone too long, though. I want to see her first.
Joe Michaels:And you have twins also, right?
Debbie Boone:I have twins, yeah. Dustin and Gabrielle.
Tessa is who we were just talking about, and Dustin and Gabrielle are 37.
One is a writer for animated projects, and the other is an art teacher.
Joe Michaels:Oh my gosh. And you have one more daughter, right? They're all girls.
Debbie Boone:No, no, no. I have a son.
Joe Michaels:Oh, you do? Okay, I'm sorry.
Debbie Boone:My firstborn, Jordan Ferrer, who is an art director for movies and television.
And he just announced to our family today—we know he has a son who's two named Sonny, and they're expecting again, and they just found out Sonny's going to have a brother.
Joe Michaels:Oh, wow. Wow. Congratulations from all of us.
Debbie Boone:Yay!
Growing Up as a Boone
Joe Michaels:Let's go back a ways.
You started out as a kid performing with your family, right? The Boone family, obviously, TV shows.
Can you tell us a little bit about just being a kid and being a performer and the pressures that that puts on a kid? Or were you just taking it in stride?
Debbie Boone:Well, I truly loved it for the most part.
There were hard times. It's challenging, and I think it really helped my sisters and me develop a strong work ethic.
We kind of learned early on from some of the best in the business because our first professional endeavor as a performing family was with the Osmond family in Japan.
We saw how hard they worked, how seriously they took it. It wasn't just about having fun and getting to travel and being silly on the stage.
They were professionals.
So we got to see people our own age doing this kind of thing but taking it very, very seriously.
And we aspired to be the kind of professionals that we saw them being.
Joe Michaels:Are you still friends? Do you keep in touch with the Osmonds?
Debbie Boone:We do. It's not frequent, but over time we have different kinds of communication.
Somebody will be celebrating a big event and they'll ask us to do some recordings for a radio show congratulating them or whatever.
So intermittently, we do stay in touch.
Growing Up in Faith
Joe Michaels:I know you were raised in a Christian family, obviously. I've read your dad's book, one of them anyway.
Tell me about your earliest memories of God being real to you.
Debbie Boone:Of God being real to me.
Well, you know, I think I'm one of those kids that doesn't remember a time when God wasn't real.
When you're raised in a Christian home like I was, where it was just part of who we were.
From my earliest understanding, we always went to church.
That was non-negotiable.
We went to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
You couldn't say, "I don't feel like it," or, "I have too much homework," or anything like that.
This is what we did as a family.
We observed these times in church, and we prayed in the morning at the breakfast table and sang a hymn or read a devotional.
And also at night, we got on our knees by our bed as a family, and before we all had our bedtimes, we said prayers together.
When you grow up like that, it's just part of who you are.
It isn't life just about you, but there is a God that you are—
I learned pretty early that you could have a relationship and that you could bring your troubles in prayer to that God and that you could trust that God.
And over the many years since I had that childlike faith, it's deepened considerably.
Prayer and a Changing Faith
Joe Michaels:Do you still have some kind of a prayer ritual, like maybe not quite as disciplined as when you were a kid?
Debbie Boone:Yes, I do.
I try to have that be the first part of every day for me.
When I travel—which hasn't been lately, by the way—but when I'm traveling and there's an early call for a television show, there are things that will be obstacles that interrupt.
But my routine is reading, journaling, praying, and meditating now in the mornings.
Joe Michaels:Has there ever been a time when you went through periods of doubt or a dark night of the soul, or just walked away?
Debbie Boone:I never walked away.
I certainly made choices that I knew were not according to what I believed to be right and that I was probably disappointing God.
And there were times that I just thought, "I don't care. I'm young and all my friends are doing things and I want to do them too," kind of things.
But those were never dark nights. Those were just little—I don't even know what you would call them—just being human.
But I think when I started to hear different voices that weren't the same as how I was raised, so different kinds of theologies—
My husband is an Episcopal priest. He was not when I married him.
But when we started going to the Episcopal Church and I started talking to people who loved God in a very deep and faithful way, but they didn't read the Bible the way I read it, they didn't see life the way I saw it, their worldview was different.
And I started to question things.
I really started to question it.
It was frightening.
I had felt so certain and so secure that I knew how everything worked, and I knew, like, if I just do this, God will do that, and everything's going to be okay.
And of course, that's a very childlike faith and a certain amount of naivety in it.
Because my husband sort of moved our lives into the Episcopal Church, I had to have a much more open mind.
And I think my faith has gone so much deeper as a result.
It isn't based on certainty. It's really based on a trust in God, even if I don't understand.
And I am finding that a very freeing way to live my life.
Debbie Boone and Pat Boone
Joe Michaels:Have you been supported generally by your family?
Debbie Boone:For the most part.
There are differences, and my dad would openly say this, so I don't think I'm betraying anything.
My dad holds a very literal view of Scripture that I no longer embrace, and that's really hard for him.
It scares him on my behalf that I don't believe that things are actual literal.
I don't see the Bible as a history book or an owner's manual, as he likes to call it.
We've had this discussion over a 20-year period of time.
He can't wrap his head around the way that I see things, and that's okay.
I'm not trying to change him in any way.
He is a God-fearing, lovely man who has spent a lifetime trying to be God's guy and do the right thing.
I respect him for that.
But I am also trying to be that kind of person.
And in order to pursue what I feel like is spiritual integrity for me, I can no longer hold on to that certainty.
It doesn't work for me anymore.
Joe Michaels:And I'm sure everybody knows that your dad is Pat Boone.
We didn't say that. I just want to clear that up.
By the way, have you ever done a duet with your dad?
Debbie Boone:We, well, as a family, recorded many records together as the Pat Boone family.
And then I know right after "You Light Up My Life," my dad and I did a duet for the soundtrack of a Lassie movie.
Other than that, I don't think we have really recorded duets since I started my solo career.
Joe Michaels:Do you have a favorite song that your dad recorded that's one of your favorites?
Debbie Boone:There are so many.
I love—there was a period of time when he was in just the prime of his vocal abilities, and he was doing records that were like the American Songbook, with arrangers like Gordon Jenkins and these beautiful, lush string orchestral arrangements.
His voice was just perfection.
And I love all of that stuff.
My mother loved an album of his called The Touch of Your Lips.
It's so beautiful.
I know why she loved it so much.
He couldn't have been singing any better than at that time, and the songs are so lovely.
For her, she took it all personally as she could, as his wife.
Becoming a Solo Artist
Joe Michaels:When you were a kid, going back ways again, and you projected what you'd be doing at this time in your life, what was your mental image as, say, a high school student?
Debbie Boone:By the time I was in high school, we were working as a family and I had a taste of performance.
I think I was really starting to see that people were noticing that I had a voice and wanting me to do things outside of the family.
So I could see that I wanted a life in music.
I certainly never saw what was coming my way.
I never really thought I would have a big hit record and an instantaneous career on my hands.
I never saw or dreamt of such a thing, but it happened.
So in those high school years, I was beginning to know that it was my passion and that I wanted—
I was naive at that point thinking, "My dad did it successfully with a family of four kids, so I can marry and have a family and a career like this too."
It's doable.
But he wasn't the mother.
And that was a real shock to me when I started to try to do all of this as a mother.
I realized I'm not one of those people that believes you can have it all.
I had to make compromises and choices because I didn't want to look back and say I wasn't the mother that my kids needed.
If I was going to look back and regret anything, I would rather have regrets that I didn't make all the best choices for a career trajectory.
And I think my career suffered for that.
But I again don't have regrets.
The Story Behind "You Light Up My Life"
Joe Michaels:You mentioned "You Light Up My Life," and that certainly is a highlight.
Can you tell us a little bit about how that happened—how you got the song, basically?
Debbie Boone:Yeah, it's a kind of a convoluted story that not many people really know or understand.
At that time in my life, my sisters had both gotten married, my two older sisters, Cherry and Lindy, both were married.
The Family Act was now a thing of the past.
A record producer and head of the company that the Boone family recorded for, Mike Curb, was involved with this guy, Joe Brooks, who wrote the song and wrote the movie and starred in the movie You Light Up My Life.
The first contact I had with the song was a cassette tape that was dropped off to the Boone house in Beverly Hills.
"Will Debbie listen to this and consider recording it?"
Somehow my mom heard it before I did.
They had been very resistant to me pursuing my own career. They were worried for me and thought I was young and there were lots of pitfalls.
And she heard this song and came up and said, "You know, I've listened to this song that Mike brought over, and it's beautiful. I think this is a great opportunity and think you should do it."
It could have been "Happy Birthday."
I was so excited that my mother was like going, "You should just take this and go."
I would have done anything.
But then I heard the song. I could hear myself singing it and loved the song.
I flew to New York and I recorded it.
I didn't know that behind the scenes—and this is where it gets very convoluted—the actress in the movie wasn't a singer, Didi Conn.
So another jingle singer named Kacey Cisyk recorded it for the soundtrack of the movie.
She sounded almost exactly like me. Kacey Cisyk and I had very similar voices.
But Kacey had gotten involved with Joe. They broke up, and then they had some disagreements over the contracts going forward.
He did not want her to have the single release.
And that's where I came in, not knowing any of this until way after the fact.
I knew when I got into the studio, he made me sing this song note for note, like what I thought was a demo.
It was Kacey's version.
You have to have a really good ear to be able to tell the difference between the record release version, mine, and Kacey's on the soundtrack.
It's the same track. It's the same musical track.
All the instruments and the musical background are the same on both.
It's just two different voices.
Prayer in the Recording Studio Bathroom
Joe Michaels:I've heard that this was a real trying recording session for you, to have Joe—I try to remember how you termed it—hovering over you, correcting every nuance, right?
Debbie Boone:There was no—I didn't feel that there was any freedom.
I would want to maybe have a different inflection or take the melody a little off in the second chorus to something that felt like it had more emotional build or whatever.
I was not allowed to interpret in that kind of way.
And my mother was with me.
Now, people laugh at this because it seems so kind of an antiquated way of being in your life.
But I was 21.
My mother came with me because she didn't want me to fly to New York alone.
I'm a fully grown woman at 21, but I was happy to have the support.
And getting into the studio with Joe, it was so upsetting that actually I asked for a break.
My mom met me in the bathroom and we prayed because it was so tense and I felt like I couldn't do anything right.
I didn't know he was trying to recreate something with me.
It was just helpful to have that kind of support and to feel like, "Okay, this isn't going smoothly. We need some help."
And so we prayed together in a bathroom in a recording studio in New York.
And I got through it, and felt like I had done my best.
Never thought I was going to hear about that song again, honestly.
My mother did.
But I thought, "Oh, she's like every other mother. This is going to be a hit. I just feel it in my bones."
Like, yeah, Mom.
Joe Michaels:So you didn't really think it was going to be what it turned out to be.
Debbie Boone:Not in the least. Not in the least.
Singing "You Light Up My Life" to God
Joe Michaels:I read or heard an interview with you where you said that when you sang it, you were really singing it to God.
Debbie Boone:Yeah.
Or for me, more of a kind of a Father God image.
I never had an agenda like I was trying to do it in a way where I would be able to tell people that this was a song about God.
It was just the words.
If you look at the words of the song, over the years people have interpreted it many different ways.
It's a song that parents sing to their kids, or a romantic love song.
For many people, it became a kind of a spiritual anthem because the word—
It's really just about love, and it's about light coming into darkness.
For me, it became a very strong relationship song between me and God.
Lyrics like "rolling at sea, adrift on the water"—who doesn't know that feeling when you're struggling in life?
"Could it be finally I'm turning for home?"
And for me, home is that connection with my God.
I've always sung it that way, but I never expected that I would be called upon in an interview to say, "Who were you singing to?"
That sort of took me back.
And, you know, what are you going to do?
You tell the truth.
Performing the Song Today
Joe Michaels:So when you sing this song in concert and you use the same track, do you try to sing it the way Joe had you sing it, or do you take a little liberty with it and do it your own way now?
Debbie Boone:I do whatever I want to do with it now.
I've had to lower it because now, 40 years later, I've lost a little of the top part of my range.
So I sing it a step lower.
But yeah, for me now the connection—certainly I still have the same connection that this is a song between me and my God.
But I also have the strongest connection to what comes back to me from an audience.
You can palpably see people going to a place in their life where this song was special for them.
You see people hold hands or look at each other or tears stream down somebody's cheeks for whatever it meant.
And you feel that coming back to you.
It's just this great exchange between a singer and an audience, and what a song can do to bring you together.
It's really powerful, and I'm always so grateful to have that opportunity.
The Impact of the Hit
Joe Michaels:What has the song afforded you?
That song was a big hit. I mean, the biggest song of the '70s.
Wow.
I think about the '70s—some great music—and you were at the top, top of the charts.
How did your life change?
Debbie Boone:I mean, it was a radical change immediately once it stayed on the charts and broke all those records in '77.
It was 10 weeks number one, which had never been done.
That record has been broken many times since, but then it was the first time anything like that had happened.
So that song was getting airplay like no song had ever had before.
And it was also a movie.
So you would hear it in commercials and radio commercials for the movie, and then the airplay it was just getting on the playlists of so many stations.
I was being asked to be everywhere all at once—to be special guest on people's specials, to act, to be in plays, to do concerts.
I suddenly had this career, and I didn't feel ready for it.
Even though I'd been performing, thank God, with my sisters in our family, I had some ability to perform on a stage, but not as a solo artist.
I felt very frightened and lost trying to show up in big situations with never having much experience as a solo singer.
But you had to learn on the job.
Family Harmony
Joe Michaels:And you still sing with your sisters on rare occasions, right?
Debbie Boone:Rare occasions, but always joyfully.
Even the last time we sang together wasn't a joyful occasion, really.
It was at my mother's memorial service.
But that was what brought our mother joy.
Nothing brought her more joy than hearing her four girls sing in four-part harmony, which is why we just pulled ourselves together to be able to do it at her memorial.
We just knew that it was such a part of her life that made her so happy.
Of course, we would do that to honor her in her memorial service.
So that's the last time we've sung together, a couple years ago.
But it's always a joyful experience to sing in tight harmony with each other and have that family blend that's very special.
And it really is—we still have it when we get together.
Joe Michaels:There's just something amazing about families when they sing together.
I mean, John Michael and Terry Talbot, for instance, the harmonies that those guys come up with.
And just families that sing together—there's a bunch, obviously.
It's just amazing what that family thing does.
Debbie Boone:It's true.
You hear great groups out there that are not related that sing in harmony, four- and five-part harmonies, and it's delightful.
But there is something else.
The Bee Gees—
Joe Michaels:I was thinking of the Bee Gees and how they blended.
Debbie Boone:Yeah, that.
There's a documentary out about their whole story, and you forget.
It was really delightful to go back and hear their body of work, and their brother sound was amazing.
I'm so glad they made that documentary.
I appreciate them more now than I did at the time.
Joe Michaels:Me too.
Three Generations of Musical Legacy
Joe Michaels:Do you remember what song knocked "You Light Up My Life" off number one?
Debbie Boone:I don't remember what knocked it off the number one spot.
I know who broke the record for 10 weeks number one on the charts, and that was Kim Carnes, "Bette Davis Eyes."
Joe Michaels:Okay.
Well, you go back three generations of hitmakers.
Tell us a little bit about your pedigree.
It was pretty good.
Debbie Boone:You know, it really is astounding how much music has played such a strong part in our families' lives.
And I think what you're referring to, of course, is my dad.
But my mother comes from a very musical family and was in a musical singing group herself before she married my dad.
She got into music because her father was a country and western singer from the Grand Ole Opry named Red Foley.
He broke all these records that, growing up, didn't mean a whole lot to me.
I was young and listening to different kinds of music.
But now as an adult, seeing what he accomplished—the first million-selling gospel record was a Red Foley recording of "Peace in the Valley."
He had many million-sellers and number one records.
And really, he is one of the main reasons that country music crossed over into a much larger broadcast audience.
Television and the Grand Ole Opry and all of that stuff brought it to more people than were exposed to it before him.
So there's Red Foley, and then my mom and her music, and my dad, and then the family act, and then me.
And who knows what's coming next?
Who knows musically what would be coming next?
But I married into a very musical family as well.
Joe Michaels:Tell us a little bit about that.
Debbie Boone:I married the son of Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer.
They were like the "it" couple there for a while in show business because she had the biggest recording career and he had one of the biggest acting careers.
They had five kids, and I married the middle one.
Rosemary's body of work as a recording artist is just stunning.
I became one of her biggest fans.
I hadn't really been that aware of her music until I started dating her son.
But when my kids were coming up and starting to put pieces together, it seemed like everyone in their family was involved in show business.
Biblical Figures Debbie Boone Would Like to Meet
Joe Michaels:If you could have dinner with somebody from the Old Testament, who would you choose?
Debbie Boone:Boy, somebody from the Old Testament.
You know, the two women in the Bible that I did a lot of digging deep into—Ruth being one of them.
I read a beautiful book by Joan Chittister about Ruth that was very enlightening about spiritual principles.
I remember having a strong connection with Ruth when I read that book.
So Ruth would definitely be one of them.
Esther was another.
Just women that had impact because of their faith, made hard choices, and walked through difficult things and found God to be faithful to walk through the difficult things to being able to see the benefits of that.
So there's two women that I admired.
Joe Michaels:How about a New Testament character, without Jesus being an option?
Debbie Boone:Jesus is off the table, but I'd have to go with Mary.
Joe Michaels:Mary?
Debbie Boone:For so many reasons.
I'd be interested in talking to anyone who had a personal, physical, up-close relationship with Jesus.
But to be the mother of Jesus, to say yes to what she said yes to as a young child, knowing how people would perceive her and all of those things—there are just so many lessons in looking at the life of Mary.
That would be an intriguing dinner conversation.
Joe Michaels:You're a mom, and you know how you read your kids and how you know your kids.
When I think of Mary, who knew Jesus better than her?
It's uncanny, the difference in the way that you would know a child that you bore and meeting someone else, no matter how close you were.
Debbie Boone:Yeah.
There's so many lessons in observing her life and the ability to step back and let her son become who he was to become, not what she wanted.
I've had to really learn that lesson time and again.
My kids are not extensions of me.
They are whole beings that have their own spiritual paths and lives and things to do and giftings.
As a mother early on, I just thought my job is to get them to behave and get them to have a spiritual life.
And it was very self-serving in a way.
It's like I want to be a good mom and I want them to be seen as good kids and well-behaved and all of that.
Now, as a grown mom with grandkids, I wish that I had had some of the insights that I have now, older and wiser, when I was raising my kids.
No complaints, because I think all four of them are amazing and have become beyond any expectations of what I would have wanted for them.
They're beautiful people who I continue to learn from.
Nobody told me you were going to learn from your kids—that your kids were going to teach you.
I thought it was my job to teach them.
They've been my greatest teachers.
Meeting Richard Rohr
Joe Michaels:Any contemporary person that you would really like to meet that's alive right now and maybe will someday?
Debbie Boone:There are so many, really.
But just because of—you asked me early on in this conversation about my routine, my spiritual practices.
I read a daily email from somebody named Richard Rohr, and I resonate so much with the things that he has to say.
I've learned so much from him.
I would love to have a face-to-face and a one-on-one with Richard Rohr.
The "Rebel" in the Boone Family
Joe Michaels:I get it from a pretty good source that you're kind of a rebel.
Do you care to defend yourself on that?
Debbie Boone:Yes, I do.
I wanted to be seen that way as a teenager.
I wanted to be the different one.
I always, as a kid, resented being one of four girls who were one year apart—not even.
I have one sister who's 11 months older than I am, but we were in stair steps.
We were dressed alike, our hair was cut the same, and I was always looking for a way to be different.
Behavior and discipline and all that was very strong in our home.
So one of the only ways I could stand out was to get in a little bit of trouble.
But to call me a rebel—I mean, it's hysterical.
I don't really have much to show for my years of trying so hard to be the rebel of the family.
Some cigarettes, some sneaking out and going places I wasn't supposed to go.
But how about dating rules?
Joe Michaels:Did you break any dating rules?
Debbie Boone:They made it almost impossible to break the rules, to tell you the truth.
I was given very structured, strict "be home by this time" and that kind of thing.
And so I think, too, the guys that dated me, especially in the early years, were more afraid of my dad than anything.
I think that's just how we wanted it.
But by the time I was 18, which is before I met the guy I married, I wasn't really resisting them in the same way.
I had had a conversation with a friend who said, "If you quit pushing back with your parents and demanding more freedom, they're probably going to relax more naturally."
And if you kind of put your faith in God's got you covered, whatever your parents' restrictions are aren't going to keep you from the joy and happiness intended for you in your life.
When I quit pushing so hard against the rules, because I was still living at home at 18, it was true.
They relaxed a little.
And I ended up at 19 meeting the guy that I've been married to for 41 years.
I don't know if I'm really answering your question, but nobody could really call me a serious rebel.
Cycling and Life During the Pandemic
Joe Michaels:I know that you're pretty hot on that bicycle of yours. You've raced before.
Debbie Boone:No, I don't race.
I've been a spinner and taking spinning classes for 20 years, but I did get an outdoor bike probably 10 years back.
I started doing these outdoor long rides with a spinning teacher who mapped out the rides.
They'd be anywhere between 30 and 60 miles, with heavy hill climbs.
I had to really up my game when I started joining them on these rides.
I wasn't racing anybody, but I was keeping up.
The reason that it was worth it is this same guy was a caterer.
So you would ride these rides and then he would prepare this feast that you got to eat after you just worked so hard.
You'd eat anything, but this was delicious, and you didn't feel guilty about any of it because you just climbed ridiculous climbs.
That got me really into it.
And now during the pandemic, bike riding is one of the few things I can do safely out there.
So it's been a godsend.
Every Saturday, I go out and ride 30-plus miles with a couple of friends.
We wear masks and just ride.
Joe Michaels:Ever gone over the handlebars?
Debbie Boone:Never.
I have fallen when I started getting used to clip-in cleats, you know, the cleats to the clip-in pedals.
I had some bad falls, but not over the handlebars.
Just like Henry Gibson on Laugh-In.
Food, Family and the Clooney Connection
Joe Michaels:What is your favorite meal?
Debbie Boone:I happen to be married to an amazing cook.
Seriously, gourmet food.
My husband is everybody knows that about him, and I can't cook at all.
I am the worst in the kitchen.
So I eat a lot of good food that he makes, and it's hard to pick just anything.
He really can make anything—soufflés and so many other things.
I'm a carnivore.
Probably not the best thing to be, but nobody can make a great piece of steak like Gabrielle.
I really love it.
But he makes so many other things, and I'm very blessed.
Joe Michaels:Gabrielle, obviously—his mom is Rosemary Clooney.
How is she related to George?
I gotta get a George in there.
Debbie Boone:Okay, okay.
George is Rosemary's nephew.
So my husband's cousin, Gabrielle's cousin, cousin George, as I like to call him.
He's my cousin-in-law.
When I was dating Gabrielle, it was right around the same time that George moved from Kentucky to live with his Aunt Rosemary and start pursuing an acting career out here.
I met George after I'd been dating Gabrielle for a year or so.
And when he walked in, I went, "Now wait just a second. Who is that?"
Joe Michaels:Well, he probably said the same about you.
Debbie Boone:I don't know.
I was older than George.
Pretty cute and really funny.
Charming even way back then, for sure.
But if you ask me, I definitely got the prime choice.
Music Debbie Boone Is Listening To
Joe Michaels:What music have you been listening to recently, in the last maybe week or so?
Anything that's caught your ear?
Debbie Boone:I have very eclectic taste in music.
Most recently, the last obsession where I was just listening to one artist and a lot of her body of work goes back to a jazz singer named Anita O'Day.
I discovered her late in my life, but she was just so masterful and isn't as well known as the ones that everybody knows, like Ella Fitzgerald or Sarah Vaughan or Billie Holiday.
But she was definitely regarded in her day as one of the real top of the top, best of the best.
There's a documentary that I've watched and a book on her life, and I'm just finding her a fascinating character.
So I've been listening to her.
And then there's a complete alternate universe on Instagram.
I think my sister Lori posted something and introduced me to an up-and-coming singer-songwriter named Liz McAlpine.
And she is phenomenal.
Her voice is astounding.
She can sing anything, but she is very prolific.
She posts a lot of stuff on Instagram of new songs she's writing and people she's doing duets with.
I'm just finding her fascinating.
Anybody that can be as prolific as she is, as young as she is, is kind of breathtaking.
Returning to Live Performance
Joe Michaels:As we're recording this, we're a year into the pandemic.
As soon as there's light at the end of the tunnel and you're free to move about the country, what do you want to do as soon as things get back to whatever they're going to get back to?
Debbie Boone:I am ready.
Just say the word when I can get back to doing live performance.
There is nothing, nothing better than being live in a great theater with great sound and a great band and an audience that loves the kind of music that you're there to offer.
That is the joy of my life.
So I cannot wait to get back to that.
I had just started to promote a new show that I've hardly had the chance to do.
So I'm very anxious to.
Joe Michaels:Is that the tribute to Rosemary?
Debbie Boone:No, no.
I did that for several years, actually.
Then I did an album called Swing This, which was evocative of Las Vegas in the '60s and the Rat Pack and all that music that you would have heard in the showrooms of Vegas.
That was my last show.
And this one is called A Song for You, and the title comes from Leon Russell's song "A Song for You," which has been a song I've loved my whole life.
This is more about the songs and what they have meant in my life.
That's the sort of direction of this show.
So I can't wait to get out there and do that.
I was supposed to have gone to Arizona to shoot a movie, an acting job for the Inspirational Network, at a Western, playing out in the Wild West.
That's supposed to be happening sooner rather than later.
Hopefully I'll get a chance to do that.
It's rare that I can say I auditioned for a role and got it.
A lot of the acting I've done has just been offered to me, but I actually got this through an audition and I'm proud of that.
And I want to do it.
Closing Thoughts
Joe Michaels:As we wrap this up, is there any question that you were hoping that I wouldn't ask?
Debbie Boone:No, I'm a pretty open book.
I've always been that way.
I'm willing to pretty much talk about everything, maybe to a fault.
I think what we covered about my dad is probably the trickiest area because I love him so much and never want to disrespect him in any way.
And yet it's important to be able to be who I am as well.
So that's been a challenge.
But I think both my dad and I have learned and grown from it.
Joe Michaels:Thank you so much.
Thanks for your music, thank you for your time, and I sure hope that we'll be seeing you out and about soon.
Debbie Boone:Well, I want to hear more from you too.
So thank you for letting me be the kickoff here.
Comments