The Belinda Carlisle interview

Belinda talks!

Rykodisc

By Jenny Stewart, PlanetOut/Gay.comEntertainment Editor

When Belinda Carlisle described the effects of Quaaludes and made fun of Janis Ian during our recent interview, I felt like an innocent freshman in the girls' bathroom in high school, listening to a cool senior talking about her crazy weekend. (Why was she talking to me?)

We all know how that ended: After a decade-long crazy weekend, Belinda cleaned up her act, had a successful solo career, and is now living happily in France with her husband and 15-year-old son. She still tours with the Go-Gos, but her new album, "Voila" -- her first solo effort in over 10 years -- is a polished, sexy redux of all-French pop classics. And it's actually pretty great...

By the end of the interview, I felt like I had run into the same dangerously cool senior in the supermarket 25 years later -- glad to learn she had become a well-adjusted mom, but slightly disappointed she wasn't still dangerous. But she's amazingly frank with her sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll stories; her Valley Girl lilt remains unchanged, and she's even more beautiful than she was in her heyday.

What did Belinda say about lesbian groupies, fellow Frenchman Johnny Depp and the possibility of replacing Paula on "American Idol"? Read the full interview now!