from a 1996 interview with Ted Casablanca :
 
Your outfit's fabulous. What designer are you wearing?
Hmmm, I think the pants are Paco Rabanne. And the shoes are just little Via Spigas, and this is a little top from this little store in Beverly Hills. I go in there maybe once a year, and they have little cheapie tops for, like, five dollars.

I don't think you can have a thong or anything under those pants, they're so tight.
Well, I have worn not a stitch underneath. And it's just as comfortable because the material is so nice. They're not too thin. They're just right.

Well now, I ask because I hear you're quite the clotheshorse.
Well, yeah. What's a girl to do?

So you've got some major closets?
I have major clothes. I was just at the store the other day, and the guy said, "Oh, look at this we have, and look at this." And I said, "Look, I don't have any more room in my closet. Just give me this one thing, and I'm out of here."

So you could probably give Ivana a run for her money. She has a lot of clothes.
Yeah. Her and Imelda, with the shoes.

Uh-huh.
Oh, I have to beat the band for some shoes. And they're all in boxes, and all labeled.

She has 3,000 pairs.
Oh, my God-- well, I'm still second. I don't have room for 3,000 pairs.

All right. I guess we should talk about some music here. When you first fell in love, did you think it would be forever, as you sing so well?
Um, let's see...when I first fell in love, I think I was 18. And, hmmm, yeah, I kind of did think it'd be forever.

Who was he?
He was one of the finest men, honey, in the school. He had that pretty black curly hair, and his skin was like the color of coffee and cream. He was gorgeous. I was a virgin. I had planned on, you know, having my first tryst. He picked me up from school, and we went up to his room... and wouldn't you know he had the radio on, and a song by my father came on the radio.

You're kidding. What song?
I swear to you, I can't remember.

And did that keep you from being able to do it?
No, but it freaked us out.

So you stayed and did the job?
It probably made it even better.

Are you a hopeless romantic?
Not hopeless, but a very hard-core one... the eternal optimist. And, you know, believing that love can conquer all keeps the frowns out of my forehead.

Who do you think about when you sing all those love songs?
I almost try not to let it be anyone. I know it sounds weird. It's like I put myself in the place of the messenger, so that if I wrap it up nice, it will be accessible to anyone. I can listen to any song I've done and not feel, you know, depressed or upset or wished I hadn't recorded that song because I was going with some bum then.

Have there been a lot of bums?
Quite a few. I would say that there have been four people in my life that I have truly cared about, that cared about me, that if I saw them now, I can still hug them. One of them was that first guy. One was a guy after my first husband, and another was my first husband. And then I'd say the other one is this person I'm seeing now.

And who's this?
He's the most beautiful person. We met in Beverly Hills, on the street. I was walking to have dinner with friends. He literally tried to pick me up. He did not even know who I was. He's not American, which is probably the reason. But I didn't feel, you know, offended or insulted. I thought it was such a kick. I was having the best time.

When did you decide to tell him?
Well, he asked me if I worked around that area. He said, What do you do? And I knew I had to tell him, because if someone should start coming up to me or looking at me, or maybe afterward if I left and someone said, "Oh, wasn't that Natalie Cole?" I didn't want to embarrass him.

Wasn't there a time in your life that you were trying to run from your father's legend?
Uh-huh. Like crazy. How about 15 years? It took the better part of 15 years of doing my own thing, struggling, still being compared to my father. Grammy after Grammy didn't mean shit. The extreme significance this man had in the music business was just so incredible that no matter what I did it became very, very difficult to get away from being his daughter.

By the time I decided to come around, for the Unforgettable album, I finally felt comfortable enough with myself, my ability. I was more prepared for the onslaught.

What worried him?
Oh, probably he could see that I was naive, that I was easily influenced. I wanted approval really badly, and I could only get it from him when he was around. And that led to me doing all my crazy stuff.

What was your crazy stuff?
You know, a girl who is losing her father at that age is like the pits.  It affects the way they deal, period, in their adult life, whether it's relationships, children, peers, bosses.  They always feel they have to prove something.

Were the early '80s a tough time?
Yeah, they were bad.

What happened?
Let's see, I got married in '76.  I had started experimenting with drugs in the early '70s, and that was a real bad period.  And then I went back to drug use.  The substance wasn't as bad... in the early '70s it was heroin, in the mid '70s to '80s it was cocaine.  But it was the lifestyle, the risk... taking drugs with me across the border, going out of the country.  Being so high, flipping my car a couple of times.  I could have gotten arrested.

 I take it you're pretty clean these days.
I would say I'm very clean.

Do you think you could have the success without that?
No.  I couldn't.  I mean, last year I sang with Plácido Domingo.  Come on, please, there's no way I could have experienced that. Or the fact that I was just going to get my career back.  I had to kiss ass for a while.  I had to be humiliated, but, you know, I did it.

A friend of mine saw you perform an impromptu duet at an L.A. blues club called the Mint. You sang "When a Man Loves a Woman," and he said there was something earthy in you he had never seen before.
Yeah.  A couple of months ago, I went down to Jamaica, where we did an HBO special with Sinbad, a '70s funk festival.  Me, Chakka Khan, Tower of Power.  I did all my old stuff.  And my son was there with me, and afterward he said, "Mom, you've still got it."  And I do.  I still got it.

Can you sing me something earthy now?
Let's see.  [Sings and snaps her fingers to a steady beat.]  Oh, you have...made me so very happy/Oh, baby, baby...love on my mind.  Okay?

That was wonderful. Thank you. Do you remember a song called "Woman to Woman"?
Yeah, I love that song.  [Sings.] Woman to woman/you just don't understand.  Give me some songs that tell stories like that.

Yeah. And then you start throwing your whole soul into it. And I love how she isn't afraid to say she completely supports this man.
She knows he ain't no good, but he's mine.

I love stuff that's not afraid to be politically incorrect.
Well, R&B was really all that, too.  There was just a rawness and an emotion that I think to a degree you can't fake it, you know.  You can fake pop, but real R&B is still very original, very authentic.  It's like soul food.  Black people know what good soul food tastes like.  And what happens is you open up a soul food restaurant, and white folks start coming, so you kind of tone down the spice.  Don't do that.  Give it to 'em like it's supposed to be.

source:   eonline.com