LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
IDINA MENZEL...SERIOUSLY? WHAT? SHUT UP!!!!! IT'S TRUE!
We are still pinching ourselves! Here's what AI has to say about this episode:
Listen in to the phenomenal Idina, as she spills the beans on her journey, her new dance-disco inspired album, Drama Queen, and the crucial role emotions play in her creative process. Get ready to giggle as she regales us with stories from her personal life, featuring her Italian water dog, Louie, and her husband's unique swimming habits! Yes, you read that right, it's not all music; it's a delightful blend of melodies and tales from the everyday life of a superstar!
Did you know Idina's music serves as a heartfelt love letter to the LGBTQ+ community? Tune in as we delve into her deep connection with the community, and the way their courage and authenticity inspire her. Join us in celebrating the joy of performing at Pride festivals and the magic of having her new album released during Pride. We will also take you behind the scenes of our show, sharing the thrilling process of having celebrity guests like Idina join us, and our dream of interviewing the legendary Nile Rogers. This episode is a rollercoaster ride of insights, laughter, and unvarnished experiences, you simply can't afford to miss!
Welcome to Eden and Amadeus. The show after the show I'm Amadeus.
Speaker 2:I'm Eden and you know we're going to talk today to somebody who we both absolutely love and was not a mainstream person, even though you and I were both fans until a few years ago, and we're going to talk about that before we welcome our guests. But this isn't somebody that two country DJs would typically be all excited about. But now, ever since Disney's frozen, a household word except for for John Travolta, a household name is Idina Menzel.
Speaker 1:What's funny when you said two country DJs, because most people from Jacksonville have been listening to us for several decades. We worked in top 40 radio for about 20 years before we came over here and we absolutely love our country radio, but we're also multi layered as human beings.
Speaker 2:I'm a huge and I know you are too, ami but a musical theater buff, idina Menzel. I've known her since Rent. Rent was something that you know. I'm going to tell you a quick little story. My cousin was did a lot of theater growing up in White Plains, new York, and he was in theater with Jonathan Larson.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And I actually got to see them in a play together and a musical together. Jonathan Larson, of course, passed away before rent ever officially opened on Broadway. Idina Menzel originated the role of Marine.
Speaker 1:So you're a much bigger buff than I am. A hundred percent. However, rent is the only show that I've ever gone to New York to see on Broadway, and the reason is because at the time, joey Fatone from Nsync was in the production. That tells you how multi layered our interest and tastes are, and rent is by far my number one favorite Broadway musical of all time.
Speaker 2:It always will be. Then, of course, she went on to originate Alphaba in Wicked which is my all time favorite musical.
Speaker 1:It's probably my number two.
Speaker 2:So then the world gets to meet her, even though you know she was also in the movie of rent. But the world gets to know her through frozen. Let it go, and then John Travolta, butchers, her butchers her name on the award show and and then that becomes a thing.
Speaker 2:But anyway, adina Manzell is gonna be talking to us the minute that phone rings and we could not be more stoked. And there it is right now. Are you barking, did you? Do? You want to go out there again, hi, adina? Oh, tell us about your fur babies.
Speaker 3:I have one for a baby. His name is Louie. His real name is Luigi. No, oh my god, sorry. His real name is Luigi, but we call him Louie. He's an Italian water dog and he is being destructive right now.
Speaker 2:Okay, we would bring our dogs to work every single day if we could, so no worries on our end, that's my husband.
Speaker 3:My husband goes for a swim in the pool at this ungodly hour just to make me feel really out of shape, and the dog usually likes to go in with him. But he just but. Then the dog will bark as he worries when he does the freestyle stroke. He barks because, I don't know, it makes too much splash if he does the breaststroke, he's okay with that.
Speaker 1:Ah, where are you? What are you on the West Coast?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I'm in California, in the valley.
Speaker 1:So it is an ungodly.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's ungodly to be in the pool right now. I can't even imagine it. Please tell me your pool he just got.
Speaker 3:He just got headphones that go in the water and he just loaded up the songs. He's a gadget guy. Look at him with the goggles on. I mean it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:How are you with gadgets? Are you techie at all?
Speaker 3:I'm horrible with gadgets. I'm talking you on a landline, thank God, yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm with you. I'd be an eye. I am a self-proclaimed Luddite. I stay away from any technology. I'm old-school, I fact. If I could have a landline at home, I would you know you can.
Speaker 2:Before we're done, I want to know if, when you were younger, like so many people who came up in musical theater, if you were a Drama queen as a kid. But but tell us what this project is all about.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, it's called drama queen. It's a dance disco inspired album. It's an album music that I've wanted to make for a long time, because it's fun, honestly, and it's celebratory, and I wanted people to get up and dance and I wanted to make music that they didn't feel like they had to behave. So much too, because I think theater audiences feel like they have to behave, although sometimes they don't and they use their phones in the theater or talk loudly when they're not supposed to.
Speaker 3:But anyway, and and I felt like it actually, even though some people feel that it's a departure, for me it really feels like an organic transition because a lot of the women that I'm very Inspired by have had their dance moments, that big, big voice, you know personalities Obviously Donna summer and Gloria Gaynor, but then Barbara Shiazan had her Moment and Cher went back to dance, and so Diana Ross. So it's just I think it's a great music to really that lends itself to really big, melodic voices, big personalities. And and yeah, and I I call it drama queen because it's sort of my reclaiming of the word I think it's Actually really cool to be a drama queen and to feel your feelings, you know, intensely and boldly, and and so I think that's what makes us really interesting human beings when I first read about the project, I Connected on a real personal level because even when I was about 12 years old I already knew, like, who produced what records.
Speaker 1:and now Rogers is somebody that you know that, with she and Georgioma Rorder and all those guys, like I said, even in the 70s, like I knew as a very, very young kid that I was interested in who's producing these things and these, these writers that are writing these great pieces Of music that, like Donna summer saying so, I was reading the information, I was like man, I could really relate to this album.
Speaker 3:I oh yeah, well, Nile Rogers was actually the first person I called. I was friendly with him, we had done a few things together and I called him actually during sort of early quarantine and I said I'm thinking this and I want your blessing. Do you think I could get away with that? He was like, yeah, of course, and he told me his stories. You know his stories, david Bowie.
Speaker 3:You know all about these very sort of theatrical personalities that still in dramatic people you know that still do their music and are, you know, have, are still credible, were credible and obviously crossed over. And so he sort of gave me permission, in a way, to feel good to do it. And then we wrote this song on the album called Paradise and it's just, it's one of the best songs and I just it was great. I went to when COVID sort of got to a place where you could at least fly with a mask and blah, blah, blah. I went and hung out at his house for a week and had to get and we made, we made music and yeah, he's, he would die because his walls are filled with just incredible albums and he's just got so many great stories.
Speaker 1:I think he's one of the greatest treasures in music and I wish everyone knew more about what he's done for the business.
Speaker 3:Well, what's wonderful about him is he's having a renaissance, you know. So I think like there was a moment where what they say just goes dead or something back then and it's sort of like he went from having every hit song to them just writing off that music. Yeah, I don't know society, but but then you know he came back. He had Madonna like a virgin. Now he's got. You know, he did that punk obviously, and then you know every, all the young generation is just buying for him to write and produce and play on their album. So I'm really happy for him because he's not just a disco guy like this incredible musician and composer and orchestrator.
Speaker 2:I love that you're. You're throwing it back to those songs like from the day, like I keep thinking of enough is enough by Barbara Streisand and Donna Summer. That's going through my head. You also say that this serves as a love letter to the LGBTQ plus community. And so you know, that's that's important for people to like. Put it out there and be allies.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Yeah, no, I really I feel that way. I think that a lot of the themes in the music obviously personal to me, but knowing you know sort of the stories of my friends and family and the queer community it started to feel like there was a lot of crossover there and I was so fortuitous that the album, the singles, are starting to be released during Pride. So I went and I performed at all these huge Pride festivals everywhere and I just had the greatest time. And what was so wonderful was I could just stand on stage and and literally, you know, express my gratitude to everyone for inspiring me all these years, ever since the beginning of my career with rent, and, you know, I really feel like I've learned. You know what it means to sort of, you know, have the courage to live your life authentically and and and through you know, the all of these, all of these incredible people and and the LGBTQ plus community. So it's, it was a beautiful summer, I have to say.
Speaker 2:We wish we could talk to you for longer. We are looking at the clock going.
Speaker 1:I wish we had 20 more minutes, because there's so much. I want to tell you why you're so important to us.
Speaker 2:Okay, but we love you so much. You're talking to some huge fans right now. Adina, we want to be unselfish and say goodbye so that the next group can talk to you, but we just love you.
Speaker 3:I love you too. Thank you so much, and I'll come back whenever you need me.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, we'd love to talk to you another time, for sure.
Speaker 2:Okay, bye, bye. Okay, thank you. Bye, bye. Okay. So I didn't get to ask her my drama queen question, but that's okay, we wanted to be. You know they give you a time how long you talk to somebody, but I much preferred the conversation. We did have talking and I love that we got to hear her little pupper in the background, you know we talked a few days ago.
Speaker 1:Before we talked to her and I told you I really wanted to ask her about Nile Rogers, because I am a massive, massive Nile Rogers fan. He's been opening for Durand Durand since 2015. So I've seen him perform probably a dozen times over the last five or six, seven years and a half. Now A lot of people don't know, but he produced all these records Madonna's like a virgin, david Bowie's let's Dance, even before that in the 70s, all the chic stuff he wrote all that stuff.
Speaker 2:He was in them too right, Wasn't he in the freak?
Speaker 3:out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, he was in chic. He wrote for Sister Sledge. We are family, we I mean all these amazing hits and so when you go see Durand Durand, the first hour is a greatest hits of Nile Rogers things he's touched and it just makes it a party. And I really just wanted to ask her briefly about that and I feel like she maybe went a little longer than I had hoped, but it was so much fun for me.
Speaker 2:I'm shaking my head at you because I want you to feel the way I do, which is unapologetic about the fact that this podcast is a passion project. We're not getting rich off of this podcast. There's no research to say it's driving people to listen to our show in the mornings. We are doing it because it's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're getting opportunities to talk to mega stars like Adina Menzel and ask questions that maybe don't get asked on other shows and just be in the moment with them. And I loved that whole conversation you had with her about Nile Rogers. Even though I would not have been able to rattle off a list of his music, I knew the name and even if I hadn't known the name, I just enjoyed being a fly on the wall when you know if my family member gets to talk to Adina Menzel and have a meaningful conversation.
Speaker 1:I hope we get another chance to talk to her because, gosh, she's fascinating, she said she'd come back anytime.
Speaker 2:But there are. There are procedures in place to get somebody like that on the line. Don't kid yourself.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So anyway, thanks everybody for humoring us. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and if you did, let us know. And if there's another celebrity that you want us to interview soon, as somebody offers them up to us from a press PR company, we will do it.
Speaker 1:I would love to chat with Nile Rogers.
Speaker 2:I'm on it.
Speaker 1:Okay.