This is Later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear weekday afternoons on the Drive. Gloria Gaynor is a superstar no matter how you look at it, But unlike many of her other contemporaries of the day, she is still around. As her song says, she will survive. And that's the title of a new documentary that features the life and times of Gloria Gaynor. Only on Tuesday the thirteenth, she joins us, Now, how are
you hello? I'm great things, how are you fantastic? I wanted to start with most artists of your generation, Gloria got their start in gospel music. But you kind of went the other way around, didn't you. Yes, I did. I did. My mother was inundated with church and decided that she wasn't gonna do that to her children and did take us go to church at all. So I was very little church in my life. Once in a while i'd go with my grandmother, but yeah, no church.
That's funny too, because that's where children are usually first exposed to music, singing the hymns, enjoying how they make you feel, and the joy of music. Yes, absolutely so. How did well. I mean I did get a bit of that. I'd go once in a while with my grandmother. But yeah, But then, how did music start for you? Then? Did you know at an early age you were music was for you started with my brothers. My brothers all all had great voices, and they all
sang together. They wouldn't let me sing with them because I was a girl. Well you look great, by the way. When I first saw the publicity shot, I thought, wow, did they get Tony Braxton to play Gloria? No? No, you talk about your life and time and it's been a long, a long row for you. But at the same time, your your main song, your staple song. I mean you had a
lot, but the staple song is I Will Survive. Did you have any inkling because I see it used in a lot of cancer survivor advertisements and programs. Did you have any idea that it would be glammed onto by the cancer survivor community like it would? Well, No, I did it never thought about that. I just thought that it would be grabbed by and and and and used by people who were going through anything in their lives that they felt
was insurmountable and yet hope they survived. And so when you first saw the song and we're going to perform the song, did that grab you? Or did the fact that it was kind of a disco tune grab you? No, we grab me? Was the lyrics? Yeah, Because I was to the to the producers to record a different song that the record company and president had shown and I asked them what would be the B side and they showed me the lyrics. But I Will Survive, and I thought it were stupid.
I mean, this is a hit song because I was relating it to the fact that I was standing there in a back brace after having had surgery on my spine, and the fact that my mother had passed away recently, And so I felt that everybody would relate to that song whatever it is they were going through and hope they would survive well. And they do really, And I know it was born of that disco era and certainly got a lot of play in the disco clubs, but it's not one of those disco songs.
When you hear it, you think disco. You think of the inspirational lyrics exactly exactly, very strong, very good lyrics. Wish I could say I'd written it Gloria Gainer I Will Survive, the documentary about her life and faith and hope and magnificent second act out in theaters on Tuesday, Tuesday, Only you do talk about your paralysis. Let's let's talk about how that came about. Well, I was performing at the biggest theater in New York City
and doing one of the skips on the show. I fell backwards over a monitor, but I jumped back up and finished the show and went out to breakfast with my group afterwards, and went home, went to bed, w to sleep, woke up the next morning paralyzed on the waist down. Oh my goodness. So it was a severe back injury. Luckily you were able to have surgery and correct it. Yeah. Yeah, backbreak for three months doing which at which time I recorded I Will Survive. And so was that
a painful process? It was a very painful process because I was, like I said, it was a hospital for three months doing all kinds of testing. Some of the testing itself was very painful, and of course it was painful after the surgery and final fusion, had to wear a back brace for three months, and I was in that brace when I recorded I Will Survive, which was what I was relating one of the things I was relating to the song, and how I recognized that other people will relate difficult things that
they were going through to the song as well. Gloria Gaynor with us I Will Survive. It is out in theaters now well on one night, one night only, and that is Tuesday. And in it you are joined by many of your contemporaries in the business. I'm joined by a great gospel artist who I was so happy and pleased to join on the event. Bart Millard and Jason Krabb and Mike Farris and Alana Adams all came to help me on this project, and I was so very very happy because they are megastars and
I was really really pleased to have them join me. Is blessed? You also completed a college degree. Was it in music? No, the college degree was in psychology. Because I was raised without a father. I wanted to start an organization or support an organization that is helping young fathers estranged fathers to understand how important it is that they be in the lives of their children,
whether they live with them or not. And I wanted to have some background that these young fellas would you know, and not think I was some idiot, you know, just trying to you know, palm off. You know, I don't know what they would have thought of me. I think they would look at me and think of their baby mama. I tried to get some you know, some credentials behind and some wisdom knowledge behind what I
was trying to share with them, Gloria Gain or I Will Survive. And you see all of this in the documentary It is on Tuesday night, Tuesday night only and in theaters only, and your gospel album. What made you decide to come back to gospel, not that you were ever there in the first place, but like I said started the conversation, most start in gospel work their way out, and you went the other way around. So what
made you go back to gospel? What made me go to gospel music was my faith and recognizing that even with I Will Survive, it has been my faith that has carried me through all of the difficult times in my life. God has been there for me one hundred percent of the time, was one hundred percent of the way, and I wanted to share that with other people through my music. And my previous management kept telling me, you know I
wanted to do it for years, but kept stalling me. But the new management had respect for me and my designs and desires for my life, felt that I had something to offer in the gospel market and was willing to help me accomplish. That got a wrap and actually I Will Survive Imagine could be arranged as a gospel song. I thank you for joining us, Gloria Gainer
will be watching your documentary on Tuesday the thirteenth. Thank you so much, I bless thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia Presentation