Dido

Dido

The phone rang, and Dido picked up. What? No assistant? No, it was the evening and she wanted her assistant to have a life. It was April 2004. Dido was at home, writing a lot of songs “just for fun.” It was a great chat, though I wish it could have been in-person. Dido is very attractive, after all. At the time, she was 32, single and childless. Now she is 49 (as at 2020), married and the mother of a nine-year-old son. Hopefully I inspired her: We talked about travel, love, babies and therapy. Here are some highlights.

WHAT’S INSPIRING YOU AT THE MOMENT?

Spring is here, in England, today. I’ve been spending a lot of time on my own, voluntarily, and just really enjoying being in my house. My house is just great because you just wander into every room and there’s an instrument of some description. I’ve just really enjoyed writing any old crap in every room. I think I’ve just finally had a chance, just in the last month, to just calm down a little, and just be in my house, get settled, and sorta float around and really enjoy my time on my own, and not be rushing around everywhere.

BEYOND THE HOUSE, WHAT OTHER BIG EXPENDITURES HAVE YOU MADE WITH ALL YOUR LOOT?

The obscene amount of money I spend is on flying around the world. I love it. That, to me, is the ultimate freedom, is to be able to get on a plane and go anywhere I want and experience something and see it and write about it.

DO YOU BOOK ONLINE, OR DO YOU JUST SHOW UP AT THE AIRPORT AND GET A FIRST-CLASS SEAT?

I do look for a deal. I like all those nice, special offers, but I wouldn’t plan my trip on a deal. I’m not going to go in and go, “I’ve only got ‘x’ amount of money to go. Send me somewhere!” I’ll go in and I know where I wanna go.

WHAT ARE THE COOL PLACES YOU’VE GONE TO, ON PERSONAL TRAVEL?

Oh god, loads … Strange places in Canada I’ve really enjoyed, middle of nowhere in Canada, and that’s been really good fun. I’ve disappeared off there quite a few times.

BUT YOU WOULDN’T GO TO ETHIOPIA OR UGANDA OR IRAN OR LIBYA OR MONGOLIA?

Why are you only picking war zones? I don’t make a habit of going to war zones. But I tell you I’d love to go to Uganda. You can see the whole gorilla-trekking thing. I enjoy random travel, basically.

WHAT WAS YOUR LAST BIG MIND-BLOWING LEARNING EXPERIENCE?

That’s a good question. I’m sure I had a big thought recently! I went to see this hypnotist. It sounds really naff. I’m really shit at relaxing, basically. There’s so much I want to do. I’m really rubbish at relaxing, and I think it can really ruin your life if you don’t know how to. This thing that he said I had to come away with all the time is, “It doesn’t matter.” Which to me is a totally alien concept. Loads of things matter. I came away and lived my life for a week just thinking, “It doesn’t matter.” And I was so calm and so happy and it’s such a simple thing. So much of what we care about does not matter … I would never belittle some of the things I’ve been through, and you know that it feels bad or it feels amazing … It’s almost like we get programmed to just feel stressed. Something will come along that does matter to you, but so much of it just doesn’t matter. You just work out what your life’s about and live it that way.

DO YOU THINK YOUR ATTITUDE WILL MOVE EVEN MORE IN THAT DIRECTION ONCE YOU START RAISING A FAMILY?

A lot of my friends have had kids, and they all just say as soon as you have a kid there’s so much stuff that you worried about before it’s just irrelevant. If we have time to worry about stuff, we’ll worry about it.

HOW’S YOUR BIOLOGICAL CLOCK?

I definitely wanna have kids. I can’t say that I’ve had a brooding moment recently. Sometimes I wonder if I will. I s’pose I should start pondering on the subject being as I’m 32.

YOU DON’T WANT TO END UP LIKE STEVIE NICKS AND WONDER WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

No, exactly. But I really would rather have kids with a guy I wanna have kids with! I’m figuring that the guy should probably come first, unless it gets really desperate.

I THINK DAVID BECKHAM MIGHT BE ON THE MARKET PRETTY SOON! (A WOMAN HAD JUST SOLD HER STORY ABOUT AN ALLEGED AFFAIR, BUT HIS MARRIAGE TO POSH SURVIVED)

That’s horrible! I don’t even wanna believe that stuff. They gave me hope, those two (Becks and Posh). It can all work out. My illusions have been absolutely shattered.

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NOTE: Read the rest in the second volume of my gossipy rock ‘n’ roll bio, due in 2015 (or 2016). For now the first volume, Strange Days: The Adventures of a Grumpy Rock ‘n’ Roll Journalist in Los Angeles, is available here. For more info, go to strangedaysbook.com

Copyright © 2004, 2013 by Dean Goodman. PLEASE DO NOT CUT AND PASTE THE WHOLE THING

Dean Goodman