Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

TONY HAUSER You’ve never shied away from celebrating the past, such as your Judy Garland tribute show and album, or your lyrics sprinkled with sly cultural references. I am not an iconoclast. I admire iconoclasts, and they are important, especially in the arts. But I am not one of them. I am into restoring a sense of romanticism and melody and grandeur to the form. Yes, I do respect what has come before, but I am not afraid to toy with them. Was there an initial plan to make something so bold as the Want albums? I was going through a lot of big personal experiences. I went to rehab before I made it. Some of the songs were written before rehab when I was crazy. But later, I had a clean head. I also met my future husband during that experience. I was progressing to the next level of my life. It became apparent Want One was my masculine, valiant side, trying to figure out the world. And Want Two was more feminine, internal, mysterious, and sentimental. I moved two steps forward in my songwriting, and all the elements came to me. Marius de Vries was the producer, and it was the perfect fit. I was promised by my record label I would be given a chance to develop and blossom by my third and fourth albums. I took them at their word. I worked hard to get to that point, and I ran with it. The songs on Want One didn’t sound like anything on the radio in 2003; did you feel it was a risk, career-wise? I experience a mental black- out or whiteout when I am making a record. Of course, I think it’s going to be this huge pop success and it will be what the public will want, and it will make me millions of dollars! I totally fool myself. [ Laughs .] Then, I look back a few years lat- er and realize that was so not what was happening in the mainstream, and how could I have imag- ined that? There’s a very funny story. By the time I finished Want One , DreamWorks went out of business, and I went to Interscope. I met with Jimmy Iovine [the record label mogul], and I played him “I Don’t Know What It Is,” the second song on the album. He listened and said, “It’s really good. But I don’t know what to do with it!” RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 10