"Any
time I have to get on a plane and leave my kids for a few days,
it's kind of tortuous," says Easton. "I don't enjoy
that aspect at all. My priorities have changed like night and
day for me. My whole focus has shifted greatly. I've scheduled
my life so I have a lot more time at home. But if I'm not going
to work six nights a week in Vegas, other places are asking me
to come in for one night, two nights or a weekend. The last few
dates like that have felt so weird. It's so strange to get off
a plane and look at my watch and be aware of what my kids are
doing at that moment. It's weird doing homework with them on the
phone."
Easton, 44, has become a resident of Las Vegas with her two adopted
children, Jake, 7, and Skylar, 8, and her husband, plastic surgeon
John Minoli, whom she married last November. In show business
since the age of 19, her life change started to come about when
she hit 30 and discovered being at the pinnacle career-wise was
not the be-all, end-all. She needed something more meaningful
in her life, which is when her children entered the picture.
"Being a mother had just never crossed my mind. It was just
not in the radar," Easton admits. "My sole focus as
far back as I can remember was all about my dream to become a
singer. I was blessed in the sense that I got handed so much early
on in life. I got a lot of the things people go through their
20s and 30s craving. That success, that exposure, that being on
the road, the concerts — I was doing that stuff so young
that by the time I hit 30,1 felt I had lived a couple of lifetimes.
I was almost at that jaded stage where you go, 'Is that all there
is? Is that it?' It wasn't making me emotionally happy."
Easton says if she were wired differently, where the social life
of the industry and being on everyone's A-list was important to
her, it might have been a different story. But she found that
packing and unpacking her bags, constantly traveling from one
strange city to another, living on room service, got old fast.
That left her realizing she had to do two things in her life.
First, she had to make it about doing the work she enjoyed as
opposed to just doing what yielded her financial reward. Second,
she had to incorporate something else in her life that was going
to give her satisfaction.
"It all boils down to the fact that after enough therapy
and enough looking at your life, you realize that if it ain't
making you happy — even though other people think it should
be making you happy — you need to find what's genuinely going
to make you happy," Easton acknowledges. "That's when
I started to pursue Broadway, doing 'Man of La Mancha' opposite
Raoul Julia, as well as TV and the cartoon voiceovers. It was
doing things that were exciting and new. It was a learning curve.
"That's also when I realized what I needed to do was nurture
someone in my life," she continues. "I had never done
that. My life had been about me. It was like the biological clock
exploded. I needed to be a mother. That was what I was supposed
to be doing."
Easton says if she had been in a steady, serious relationship
at 34 or 35, she would have just gone ahead and had kids. At that
time, however, she was coming out of yet another relationship
that wasn't working, with someone she didn't wanted to have children
with.
"So it was a case of, 'Well, you can go out there and get
pregnant or you can buy some sperm — all the different options
— or you can adopt,'" she says.
When she really thought about, however, she found that it wasn't
important to her that her children have 50 percent her DNA. DNA
or not, they would be her kids, period. Once she realized that,
adoption became the way for her to go. Easton admits that one
of the main things that having her kids has changed the most for
her is that she has a vulnerability she never had before. Before
Jake and Skylar came along, there was nothing in her life she
thought could destroy her. Easton says she was raised to be a
survivor, which is what she thinks made her an overachiever and
so successful at an early age, so determined and driven.
By the time Easton turned 36, she had changed so things were all
falling into place. She was sitting down in one place, realizing
she could do long stints in Vegas, on Broadway and other gigs
here and there. She maintains that at 38 or 39, she was experiencing
the happiest years of her life.
"I realized I didn't have to have a life that depended on
my making an album and promoting it, touring, and doing those
kinds of shows," she says. "Even though I pretty much
made my own decisions early on, when I was younger I tended to
overbook my life. If I opened my planner in the begin- ning of
the year, it was booked with things for the next 18 months that,
at the time, were a good idea. But nine months later, when you're
working on fumes and have 12 more commitments that month, you
go, 'Oh, God, I'm only doing this because I said I would. So the
pleasure factor drops."
Easton says she's learned not to be such a people-pleaser. When
her schedule gets overloaded, she can nicely say no. There can
be a load of gratification in this business, both financially
and emotionally, but artists have jobs that constantly invite
comment, both positive and negative. As a result, she learned
the adulation she has received is not as important as the true
one-on-one connections she has made in her life. Friends, family
and her kids have become her anchor.
Easton met Minoli about three years ago. They became an item.
Quipping that she was married many times for 10 minutes, she admits
she was the queen of the drive-thru marriages and that the union
was always over by the time the french fries were cold. While
she had married for all the wrong reasons, she and Minoli married
as two mature adults. Easton decided to marry him when she realized
he was as committed to being a father to her kids as much as he
was to being in her life.
"We were together for a little over three years. We never
lived together because if I was going to live with someone, I
was going to get married. We didn't tie the knot on a cloud of
romance and idealism like you do when you're 20," Easton
muses. "We looked at the pros and cons and decided we wanted
to commit to each other and work at a relationship. This is my
kids' first experience with an honest-to-goodness for- ever dad.
I see the difference it makes to them and how invested they are
in it. A family has been made here and good, bad, or indifferent,
this family is going to stay together if I have anything to do
with it."
As for her future career, Easton says she still has a big enough
ego to enjoy the gratification of knowing she can still do her
job well. She enjoys performing at the Las Vegas Hilton and this
year has moved from The Nightclub, where she debuted two years
ago, to the main room. She says that it is no secret that a performer
like herself enjoys the intimacy of a small room, liking the feeling
of being able to see everyone in the room and of having the audience
wrapped around her. She's getting used to the main showroom, however,
and says that her show works in any size venue.
In her performance, Easton does a number of her hits as well as
cover tunes and personalized songs that reflect what she feels
and what's going on in her life. She says that she feels a great
level of comfort on stage and doesn't feel pressure to be what
she thinks the audience is expecting. She doesn't feel any pressure
to please anyone but herself, the upshot being that by doing what
makes her happy, her audiences seem to be happy, too.
"I think the audience is responding to the fact that they
see I'm authentic now, that I'm just me," Easton claims.
"I'm not someone who's trying to be part of the latest trend.
It gives me a great sense of freedom. It's also nice to have been
around long enough to be a part of people's lives. I enjoy that.
A lot of people who come to my show are real nostalgic for the
'80s."
If she could, would she like to have another hit record to her
credit?
"I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to make something for
the charts," she responds. "It's just not in my scope
now. Will I change my mind in 10 years? Maybe. I can't see it
but who knows. I've learned never to say never. But right now
I'd rather stick needles in my eyes."
"When I was working with David Cassidy at the Rio, I made
an album of updated versions of some 1970s disco tunes,"
she adds. "The songs were so much fun. The guys I worked
with were fabulous. I was able to record the album on my own schedule,
on my days off. I had a blast. Then I had to pay the piper —
what I call the dog and pony show. The record company said they
needed me to come to Europe — Britain, Holland, Germany,
etc. — and do all the talk shows, radio shows, all the record
stuff, plus make a video, which I hadn't done in years. Halfway
through the first week of promotion, I looked at Harriet, my manager,
and said, 'Don't ever ask me to do this again.' It was everything
I hated."
If she could write her own ticket recording-wise, she'd like the
luxury to of being able to record music she enjoys without having
to worry about it being commercial. She cites the fact that a
Christmas album, which she would like to do, never makes the charts
and an artist doesn't have to worry about promotion or touring.
She doesn't worry about getting older either. The fact that she
is married to a plastic surgeon aside, she enthuses that she's
happier as she gets older.
"I look forward to the next stage of my life," she states.
It's one that will allow her to continue taking charge of her
own direction — the "Train" stops here.
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