Cher’s new memoir has been seven long years in the making.
“It was really, really difficult,” the entertainer told Yahoo Entertainment about the book project she began in 2017, “and sometimes I just wanted to jump off a bridge.”
For all her talents and achievements, of which the list is long — the latest being newly inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for her musical career spanning seven decades — the struggle was real writing Cher: The Memoir, Part One, which is out now. Having dyslexia was a factor, but so was slogging through a lifetime of memories, many of which were admittedly “very painful.”
“Some of them were easy, some of them were fun, and some of them were really, really difficult and … I’m just getting over,” the 78-year-old “Believe” singer said. “Because we were forced to do the book again and again. At the end, we were down to the wire. We were working … 11 hours” a day.
By we, Cher is referring to the book being written three times, using as many ghostwriters.
“I probably should have done it four,” she added.
Cher tells the first part of her life story, including her years as Sonny and Cher. (Marcello Salustri/Mondadori via Getty Images)
“When I read it the first time, it wasn’t about stories, it was about information,” she said. “I thought: This is not going to work for me. Information is not important. It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t take you anywhere. Stories take you someplace.”
“It went through many, many changes” to get to where it is, she said. When we spoke, Cher said she hadn’t seen the final version.
While it’s a relief the book is done and out in the world, the project is technically only half over. Along the way, a decision was made to split the memoir into two volumes — part one now and part two in a year — because it was taking so long to complete.
The stories in Cher: The Memoir, Part One detail her life up until she breaks into acting in the early 1980s. We learn that her mother, Georgia Holt, came close to having an abortion but changed her mind and in 1946, Cheryl Sarkisian (not Cherilyn, as Cher thought was her birth name until 1978) was born.
Cher had a difficult and unstable childhood. She was placed in a Catholic orphanage for a period as a baby and later left to live with family friends as a toddler when her mom was off with a rich guy she met in Reno, Nev. Cher moved and switched schools constantly during her actress-singer mom’s many marriages and had a rotating cast of father figures who came and went. Her biological dad, Johnnie Sarkisian, was a heroin addict.
Cher’s mom, Georgia Holt, was a singer and aspiring actress, appearing on I Love Lucy and losing the starring role in The Asphalt Jungle to Hollywood newcomer Marilyn Monroe. (Steve Granitz/WireImage)
Cher grew up on a fast track. At 15, she dated Warren Beatty, who was 25. Her mom was starstruck and voiced no objection to the age gap or Beatty’s reputation with women. By 16, Cher was living on her own. That year, 1962, she met Sonny Bono, 11 years her senior, at a coffee shop. Initially platonic roommates, the pair went on to become one of the most famous — and fashionable — musical duos of all time.
While Sonny and Cher were magic onstage, their marriage was lonely, and Sonny was controlling. He burned Cher’s tennis clothes in the backyard after she spoke to a male after a lesson. She claimed Sonny cheated on her with dancers, actresses and sex workers. Their split was vicious, with Cher learning she was under contract to Sonny and had no money of her own. He accused her of being an unfit mother in their custody battle over Chaz.
Cher credited music exec David Geffen, whom she dated after Bono, with helping her dig out of a hole professionally. She went on to marry musician Gregg Allman, the father of her son Elijah Blue Allman, but he struggled with drug addiction and they divorced.
After divorcing Bono in 1975, Cher was married for several years to Gregg Allman, who struggled with addiction disorder. (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“There’s a lot of life in there,” she said of the 411-page tome, which is so Cher, including all the F-bombs you’d imagine (approximately 40 at our count).
“I did everything from memory,” she said of the process with ghostwriters. “We would just sit there. Julia [Leatham] would write everything. Mostly she let it be in my words. I have a distinct way of talking. … Sometimes I pause where you might not expect to pause or think it belonged, but that’s just who I am.”
Cher said she “didn’t write anything down because I don’t like writing” and her challenges with dyslexia. “It’s just too much for me to handle.”
The learning disorder is also why Cher turned to Stephanie J. Block, who won a Tony Award playing her in Broadway’s The Cher Show, to help record the audiobook.
“I once told a director, I can read or I can act, but I can’t do two of them at the same time,” said the Academy Award winner. “Because I’m dyslexic, it’s really hard. It takes so much more effort, and I make lots of mistakes.”
Cher asked Stephanie J. Block, who played her in The Cher Show, to help her narrate the audiobook. (Taylor Hill/FilmMagic)
Cher called it “the best of both worlds” that she recorded the beginning of each chapter of the audiobook and then Block took over.
“She is doing a great job,” she said. “It’s not an imitation of me. … I said, ‘Stephanie, don’t try to do me. Just think of me in your mind.’ She knows me. So I think people will really be happy.”
Cher is happy too, now that part one is out and she has a moment to exhale. But her next deadline is around the corner.
When we asked if part two was turned in at this point, she replied, “No, are you crazy? I don’t do things on time.”
Cher: The Memoir, Part One is out now.
