Beth Ditto “never wanted to be famous”.
The Gossip bandleader has admitted her only aim in life was to not work at a fast-food joint.
And when the ‘Standing In The Way Of Control’ hitmakers were catapulted into the spotlight, she struggled with the pressures of the music industry, including the exhausting touring cycle and having to make music that wasn’t authentic to her just to be popular.
In an interview with the BBC, she said: “I didn’t have a goal to sell a tonne of records.
“We never wanted to be famous. The only goal was to not work a fast-food job.”
The intensity led to relationships breaking down and they had to take a break.
She said: “Eventually, you just need a break, but in the music industry you’re not allowed to have that.
“So you end up making things you don’t like. You become a product.”
Gossip’s last record was 2012’s ‘A Joyful Noise’, and after the band split in 2016, Nathan moved back to his and Beth’s hometown in Arkansas.
During that time, he became a born-again Christian, Beth divorced her childhood friend and wife of five years Kristin Ogata and her dad died.
In 2019, the band reunited for a 10th anniversary tour of their Rick Rubin-produced record ‘Music For Men’, and Beth started to make a solo record in the producer’s home studio in Kauai.
The 43-year-old singer and her bandmates Nathan Howdeshell and Hannah Billie have gone 12 years without releasing a record, but are back with a new album, ‘Real Power’, out on March 22.