Debbie Harry believes the material in her 80s solo albums has been "overlooked".
The 68-year-old singer – who co-founded Blondie in the 70s with Chris Stein – pursued a solo career following the band’s split in 1982 and although she was still working, Chris became unwell, suffering from auto-immune condition pemphigus vulgaris, and she had to care for him.
She explained to Mojo magazine: "It was a very difficult time. All I can say is that I did move on in the mid 80s and I started doing a series of solo albums which Chris wrote on and helped me with. I did not five up my career. I had a lot of tours and I had some smaller hits. I really think that there’s some great material on those solo albums that I feel to a degree has been overlooked."
She began using her full name – Deborah Harry – with her third solo album, ‘Def, Dumb & Blonde’, in 1989, to help form her own identity and break away from the image created in Blondie.
Debbie added: "That’s my proper name and I was trying to, as you say, draw a line in the sand between the Blondie identification and me as a solo artist. I think I was often confronted by the record company saying, ‘Why can’t you use the name Blondie?’ Well, I’d like to use the name Blondie, but it’s not Blondie, it’s me."
Debbie Harry thinks her solo work was ‘overlooked’
