Bobbie Brown has been through and has accomplished a great deal, in this life. Maybe even enough for several lifetimes. In any journey, you take the good with the bad but it could reasonably be questioned – was all worth it? Or to ask it another way, given everything that has happened, the highs and the lows – would you do it over again the same way? I didn’t have that question written down in my notes when I met with Bobbie to talk about her new book and the highlights of her life. But during the interview, that question popped in my head a few times.
We’ll get to that.
In August of 2019. Bobbie Brown released her second book – ‘Cherry On Top’. I wondered what the driver was to release another memoir after her highly successful ‘Dirty Rocker Boys’ told so much about her life. Brown tells Sound Vapors, “My life has been through so many ups and downs and they cut out a lot out of the first book.. and after the first book came out, a lot of people wrote to me, wanting to know more and more details about this and that! I got so many letters and emails and messages about.. just questions, more questions about this and that. So I reached out to my book company and they passed on it because they said that autobiographies don’t have a Part II. So I pitched it to another book company. I said there’s so much more to tell because my is life is always crazy and I can touch on some of the things people were asking about from the first book. So Rare Bird picked it up and essentially it’s a part two of Dirty Rocker Boys. It’s a continuation.”
If you’ve read the first book, you might ask yourself, “how can there be more to tell?” It’s true, there”s a ton of crazy stories in the Dirty Rocker Boys but when you start off a book describing a fall that resulted in some serious head trauma like she does in Cherry On Top, you get the sense that something is coming. Maybe even changing. One of those things is Bobbie reinventing herself at age 50 and becoming a headlining comedian. In fact, she’s performed at venues that aren’t all that far from where she reigned as the rock video queen, years ago. It’s actually very impressive to watch her transform herself and expand on yet another facet of her life. I think you can either sit at home and fall deep into those memories or in some cases, demons, or you can use those experiences as fuel to succeed. Bobbie Brown has definitely chosen to follow the latter.
One thing I was shocked to learn about her is that she’s not all that competitive. She tells me that she wasn’t really that driven to be famous. Raise your hand if you had the same reaction I did. A successful model not competitive in one of the most competitive industries in the world? But in like most things in life, the talent usually rises to the top. She went on to explain how she started getting into music videos. Brown explains, “I had a modeling agency and they would literally contact the modeling agency for an audition. My very first booking ever was for a music video. MTV was such a huge staple for everybody in the world at that time. So it was a big deal. So my first week in, I got one and then I got another one.”
Naturally, as we were talking about music videos that led to the Warrant video Cherry Pie and her eventual marriage to front man Jani Lane. I asked her what their first meeting was like. Was it on set? Brown tells me, “I met him on the audition before.” She continues after I inquire about their initial relationship, “I didn’t show up (to the audition) and then they called my agency and said I was a no-show. So then she’s like, get over to Jerry’s Deli, they’re waiting for you now. This was the day later and I was like okaaay.. So I just threw on some jeans and went to Jerry’s Deli. I walked to the table and grabbed a fry off of his plate and sat down. Which horrified him by the way way. He hated that. I didn’t even know. I was like oh yeah.. just help myself. But within two minutes he was like, you have the part.” That meeting changed the course of her life, one again.
After all of the things that have happened and in those introspective times she has when she’s alone, I wondered if she ever asks herself: If I had to do it all over over again, would I? She answers swiftly. “No, I wouldn’t.”
Bobbie says at some point she’ll eventually leave Los Angeles. That feels a combination of somber and happiness to me. Somber because of the things that have gone down, in her time in L.A. and leaving would truly be the end of that chapter. Happiness because she really is a sweet and caring person that, as weird as it sounds, probably doesn’t belong or need to be in that city. She’s just not sharky enough. And I’m sure the next chapter of her life outside of the Sunset Strip will be just as exciting, just not L.A. crazy. Ya know?
You can hear my entire conversation with Bobbie Brown by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts. You can also watch our interview in video form on YouTube.
-Tommy Marz
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For your chance to win a signed copy of the Bobbie’s book – Cherry On Top – go to the YouTube Video for details and rules. Good luck!