Belinda Carlisle got her start as a drummer and a background vocalist during the punk scene. However when she got The Go-Go’s gig, the singer recalled how there wasn’t pressure for punk band singers to have a good voice. She recalled:
“When the Go-Go’s were formed, I didn’t know I was going to be singing [lead vocals]. I had a choice of playing the drums, which I did not want to do again, or singing. I thought, ‘OK, I’ll sing.'”
Belinda added:
“I never really gave it that much thought. Back in the punk days, you didn’t have to be good. You could be in a band and be horrible, and it was acceptable.”
Even though Belinda took the role as the singer within the band, she told Q’s Tom Power that she was forced to be the lead vocalist. Carlisle explained:
“No one else wanted to sing. I wanted to play bass, but Margot [Olavarria] had taken bass. So while we were sitting and forming the band on a curb at a party in California, everybody we knew was in a band, all the kids. They were horrible, and that would make being in a band horrible, too.”
She continued:
“I wanted to play bass, and Margot took the bass, so it was either the drums again. So, I didn’t want to do that. I said, ‘Okay, I will sing.’ That’s how it started.”
You can read Belinda Carlisle’s interview with American Songwriter here and listen to her interview with Q’s Tom Power below.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0w2ojQyU6dSxj0j6gMZtWG
