DiscoverCY Celebrities – CYInterviewRIP Olivia Newton-John: Pop Icon, Past CYInterview Guest Kind as She was Talented
RIP Olivia Newton-John: Pop Icon, Past CYInterview Guest Kind as She was Talented

RIP Olivia Newton-John: Pop Icon, Past CYInterview Guest Kind as She was Talented

Update: 2022-08-09
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Yesterday, pop music icon, actress and philanthropist Olivia Newton-John died. She was 73. The reported cause of death was breast cancer. Ms. Newton-John had fought valiantly against the disease since first being diagnosed with it in 1992.


A pop music phenomenon in the 1970s and 1980s, the world probably knows her best as Sandy, from the 1978 blockbuster movie musical Grease, where she starred alongside John Travolta. However, though she enjoyed success on the silver screen, Olivia was first and foremost a singer, with a heaven-sent voice.


At the Grammy Awards in 1975, Olivia won Record of the Year for her song I Honestly Love You. The award was announced by John Lennon and Paul Simon. During her music career, she would end up winning three more Grammy Awards.


During the last decade of her life, Olivia Newton-John was one of Las Vegas’s resident stars. From 2014 to 2016, she performed 180 concerts at the legendary Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. In 2015, CYInterview was on hand for one of those performances [see here]. In 2019, we welcomed Olivia Newton-John to CYInterview to speak with us about her memoir Don’t Stop Believin’ and her time in Las Vegas, among other topics. [At the end of this article you can find a full transcript and audio of that CYInterview.]


Our condolences go out to Olivia Newton John’s husband John Easterling, her daughter Chloe Lattanzi and the rest of her family and friends. Additionally, we would also like to offer condolences to her longtime publicist Michael Caprio, who is based here in Las Vegas.


Olivia Newton-John touched people with her singing, acting and philanthropy. She will never be forgotten and always be the one that we want. RIP!


Below is the CYInterview with Olivia Newton-John from 2019:


Listen to the entire Olivia Newton-John CYInterview:




Listen to the entire Olivia Newton-John CYInterview on YouTube:



Chris Yandek: I’m Chris Yandek. Featured columnist Jay Bildstein is with me. Today on CYInterview, we welcome singer, actress, superstar Olivia Newton-John. Her new book out is titled Don’t Stop Belevin’, the long awaited memoir. Olivia, thank you for being with us today on CYInterview.


Olivia Newton-John: You’re very welcome. How are you today?


Chris Yandek: I’m doing very well. Thank you so very much. I just want to say to start out with, I really enjoyed reading your book, a lot of interesting and positive stories. How has the book tour been going and what’s been the most interesting part so far?


Olivia Newton-John: Well, my tour I’ve been doing by telephone, which is probably the easiest way I’ve ever done any tour and really enjoying it. I’ve been, I did a few, couple of things in L.A., but I’ve been mainly been doing stuff on the phone and it’s doing really well. The book went to number seven on the New York Times best seller list which I didn’t expect at all. I didn’t expect to be in the charts again. So that was exciting.


Chris Yandek: I don’t think it’s very surprising honestly with all the things that you’ve accomplished in your career, on the screen and of course with music, how are you doing?


Olivia Newton-John: I’m doing great. Thank you. Really well. Really feeling good.


Chris Yandek: Well, here’s what I’m going to say to you, you know, getting the chance to read the book and go through it, you know, and you get to relive many of these accomplishments, do you ever reflect on those accomplishments and feel satisfied?


Olivia Newton-John: It’s not something I think about really. I live my life and when I wrote the book of course I went, oh wow, that’s pretty good, you know. Pretty good for an Aussie chick. But I don’t think about them a lot, but when I do, I’m just very grateful that I’ve had such an amazing career. But I do particularly now live in the present, live in the moment that I’m having and I don’t really think much about the past and today is a gift and that’s how I see it today in the present.


Chris Yandek: Jay.


Jay Bildstein: You know Olivia, going through the 1970s and being a big music fan and constantly listening to the radio, you were there all the time. And to me, I kind of break down your career as BG and AG, before Grease and after Grease.


Olivia Newton-John: BG, I like that one.


Jay Bildstein: Because there was this entire period which I think some younger folks may not realize where you were so incredibly dominant.


Olivia Newton-John: Yeah.


Jay Bildstein: In the music scene. I think a lot of people today, the first thing they think of is Grease. With that said, and I gave a lot of thought to your career, do you ever reflect back and say, am I looked at someone or was I looked at as someone who was a country star, a pop star, did you ever kind of try to identify where you were in music or did you just go out and perform?


Olivia Newton-John: I just did it and I sang songs that I liked and you know, when I first started out and I was having country music hits, I really had no idea that country music had a separate chart because I was in England, the songs were written by an Englishman, my first big hits If You Love Me, Let Me Be There, Please Mr. Please were all written by a gentleman called John Rostill who was an Englishman and he was a base player in the Shadows and he, my producers were an Englishman and an Australian. I had no idea about country music really.


Because I was in the pop world and doing cabaret and stuff with my partner Pat [Carroll]. So when I had these country music hits, it was like, oh, wow, there’s a whole chart that’s just country. And my voices seemed to soothe that kind of music or that’s what my producers thought and manager and I wasn’t focusing on it when I first started, so it kind of made sense, but I really wasn’t aware of that. But I really covered a lot of different genres with my music. I think music is music and I love the fact they’re all kind of melding a melting pot of sounds now with all the different ones coming together. I just feel really grateful. I’ve had hits in all my different styles. Even a number one disco hit with my daughter.


Jay Bildstein: Interesting, you know, again going back to the 1970s and thinking about your music, I can say that going through the 70s, my kind of focus was rock, but I can also say with all my friends and we’re talking about, you know, people who were in junior high school and high school, besides your music, I’m sure you realize you were also a pop icon. You were someone who made a lot of people’s hearts beat a bit faster. Did that, I don’t know, did that ever give you cause for pause, make you feel uncomfortable, did you just want to be known for your music or were you ok with the fact that, you know, there were plenty of guys with your poster on a wall or a photograph on the wall and thought of Olivia Newton-John as more than just a songstress, but wow, what a woman?


Olivia Newton-John: I don’t really think I paused to think about it too much. I don’t think about myself that way. I’ve always had my feet on the ground and I don’t intend, I kind of laugh when I think about that. But I was very flattered. I was more focused on just singing my songs and recording and touring and living my life and I don’t really think I ever really thought, I think once you start thinking about yourself too much, that’s a trap and you start to take yourself too seriously. It was what it was and I was very lucky and fortunate, very grateful.


Jay Bildstein: Chris.


Chris Yandek: Olivia, in the book, Don’t Stop Believin’, you talk very candidly about Grease, of course. And I thought it was very interesting that you had to kind of be convinced and even be asked by John Travolta to do Grease.


Olivia Newton-John: Yes.


Chris Yandek: Looking back on it, do you ever think about what would your career have been like had you not done Grease or how life would have been different?


Olivia Newton-John: No, I don’t, do you think back a lot about those things? I mean, obviously it would have been a different world that I don’t know what would have happened, I mean I would of probably just focused on my music and my music did well, but, you know, my music in the movie did exceptionally well and then of course the music from Xanadu, another film, those were some of my biggest records were from films. And then Physical after that and of course was amazing. But I don’t know what it would have been. I mean, how do we know what it would have been? So I’m just happy the way it turned out. I was lucky.


Jay Bildstein: Chris, may I interject something?


Chris Yandek: Sure, of course.


Jay Bildstein: You know what Olivia, I think you just taught us something here, at least you just gave me a teachable moment. Perhaps we’re asking the questions and you’re answering them because instead of reflecting on the past, you focused on doing, you focused on accomplishing and you focused on producing your art, your music, your acting and maybe that’s a lesson for all of us that we gotta

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RIP Olivia Newton-John: Pop Icon, Past CYInterview Guest Kind as She was Talented

RIP Olivia Newton-John: Pop Icon, Past CYInterview Guest Kind as She was Talented

Chris Yandek