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Anne Murray is closing the book on her career.
"This is the last thing on my to-do list," says the 64-year-old singer from her home north of Toronto. "I've had a really great time, but after 40 years, I'm ready to pack it in."
Yep, it's true; Canada's iconic Songbird is flying away into the sunset. But not before she has the final word. Or the final 100,000.
The last waltz of Murray's professional life is her new autobiography, All of Me. In stores this week, the book follows Morna Ann Murray from her Nova Scotia childhood to the top of the Canadian entertainment world. In keeping with Murray's down-to-earth honesty, the 320-page tome published by Knopf Canada provides a balanced account of her life that covers both career highs (her 54 million records sold and dozens of awards) and personal lows (the dissolution of her marriage and her daughter's struggle with anorexia).
And while it's no gossipy tell-all, there are encounters with celebrities, from an amourous Burt Reynolds to an admiring John Lennon. And revelations that may surprise fans -- assuming they didn't know the wholesome Murray tried marijuana, was involved with a married man, visited live sex shows and considers much of her career "a nightmare."
Before heading out on her final tour -- a book-signing jaunt that cross-crosses the country over the next four weeks -- Murray spoke to us on Sunday morning with the same candor:
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Doing interviews on Sunday morning does not make you seem like a retired woman of leisure.
Well, this is kind of my last gasp. I'm going to promote this book and then call it quits. So I don't really mind because there's light at the end of the tunnel.
What made you decide to write a memoir at this point?
Well, people have been talking about this for years, but I didn't feel I had enough of a life to write a book. But in the last couple of years I've been contemplating retirement. I had a very successful Duets album two years ago. And last year I did a farewell tour of 29 cities in the U.S. and 27 in Canada, and at the end, I thought, 'That's enough.' I started to think about my list of things to do, and one was a book.
What do we learn about you that we never knew before?
All the details of the early days, and the drug and alcohol abuse in my band. It was awful. It was truly awful. A nightmare. It was all around me. I smoked (marijuana) maybe twice; for me, it wasn't an issue. But I was the person who had to hold it all together. The person standing in front. The person writing the cheques. The person booking the hotels in those early days. I was doing it all. And I don't know how I ever managed to get through it.
At one point, you admit you hated your early career.
I did hate it. I didn't like one thing about it -- except, of course, when I got on stage and was able to sing. And being in the studio making albums, I enjoyed that. But the rest of it kind of took over.
You even say you made too many albums.
Yeah, I did too many. One year I did three; other years, two. And all the compilations -- it was all bottom-line-driven. I was just sucked dry. It would have been so much nicer to do one tasty album and then another two or three years later. At the end of a 40-year career you'd have maybe 20 albums, not 35. That's just way too many.
Another surprise is that you didn't grow up with an all-consuming desire to be a star; you make it seem just like a decent job that came along.
That's very true. I've always been very practical and pragmatic. I did have to sing; I absolutely had to sing. As for whether I had to sing in front of people, well, I don't believe I wanted adulation. I never had a burning desire to be in show business. I'm not exactly a publicist's dream. When it comes to playing the show business game, I was never into that.
Murray content, ready to retire
Dolly Parton recently told Sun Media she's never going to retire from singing. She wants to drop dead onstage.
Not Anne Murray.
"I don't feel that way at all. Just the opposite; I've had enough," Murray told Sun Media this week. "Besides, in your 60s you don't sing as well. I'm one of those people who hates to settle for less. I know what it feels like to sing at the top of my game. And it's no longer there.
"I mean, I can still sing. I'm a workhorse. I've been on the road for years, singing night after night. I have an industrial-strength voice. Even on that last tour, I sang really well. But you have to settle for less. If I could afford to take a night off between every show, I could sing like a bird. But I'm travelling with 23 people and buses. So I have to do two or three nights in a row and my voice is not as good as it could be. And I don't want to be one of those people who fans come to see and then say, 'Oh, that's too bad.' "
Many star singers have said that before. Um, Barbra Streisand, anyone?
So how indeed does a 'workhorse' put herself out to pasture permanently?
"There's the trick; I really don't know," Murray said. "I'll probably hit a wall in January. But I know I feel very comfortable about this decision. I'm not hedging one little bit. It's not one of those things where I'm going to go, 'Oh s---, why did I tell them I was going to retire?'