The spotlight. She excited the crowd with the joy and gratitude at the 86th Academy Awards in 2014. [applause] lord god, i praise you and i am so happy to be here representing the ladies of 20 feet from stardom. . I sing because i am happy. [applause] i sing because . I know he watches me. . [applause] elton, i love you. Darlene love joins us now in the studio. What up powerful moment that was. It was. Did you know before you went on stage that that song would come out . The night before they told me i was going on the stage, i had no idea i was going up. They only let the producers come up for the documentary and the director. They gave me 45 seconds so what was i going to do . They better not touch you at all. I just about my head and i said oh lord, give me something. That was the song. That was just perfect. What a great moment of validation that mustve been for you. To receive the oscar for that wonderful story about being 20 feet from stardom. Documentary together and what it was like and why you and your singing colleagues decided to even do it. As an entertainer, as a backup singer, we get called often to do things, many things like help write a book which you dont get paid for, commencing for all of these people. With this one, i got a telephone call from lou adwh ner who produce the Lethal Weapon movies and he said this friend of ours were call you will call you any has an idea of doing something about backup singers. Had they not called me, i would have passed. Since they called me and told me talking to you. We talk on the phone for a couple of hours. He asked what do you know about each of these people so we worked it out. That first day on the telephone. From that, we went into the real world where they put you in the studio and take you around to all the places where you needed to be. I have no idea it was that much work area it was fun reliving all oft. Winning the oscar mustve been a moment to say, yes, we deserve this honor and this visibility for all the work we have done. Yes, because we never got credit for it. The people we were working for the stars and were excited about us being there on their record but nobody else knew. Karen lets talk about that oh yes. You were being produced by phil spector. Karen a particular song was recorded by you in the lead and then tells what happened. I went into the studio to record this song called hes a rebel which went all the way to number one. I did not get credit for it because i was doing it for the phil Spector Group who was the crystals. Be a hit record. We have been on more failures than we have been on hits. We thought it was one of those. To my surprise, it turned out to be a number one record and sold over 3 million copies. The crystals got the credit for it not only for this one but also the boy i love which was a top 10 record. I had no idea. He is a legendary producer and has fallen on hard times since then. At the time, the music is was entirely different. Producers had control of everything. They try to do it today but the entertainers are smarter today than they were back 60 years ago. We were so excited about singing on a record not knowing the record was going to be a hit. Thats the farthest thing from like i said before, they were not hits. We were on more failures than hit records. You can name the ones like sam cook and Elvis Presley and aretha franklin. People know who they are. We were the champions for the stars. Karen you made them sound good. You filled in the sound. Yes. Does have a good ending because you later took him to court . Yes. Karen and . I sued him for back royalties. He said i was never signed to his company. One of the blossoms, vaneta j ames still had one of the old contract. I dont know how she kept it all those years. Karen her mothers attic. She did, she was moving and she was going through papers and she found it. I have moved over the years and she has been in the same house since she got married, beautiful home, and she never moved. I have been all over the country and had five or six houses from california to new york. She did and right before the trial, they did not know that we had found a piece of paper. Karen there it was. The only bad part about it, i was not looking for a whole lot of money. We were signed to him and he screwed me. We wanted to prove we were signed to him and thats it. It was funny because we were sitting outside after the trial was over. Hall there was phil spector and his people and were at the other end and the bailiff asked if we had a calculator. I said i think we won. Karen there are so much more i want to talk about so stay with us for the entire halfhour . All right. Karen more of our conversation karen welcome back. We are having a conversation with rock n roll hall of Famer Darlene love. How does the rock n roll hall i used to smoke, used to drink, used to smoke, drink, and dance the fuji could do. I used to smoke and drink. Karen i love that song. For much of her career, she worked for phil spector but she broke out on her own with songs like hes a rebel and today i met the boy am going to marry and performed on the late show with David Letterman after 65 years. She has seen a resurgence in her career and world and has le introducing darlene love, which came out in 2015. Thank you for being in the studio with us. Tell old tell us about that taping. That was 1965 on a show called open quote shindig. After that, hullabaloo. The producer was from england. He hired the blossoms area but black people were not on television weekly. They said we will have you on and i want you on this show. It was like behave yourself, dont do nothing wrong. Karen actor right. They gave us a spot every week. We did a song and thats without song came from. It was one of the weeks they gave us a spot on the show. Karen we are looking at pictures with other people in the Music Industry that you had an opportunity to work with. Just take off some of them. There was elvis. Luther vandross, azrthea franklin, sam cooke. Goodlooking sam cooke he was a gospel singer. Karen you have a love for gospel yourself. Artists of the day to wrap and everything out there now. Karen i have to ask you about your movie career. Everybody just loved you as Danny Glovers wife and all of those Lethal Weapon movies. How did that come about . Kareni wa doing my own show t the bottom line in manhattan. The producer of the show the casting director to see me in the show. The next day, he called my office and asked if i would be interested in being in a movie with mel gibson and danny glover. Karen who would say no to that . Nobody. I said yes before they told me what the deal was but the deal was great and i knew we were going to do to but i did not know it would be three. Karen you have done broadway as but if you want to do hard work, do broadway. That midler is going back on broadway to do a show. Karen its hard work because it is a live show. Every day and there is no reruns. If you make a mistake, you keep right on going. Karen your voice has to still be strong. It does and you want to perform each show you do to the best of your ability. You want it to be great every when you do your own personal shows, you dont feel like reaching for that note, you might do it on the next song. On broadway, you do the same thing every night, eight times a week, one day off and that one day off, me and my husband had a thing where if you dont feel like getting up, dont. I got into the mood of doing a broadway show. You dont get your first vacation until after six months. Karen you took some time off from performing to be a family lady. Id did and there was a lot going on in my life. My father had passed and i had trouble in my marriage. I have three kids and i had to fight for survival. It reallt way too much and you can work and have a career, we know that today but it was a little harder 50 years ago. Karen there are a lot of ups and downs. Please recount the story because i think this was the down point that rocketed you back to the top. You said there were hard times and there was a particular job you talk but that job turned out i dont believe in accidents. I think things happen for a reason and i needed to work. Nothing is as important as you saying i will do anything to survive. I cleaned houses. One particular christmas season, i am cleaning this ladies bathroom. Its significant because you could be cleaning a bedroom but it was the bathroom, literally the worst room in the really clean and youve got to get down and clean. While i was down cleaning, the song christmas, a. B. Please come home, came on down the hall. I asked if i heard that . Thats me on the radio. The spirit in me was, you know, you need to get back to doing that. Thats what you were placed on this earth to do. From that minute to this minute, i never looked back. Was rough. Do i really want to do this . I knew i had a design to do this. I love making my audience happy. Thats one thing i enjoy doing. I am darlene love and i am yours. Karen dont go anywhere, we have more segment and im where one more segment and i want to ask you about the christmas time song and ask you about your new album and what youre doing here in boston. . Sleep number beds with Sleepiq Technology give you the knowledge to adjust for the best sleep ever. The time is now for the biggest sale of the year, where all beds are on sale save 50 on the labor Day Limited Edition bed. Karen we were about to talk about your classic hit, your signature song christmas baby, please come home . I love you seeing you on David Letterman each year. Talk about Paul Schaffer who was a good friend of yours. That story is great story. I did a song called leader of went to broadway. Paul schaffer played in the play and i just met him so i did not know him that well yet. During the show, as he played phil spector, he invited David Letterman to see the show. He was in the audience and that night the David Letterman show is taped in the daytime. The next day on the show, David Letterman said t paul, thats the greatest Christmas Song i have ever heard. We need to have her on the show. Ive thought it was going to be that one time only. Karen it was every year. For 29 years. Karen the last time you sang on his show, he was about to retire. You could see the tears in his eyes. He loved having you there. It was a wonderful time because he started on another station and ended up on the one he had. On the other network, all of them came with him, makeup people, writers, everybody. Every year, even if i went by there just to say hey, guys when you walk in on broadway, if youre in the neighborhood, you just stop by. Is it christmas . You know it is. I said i just stopped by but it was a Family Affair at the studio. After we did the song, thed we would go to the christmas party. So we had a fellowship. We got to be friends with everybody who was a part of the television show. We were all background singers. Paul would let me say who i wanted as the background singers. You wanted to spread the love. Everybody wanted to be on the show. Karen i bet they did. First when we started doing it with the singers, one of the first singers. Karen fellowship is a term we here in the church and you are a preachers kid. You started singing in the church when you were 10 . 10 years old. Karen you have a love for gospel music. I do. Because my father was a pastor, this is another story house. We used to obey, literally. We were told to do something and we did it. The only reason i heard that kind of music is my girlfriend. I went to her house and i got to her that music that in my house, it was all gospel, all spiritual, nat king cole, that can of music. Mahalia jackson, that kind of the old, old songs. Karen the good songs. Precious lord, take my hand. Those songs do something to you. There is nothing wrong with the songs today. Karen but you feel it. You listen to those songs and you feel it. You have to move. You appeared last night at the boston pops for their annual gospel concert . Yes, what a thrill to play with almost 100 musicians. As entertainers, that is because the music has gotten so that you have synthesizers and they get car or just a piano and organ. You sing with the hops the its so exciting to do Something Like that. Karen the acoustics in that space are wonderful. They are, we dont get to do that kind of thing all the time. We dont bring our band which is ok. We use the musicians that are in the orchestra. Its a whole mother part of our business. Karen tells about the new album you have coming out. Yes, one of my good friends, stevie v band and i met him years ago and he said he needed to record me. We didnt know it would take three years. We stayed friends all along. When i am in new york singing, he comes to see my show. There is one song we sang last night called marvelous. First song stevie recorded. He asked if i ever recorded this and i said no, never. He said we are going to record it. We went to the next day in thats the strong what thats the song recorded. Karen hes whether another person who was always been in your corner. From the get go. Im not as close to Bruce Springsteen as i am to stephen. Bruce cannot get stephen can. When they had their 25th anniversary of the rock n roll hall of fame, bruce called me and asked me to be a part of it. He wanted me to sing with the e street band. Im so blessed that people want to do things like that with me. Karen you put all of these stories into a memoir. Yes. Karen tell us about that chance to relive my life and talk to family members. Keep all your pictures because they help you tell the story. I have pictures with five children sleeping in a bed when we were growing up. It was wonderful reliving all of those stories and putting it into a book. I wanted to write a book that was truthful. My name is love. Karen were almost out of time but i can talk to you for another half an hour. What advice would you give young women starting today in the business . The businesses harder today than it has ever been. A r menus to get the songs together in the studio and give you the material. Today, you have to be a businesswoman or a businessman. You have to be ready for all the pitfalls. I would say try to keep a humble spirit. Its hard to do. Karen you have to keep your head straight. Have people around you that are not afraid to tell you that does not work. Thats one thing that has kept me. I have five or six people around me all the time that will tell [laughter] when you dont, you just have a bunch of yes people and it does not help you. You know though some of the things they say to me i dont like but then i go back and i say they are right. Since the days of karen phil spector, things have changed. You write a song and you record a song in the process around the contract and who owns what has changed. Yes, big time. Someone taking this on or this one taking that song. It has become harder. Now you are the boss. You have to make right decisions. The word i use all the time is persistence. Karen thank you for being persistent, darlene love, and thank you for being with us today. I learned so much more about darlene today and you can learn more about her on our citywide page on wcvb. Com. Announcer the following is a paid presentation brought to by lift by sono bello. What do you dislike about your face . You know, i look in the mirror and i put on makeup and i would think, its the best we can do, girl. Im hugely an optimistic person. Im the glass is halffull. Thats what shows on the outside to other people. I usually take a picture with somebody, you know, with my kids or whatever, so that the focus wont be on me. I always look like im scowling. Im a friendly, outgoing person but my appearance doesnt match it. You know, you try creams. You try neck exercises. You try everything that they say is gonna work, but nothing works. Announcer like it or not,