GLORIA GAYNOR: "I Will Survive" Documentary

Published Jan 23, 2024, 8:00 AM

She did survive, she's thriving... and so can you! That's the Queen of Disco's message to us all. The documentary, "Gloria Gaynor: I Will Survive", about the making of her 2019 gospel album, "Testimony", will be out on Galentine's Day, (February 13th.)


Gloria joins us on LOVE SOMEONE to talk about her journey, the film, and to lend some heartfelt and hard-won inspiration! Don't miss this episode! ~ Delilah

January not only a month of resolutions, also a month of reflection. Because our past kind of the informs or shapes our future. We often find ourselves sifting through events of the previous year or years with a little more clarity than maybe we had in the midst of our turbulent times, and we make conscious decisions to move forward purposefully, wisely, and more healthy ways. Does this resonate with you? Have you had times like that in your life? Maybe it wasn't last year, Maybe it was a whole lot of years ago. You were vulnerable, you were making bad choices, but somehow, somehow you came through it, You survived, and now you're thriving. Good for you, Bravo. Today's podcast guest will join me in cheering you on. She knows more than a little bit about surviving. Nearly five decades ago, in nineteen seventy eight, Gloria Gainer, the Queen of Disco, released I Will Survive. At the time, she thought she had overcome quite a bit the death of her mother, a serious spinal cord injury, turmoil with her career, But it wasn't until she reached the age of sixty five, divorced her husband and manager and had to completely rebuild her life that she truly understood the iconic lyrics she had been singing all those years. Gloria Gainer joined me on Love Someone back in twenty nineteen. We had a long chat about those tumultuous years. She had hit rock bottom, but came out on top and swinging, or rather on top and singing. She's recently written and recorded a gospel album, Testimony, that went on to receive a Grammy, and today she's back with more exciting news. The movie Gloria Gaynor I Will Survive. It's a love letter of sorts to her global fan base, a personification of one of the most iconic songs ever recorded, and a motivator for everyone facing a challenge. The film follows the story of Gloria Gainer as she was writing and recording Testimony, which features musical guests Bart Millard, Jason Krabb, Mike Ferris, and Yulanda Adams. It's a present day's story with footage and interviews that tells of Gloria's incredible life and what led to the creation of this album. Bringing the documentary to life has been a labor of love for Immy nominated director and executive producer Betsy Schneckner, who started filming in twenty fifteen just as Gloria was beginning the recording process. True to documentary making, Betsy had no idea that it would lead to a ten year journey with the legendary singer. We're going to hear about it firsthand from the Queen. I'll give her a warm welcome right after I share some love with this podcast sponsor as we welcome in the new year. I hope you plan on spending much of it connecting with friends and loved ones. There's no better way to do it, if you ask me, than over a cup of Constant Comment tea from Bigelow Tea. I recently toured the Bigelow headquarters and was treated to a tea tasting lesson given by third generation President and CEO of Bigelow t Cindy Bigelow. It was an amazing experience. I witnessed their state of the art blending and packaging operations and met their state of the heart employees. The Bigelow family has been blending tea for over eighty years with top qual ingredients and a lot of love. My fave is constant Comment but with over one hundred and fifty varieties, they have a blend to suit every palette, for every season and every occasion. Maybe you're more of an earl gray or lemon ginger drinker, You'll have to go to Bigelot dot com and see all their many blends. Start your winter mornings with a steaming mug of Bigelot. You can find it at your favorite store and at bigelot dot com. Right now they have some brand new blends ready to share with you. Gloria. It is good to see you again, good to talk to you again.

Thank you.

Last time we talked was four years five years ago, twenty nineteen, and now you are. You were telling me at the time that you had something in the works that you were excited about, and now you have birthed that something and we get to catch up today and find out what God is doing in your life.

Well, he's working unders this documentary that has been at several what do you call film festivals and done very very well, gotten really good reports and a few awards. It's doing great and I'm very pleased about it.

So Gloria Gainer nineteen seventy eight, the year I graduated from high school. You were number one on the charts, and I was a kid in Reedsport, Oregon, three thousand people working at the radio station, and you know, because it was such a small town and a small station, we got to pick the music that we played, so the owners only let me on in the afternoon when the kids got out of high school. They were playing like Scandinavian music. I kid you not on this radio stations during some parts of the day because it was a big Scandinavian community. But I remember playing and dancing in the studio and singing at the top of my lungs your anthem, I Will survive, which has now become more than an anthem. It really is your testimony and your documentary, your movie. Where was your head at while I was a teenage kid in read Sport, Oregon singing along really off key with you?

Well, I was very much looking forward to the success of the song and being able to uplift and inspire people, you know, all over the world with that song.

So, even as young as you were, your motivation was to inspire folks.

Well, absolutely, And then we.

Talked about this back in twenty nineteen, but for folks just joining us on love. Someone tell us what and I know this is what the movie is about. Which is going to be in theaters for only one day? M h, only one day? What is it going to be on a platform after that? Because you know I work nights? Sure, okay, do you know which platform?

Yet? Not yet?

Not yet okay, that is yet to be announced. Tell us some of the things since nineteen seventy eight that you have survived, because it's a lot.

Since nineteen seventy eight, I've survived the passing.

Of all of my siblings, I'm so sorry.

And a couple of spine surgeries, a few fine spine surgeries, a couple of knee replacements, a few knee replacements.

So you're the bionic woman, is what you're telling us.

Absolutely absolutely, And you know, just the natural ups and downs that happen to other people, different illness. You know, you get sick, you get well, you know, you you you have friends you don't have you know, you fall out with somebody, you have an argument, you get back together, and you know all that kind of thing. Divorce, you know, marriage, as if your marriagers isn't traumatic enough. And then I got divorced, and so this it's been a lot.

I saw a little preview of the of the documentary, and in it you were talking about how in the course of your marriage you allowed yourself to be controlled, and that resonated with me because I look at you. You know, you were our anthem, the strongest woman. Anytime we saw you on stage, you were just so large and in charge and powerful. That powerful voice and your your dance and everything just screamed I'm in I'm I'm I'm in control of this. And yet the truth of the matter is, like many other women in performance or the arts or just life, somehow we let our power be taken away, We give it away, well let it be diminished. How did that? How did that impact you? And where are you at now?

Well, you know, there's a line in the movie, I don't know if you're familiar with the movie called for Colored Girls, and there's a line in that movie where she says, I almost let him get away with all my stuff and that and I lived that I almost let.

Him get away with all my stuff.

I mean it was like yeah, And so I was able to pull away and back up and regroup and get my act together. And you know, I always say I often say to my friends, God had to drop God. God said, I'm gonna have to drop a house on my baby girl because she's stupid.

Old think I'm listening. I didn't hear the word stupid. I heard the word hard headed, because you are anything but stupid, but perhaps a tiny bit hard headed.

Yes, yes, yes, definitely hard headed and so yeah, but when the house fell, I mean I jumped up and got my act together and pulled out and survived and now I'm thriving.

Amen to that, Amen to that I saw in the preview Bart Yeah, yeah, singing with you and working with you, I love that man. I love that man.

Isn't you a great such as we are?

He's such a sweetheart. And I don't even know how many years God has blessed me with knowing him and the guys twenty years. Well maybe his baby had just been diagnosed with type one diabetes, like just when you met. Tell me how God brought you guys together and what that looks.

So, my wonderful producer and along with my manager Stephanitie Gold came together with it. If you know, we decided we needed to do we wanted to do some duets on the album, and so they got together and decided who they would contact to who would be best with me, who would work best with me, and then contact them and see if they agreed and if they were willing to do it. And I was so very very pleased when he and all of them that joined me on the album said yes and and came and became a very intricate part of the project and just made it wonderful.

They are wonderful. They were boys. They were boys when I met them. You know, some of them were just starting, you know, their careers, their marriages that they had been together for a long time, but really kids. Yeah, And to see how they have mercy Me has grown and blessed so many people around the world has been fun to watch. Like I kind of feel like a mama hen you know, like I met Josh Grobin when he was a kid, he was a teenager. I met Michael Boublat when he was a teenager. I kind of feel like I kind of I bask in their glory when they do well and when uh when he when when mercy Me and Bart hooked up with you what a combination, I know.

I know, he's like I said, He's just wonderful, so great, so easy to work with, so creative, so talented, and and and so many different areas, and it.

Was it was, It was just great.

It was just a pleasure to work with him, and and and the other guys that we had on and Yolanda Adams the same.

It was great.

Yolanda, what a voice. I know why God didn't give me a singing voice. I want it. I coveted. Everybody in my family is musical. You said you lost all your siblings. Were they musical? Yes, so you guys could sing together, harmonize together.

I couldn't sing with them because I was a girl. I have five brothers.

They wouldn't let you sing with them.

Oh I was a girl. Well would they let me sing with them?

Seriously? Even after your success?

Well, after my success, I wouldn't let them sing with me.

Oh that's good. Well everyone in my family my father was in a band, he was in a country western band. My mother could sing, my sister can sing, My little brother can play instruments and sing. I had three biological children, all of them inherited the musical gene and passion for music. I have a three note range, happy birthday is in there. Okay, that's it. So I covet your gift. I did. And one time I was like, God, why why did you give this gift to everybody in my family but me? And you know what he said, He knows my ego. I mean, I have a huge ego, Gloria, and I have no talent. Can you imagine if I had your kind of talent, your kind of gift, your kind of voice, and this kind of that.

He's got other purposes for you. But let me make you feel better about your voice. Okay, I fully believe this to be true. Do you know how babies love the sound of their mother's voices, no matter how badly.

The mother sings, Yes, they do. Well.

I think that's because God loves our voices when we sing pray to him, no matter how bad we sound.

That's why he said, make a joyful noise.

Exactly, Yes, noise, noise noise.

Yes, And I do. I make a very joyful noise.

Yes.

But it took me a long time to come to peace with the fact that my sister can sing, my brothers could sing.

Well, you can too, and you've got the best audience. Yeah.

When I was younger. I used to lie on the air and say I gave Celine Dion voice lessons, and some people believe me. I'm like, are you kidding me? You didn't really believe. That's just a joke, that's a lie. How old were you when you realized you had this gift, this voice? Because you're you're not that big physically, and yet your voice fills an entire auditorium.

Thirteen, that's when you knew thirteen years old.

I remember very distinctly because I was standing in the hallway of my apartment build singing, waiting for a friend for mine to come down and come out and play. And I was singing why do Foods Fall in Love? Frankie Lyman, who was also thirteen years old, And when a neighbor came down and said that she heard me and thought that I was a radio that convinced me if he could do what I could do it we were the same age. And then that's when I decided I wanted to be a singer.

Heymen, where did you live?

Where did you grow up in Newark, New Jersey?

Who there's a lot of talent people coming out of New Jersey.

Talent coming out of Newark and surrounding area.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I got smiled on that area when it comes to the talent.

Oh yes.

Now in the movie, you get pretty real, very real, very transparent and talk about some really bad choices that you made as a young woman. Can you just share something that was so hard for you to be honest about but God brought you through it and gave you the ability to own it and talk about it.

Well.

The one thing that was very, very difficult to to own but also I felt compelled to talk about it because of the outcome was the party that my ex husband and I threw out in California when I was riding high on the success If I Will survive and long story short, you'll see it in the film how I lost my moral compass for a minute and God snatched me out of it. Now, I lost it because I gave my heart to the Lord. I remember asking my mother that could I go and be baptized when I was sixteen?

And then success came along.

Influences.

How long did you let those influences steal your life?

Good? Ten years?

And what brought you back?

God himself? No, he snatched me in my collar.

And what did he say, that's enough.

That was it.

That was it, And then you decided, after being the Queen of Disco, that was your title. That's how we introduced you on the air, the Queen of Disco. Yeah, to do a gospel album. What did people say when you're like, I want to I want to sing praises to the Lord? You're like, yeah, okay, right, did they remember the disco dresses you used to wear on stage? Mm hmmm you had you have gambs legs. Yeah, but you did. You found people who believed in you and helped you put the album together.

Yes, you know.

And and what of you awards? Pardon and you want a few little awards?

Yeah, yeah, won a couple of awards.

And you can go ahead.

When you do his will, he will bless.

You, you know, just as simple as that.

He would absolutely bless you. Any blesses us. Sometimes when we don't.

Do is will. You know, we can not good to our children when they're like bad sometimes, you know.

All the time, Yeah, because they're so dang cute and we love them so hard even when they're bad.

Yeah.

Spending time reminiscing with one of my musical heroes today, Gloria Gaynor. Here's some news about another hero on Mine, a podcast sponsor who helps to make these incredible experiences possible for us. Mercy Ships has been transforming lives for over forty years. Many people in our world have no access to healthcare and as a result, they must endure pain and suffering. But with the support of volunteers and donors, Mercy Ships can go to these communities and perform free surgeries. Surgeries that help mothers see their babies for the first time, surgeries that allow little boys and girls to run and play. They change lives through the work they do. Now, thanks to the launch of the Global Mercy, the first custom built hospital ship of its kind, they can help even more people. The Global Mercy is projected to serve one hundred and fifty thousand patients over the next five decades. Four year old Amato from Southern Senegal was the first to receive surgery on the Global Mercy. Born with one windswept leg and one bowed leg, he missed out on so many things kids love, but thanks to the treatment he received from Mercy Ships, Amadu can't wait to run around with his friends and he dreams of all that Lizahead. Learn more about mercyships at mercyships dot org. So, Gloria, this documentary really is a labor of love, and it really was like birthing a child, birthing a project, only it was a very long pregnancy from the time you decided to do it, from that till the time that it it was a wrap. Tell me what that looked like and who was there for you doing it?

Well, well, my manager's definitely go with one hundred percent. There for me helping her was Tom store Out, our social media person who does a hundred other things. Besides that, there was of course Betsy the producer and she had some issues that that that personal things that stall the for for a minute. But you know, it was just that she was willing to travel with me overseas and and and and got some live footage for the documentary. And yes, she put blood, sweat and tears into it and uh and has done an awesome job in my opinion and an opinion of many other people.

Yeah, it's been. It's been great working with her.

So it comes out during the Month of Love, Yes, and Gallantine's Day. Gallantine's Day, are you gall with your Gallantines with your best friend.

You can all get together and and go in groups and see it together and and just make a make a wonderful you know, a day of camaraderie and and friendship and love, you know, between girls.

So what is is something you want to impart upon our listeners from your heart? Like if you could just give them lay one truth down, if you could give person somebody one truth that would stick, what would that be?

Hmm, that's hard.

Okay, Two, you can have three my podcasting have as many as you want.

One one of the one of the big things is that what I learned through this and God said it to me and then he would commit then he then he then he went on to prove it to me that no one can keep He said to me, no one can keep you from getting what I have for you except you.

Say that again, because for the people in the back.

Keep you from getting what I have for you except you. And having learned that he is the only one who knows and wants only what's best for you and the only one who can bring it all to pass, that was a wonderful thing for him to put it in my heart. And he had shown it through this, through this, not only through the making of the of the of the documentary, but the things that went into the documentary, that activities, and the things that happened to me through that, and how he's carried me through I mean through this, through the making of this video. I lost to siblings and he's carried me through that. But uh, through my life as of now, I've lost all of my siblings and He's carried me through it all. And and it's just I just want to impart to people how faithful he is, and I want to impart to them. My favorite scripture, which I believe, is this. This is the scripture you have to live by. Trust in the law. This is Proverbs three, verses five and six. Trust in the Law with all your heart, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. I have lived it, and I continue to live it and INTENDU to live it until I'm gone.

Gloria, thank you for spending this time with us. So Gallantine's Day it's going to be a three day celebration because we got Gallentine's Day, then we got Valentine's Day, then we got Delilah and Paul's birthday. Because my husband and I have the same birthday the next day, so we got a three day, three day celebration going on. And then as soon as we find out what platform it'll be released on, I'll be sure and let our listeners know so they can.

Be Thank you so much, appreciate.

That, Gloria Gaynor. Thank you for surviving, Thank you for thriving, Thank you for being with us today.

Thank you my pleasure, my great pleasure, pleasure.

Gloria Gaynor, music icon and disco legend, inspired millions for decades with her words I will survive. But she only truly understood the profound meaning of these lyrics after she faced a devastating divorce, financial ruin, and spiraling health concerns. Gloria sot to not only survive, but to thrive with unwavering faith and the spark of new dreams. The film follows Gloria as she embarks on an unexpectedly difficult eight year journey to write and record a gospel album. It's the tale of the remarkable challenges that fueled her music and path to stardom, and her present day message, empowering audiences to believe it is never too late to transform your dreams into reality. Gloria Gainer I Will Survive celebrates reinvention, the power of faith, and a magnificent second act. It's exclusively in theaters on Gallantine's Day. That's February thirteenth for the uninitiated, when you celebrate your best friends. You can get your tickets early by going to Fathomevents dot com and clicking on February Events. Speaking of Gallantine's Day or Valentine's Day for that matter, how about a bottle of Gloria's new perfumes Survive to send the message of unwavering belief and support to someone special. You can find it at talkshop dot live, in Her Survive or Gloria gainor in your search bar. Keep up to date with Gloria, her music, her movie and all that's going on on her many social platforms at Gloria gainor on Facebook, Instagram, threads, and YouTube. I hope life has been kind to you. I hope you haven't faced a great deal of adversity, but I know you've had challenges. We all have, and I hope that if you've been through it or are currently in the midst of it, you're in it. You know that there's a path forward. It might feel like that path is straight up the side of a sheer cliff, but with a willing heart and the right people cheering you on and a faith in the Almighty, you can do it, and you're sure to inspire others along the way. I am so glad Gloria found the time to be with us today. I'm so glad she slowed down and loved us. She's inspiring like that, isn't she

LOVE SOMEONE with Delilah

In a world that can feel divisive and bleak, it's easy to get caught up in feelings of hopelessness, 
Social links
Follow podcast
Recent clips
Browse 180 clip(s)