K.D. Lang reflects on her Cindy Crawford 'Vanity Fair' cover 30 years later | Etalk Interview

if you you identify as queer then no one else can tell you that you don't I mean if you own it yeah yeah I think it's become like this more umbrella term that we can use that's rolls off the tongue a little easier than all the letter I like quer I like qu [Music] too we have this album here yes it's actually our producers that she had from home big fan 37 years since this album came out really yeah that's a long time how does that feel if it it's excit I'm I'm happy I I you know what I've lived 37 years since that record and I've enjoyed every moment mostly and yeah I'm going to embrace the fact that Time Marches On yeah and I continue to do so and I think it's really interesting to see like the Milestones that come up and celebrate I'm sure like the different anniversaries of your albums and things and also the achievements that you've been getting since then including the the Canadian country Music Hall of Fame well that that is a shocker and that one is really very very exhilarating for me I'm stoked about it yeah how did you find out how did it all I got a call from my manager saying you're wanting they want to honor you at the Canadian Country Music Awards and I was like Wow cuz you know it has been 37 years and or 35 years I guess and I'm really really excited about it yeah I'm so glad does it ever get less exciting when you get a Lifetime Achievement Award here or this honor here yeah they come with different gravity but but this one because I was born in Edmonton my career started in Edmonton you know I still have family in Edmonton it's it's it means a lot to me I have so many wonderful memories of those early days playing the Sidetrack Cafe and you walking down the streets of Edmonton being a Rebel Without a Cause so yeah that's so sweet my favorite Edmonton memories is are always folkfest it's the best Edmonton Folk Festival is one of the best oh it's so good and people who haven't experience it you like can't describe it you just have to go and go and do it it is it's it's it's it's one of the very best there is yeah and I hear there might be some sort of reunion that's happening at well as a matter of fact ladies and gentlemen yes I got together with um we're getting get together with some of the original members of the reclines Ben mink Gordy Matthews Johnny diamond and I am going to perform on the ccma awards and I was able to go to the National Music Center in Calgary where all my old outfits are housed and I picked something very specific oh wow so it is Retro City it's again we're going to do a song from the early early days and I am we're all really really really excited about it it feels like a really celebratory Reunion yeah for sure how long has it been since I played with the reclines I well I guess the last would have been 1989 somewhere like that W that's incredible oh I can't wait for that that'll be so sweet um you touched on being being born in Edmonton living in Alberta Canadian artists take such pride in being Canadians as I love so much so what is it about growing up in Alberta that really plays into who you are as a person you are as an artist well that's a big question and I could probably talk volumes on it but I mean specifically with country you know growing up in the Prairies and knowing the people and knowing the lifestyle it's very directly related to country music but I think also as a vocalist that informed me in terms of the minimal landscape and the openness in the space I think I I I lean towards aesthetically and and and musically towards minimalism and openness so I think it's had a a you know indelible mark on my taste for sure that's what I noticed too in Alberta is just how big the sky is yeah right it's different here it's very very big and then the second that you go over there anyways we could reminisce about Alberta the whole time as a queer person myself the Vanity Fair cover it it was such a like queer cultural moment for so many people did you expect it to have that kind of I don't know attention even after all these years with it still being brought up and people still referencing it it was a really big moment cuz I was really close friends with her britz who was the photographer and I had known socially I had known Cindy Crawford for a while but to know that it was for the cover of Vanity Fair to be being shot by herb and to have Cindy Crawford draped over top of me uh those were all pretty big moments um and I think when you're in the moment of creativity and and and when you're actually engaged in the moment of creativity you don't I mean you you have a sense of that it's going to have an impact but I think the only way I could ever understand its impact is through time and through retrospection and um I am so utterly Prof profoundly proud of that moment I I it's playful it's artistic it's ballsy and it's beautiful it's a aesthetically beautiful um so I'm I'm really really proud of that and I'm glad that it had had a positive impact on the queer community and social does social norms in general yeah yeah definitely it is so fascinating to hear you talk about coming out then and you just have this like confidence about you too that's very um admirable because I think for a lot of queer people there still is that fear of coming out or just like being judged or anything like that so for you to what was that ' 92 to be I mean I came out to my mom in 1976 yeah yeah but that's just it's just so huge and I know that you've talked in interviews at that time about the fear of that like because obviously it does come with some fear but um yeah like the fear of coming out and the repercussions that come with that did you ever end up facing any negative feedback or did you lose out on opportunities at that time because of it yeah of course I I you know the funny thing about my career is I've had very limited Commercial Success I've had a lot of Television exposure I've had a lot of press but in terms of actual record sales or radio play I've had very limited success why is that is that just people don't know what genre to there's that I'm to Market but I but also I I challenge advertisers I challenge you know the uh I scare people um I've scared people with my political stance on meat eating or or or you know vegetarianism so yeah you know you're you're when you're challenging you know I've definitely experienced uh phobia is definitely for sure do you still feel like that now or you think people have finally caught up you know it still exists and we have a lot of work to do but things have changed so positively and um I take a great source of pride in that as well yeah no and I think just by you being you I'm sure you've heard it before that it's just yeah it's very admirable so thank you I love it that's so great do you like being referred to as an icon for the lgbtq plus Community well if it's for the lgbtq plus Community I'd prefer to be considered a daon of course I love that you should coin that yourself I somebody somebody in Toronto coined that I can't remember who but it was it wasn't me I can't take credit get it copyrighted or something that should be your official title that you have do you think that using your your Fame to be a platform to Voice issues and concerns do you um how do you feel strongly about that I think that really boils down to individual basis I think if it's something that you feel authentically passionate about and you feel like you want to speak up on an issue then absolutely don't even question it but I think if you think it's a way to Garner Media or get attention or you think your virtual virtual signaling because it's popular then do please do not do it yeah what do you think about the word queer because I know for a lot of younger members of the lgbtq plus Community they've like reclaimed it because it was had such negative connotations to it how do you feel about it I like it I mean if if you you identify as queer then no one else can tell you that you don't I mean if you own it yeah yeah yeah I think it's become like this more umbrella term that we can use that's rolls up the tongue a little easier than all I like qu I like qu too yeah it's great we lost a really great Voice last year Tony Bennett uh I'm such a fan of his and yours together what memories come up for you when you look back on that time with him he was my teacher he was a friend he was a gentleman he was the epitome of a professional in the music business um his etiquette his work ethic uh his grace um his generosity to me I I I can see that he gave Gaga the same generosity and many many other people he loved Amy win house his gener it um was yeah unparalleled but Tony was just a really amazing person inside and out such an amazing singer I I feel extremely fortunate that I had an education with him yeah when you say generous what do you mean by that just with his knowledge giving you space to be a vocalist including you um letting you be yourself like he let Amy and Gaga and me be myself around him he wasn't threatened by it he didn't try try to mold you he gave you you know opportunities to sing with one of the great singers of traditional pop just incredible yeah for sure with the fact that you have dabbled in different genres and you've been creative in so many spaces how would you describe who you are now like who's Katie Lang now I get smaller and more diffused as I get older and and that sounds uh demeaning but I actually think it's empowering I I feel less ownership on who I am and more ownership on the fact that we're the the interconnectedness of us and the inseparability of us all and I guess that's what I focus on yeah yeah I love that a simple life yeah yeah that's great thanks I love it so much thank you thanks for chatting yeah pleasure awesome like the video then hit the button or better yet drop us a com then check out our latest videos here and don't forget to subscribe by hitting the button here for more celebrity interviews and 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