During a recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show, Barbra Streisand opened up about the influence of her ‘pillow talk’ on the Aerosmith chart-topper, ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.’
Referring to the singer’s new memoir ‘My Name is Barbra,’ Stern said:
“Your whole philosophy in the book is that like men either leave you or betray you. You have a real bad opinion of men. Your husband [James Brolin] helped change that, right?”
Barbra replied, agreeing with the host:
“Yeah, totally.”
The Inspiration Behind ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’
Stern then mentioned the Aerosmith track and continued:
“That song, ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’ is based on your husband.”
Streisand replied to that, revealing where she publicly said it:
“Can you believe it? He said that to me, and I repeated it on TV with Barbara Walters. I mean, what a thing to say…”
Howard stepped in and added:
“It’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. He says to you, ‘Barbra, I don’t wanna fall asleep.'”
From Pillow Talk To The Birth Of A Hit Song
The singer recalled that exact moment with her husband:
“We’re spooning. We’ve done our bits, whatever, and I’m about to fall asleep, and he says … ‘I don’t want to fall asleep because then I’ll miss you.’ Oh my God. Okay, yes, I’ll marry you [laughing].”
When Stern said that’s how this song came out, Streisand noted:
“That’s right. Diane Warren was watching, she told me. And [she] wrote it down. It was a powerful line, right?”
A Glimpse Inside Streisand’s Memoir
In her nearly 1,000-page book, the performer leaves nothing out as she recounts her difficult childhood, her notable career, and everything from friendships to romances along the way. Streisand also recalled thinking about having Elvis Presley act with her in the 1976 movie ‘A Star is Born,’ a role that Kris Kristofferson eventually got. She went to Las Vegas to meet Elvis about it. She wrote:
“We talked about the film, and Elvis was interested. But obviously, it didn’t work out. Marty [Erlichman] says that Colonel Parker asked for more money than we could afford. And Jon says the Colonel wanted to produce the film. I’m not sure about that. I do know that Elvis had gained a lot of weight and was no longer at the top of his game, although he was still drawing big audiences. Maybe the story was a little too close to his own life, and the Colonel talked him out of it.”
Streisand’s long-awaited memoir, ‘My Name is Barbra,’ hit the shelves on November 7. The singer is the voice of the audiobook version, adding extra stories and weaving in music snippets. It runs for over 48 hours.
You can watch their conversation and listen to the song below.
