Rickie Lee Jones: Why music became my bridge to the world
American singer-songwriter Rickie Lee Jones won a Grammy award for her first album when she was just 24, but she was harbouring a secret that would haunt her for years.
Rickie Lee Jones was making up songs from the age of four. Part of a musical family - her grandparents were vaudeville stars in Chicago - she says music acted as an "accidental bridge" between her and the world. After running away from home at the age of fourteen, Rickie Lee eventually headed for California and set her heart on becoming a singer. She went from life on the breadline to fame, fortune and Grammy success at the age of 24. She tells Emily Webb about her remarkable life including her relationship with the singer Tom Waits, her secret battle to overcome heroin addiction in the late 1970s and why she feels that, as a woman, she faced more stigma as a result. She also tells Emily why she鈥檚 still inspired by the very first album she was given as a child 鈥� West Side Story.聽Her memoir is called Last Chance Texaco: Chronicles of an American Troubadour.
Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com
Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: June Christie
Picture: Rickie Lee Jones performing in Paris, France in 1979
Credit: Bertrand LAFORET/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
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The Outlook Podcast Archive
True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives
