EXCLUSIVE: Cher's Darkest Days Exposed — Diva, 78, Was Left Marooned Like 'Rudderless Ship' Before She Shot to Fame… Following Horrific Piece of Advice About Her Iconic Voice
The singer revealed she first asked her brith father a question about his shoes when meeting him for the first time.
Dec. 6 2024, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Cher was forced to believe her singing career was doomed when a teacher declared her voice was "too quirky" for any genre.
In Part 1 of her bombshell memoir, the singer detailed the crushing moment she was axed from the lead role in her school play, "shoved" into the chorus, and told her “quirky” voice would never fit in — a blow that nearly shattered her dreams, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The singer revealed a teacher at her prep school criticized her 'unique' voice after casting her.
While attending Montclair College Prep School in Los Angeles as a teenager, Cher said she was both excited and nervous to audition for her school's production of The Mikado.
After "working up the courage" to try out for the lead role of Yum-Yum, the now-Pop Goddess said she was "devastated" when she was cast in the chorus instead.
Cher admitted to feeling like she found a missing puzzle piece when meeting her birth father.
Her teacher, Mr. di Fiori, told Cher she was a "contralto" – meaning her voice's register was considered the lowest of the female range.
He slammed: "Your register is too low to sing with the girls but not low enough to sing with the boys."
Cher noted how her lower voice was a "quirk" she would continue to "dog" for years, adding how it led her to believe her career was over before it began.
She wrote: "I thought, 'Okay, so it's over.'"
Later in the book, Cher admitted that while she thought her "voice was a talent", she never thought it was good enough to secure her a place in the music industry.
She said: "I'd discovered that it was too unusual to fit in anywhere, which threw me.
"If I couldn't even get a place in a high school production, what hope did I have of being the acting, singing sensation I was destined to become?"
The singer then admitted she "felt like a ruderless ship" as she metaphorically "bumped against one rock and then another before being knocked back by yet another wave".
She asked herself: "Jeeze Cher, what the hell is to become of you?"
Cher went on to marry Sonny Bono in 1964 and the two welcomed one child, Chaz, before splitting in 1975.
Shortly after the confidence blow, things started to take a turn once she met songwriter Sonny Bono – who recognized her talent early on.
Cher detailed her first meeting with Bono elsewhere in the book, which didn't exactly go as some fans may think.
It wasn't love at first sight for the couple, who were later married for over a decade – in fact, she wasn't even physically attracted to him, and he was more interested in chasing her gay friend.
Bono "wasn't the tall, handsome" man she expected from the commotion he caused that first day he showed up to join her and some friends at a coffee shop.
However, Cher said "everyone else in the room faded" when she saw him and said he was "the most interesting man she'd ever seen".
The hitmaker admitted: "It wasn't love at first sight. I just thought this guy was special."
While Cher said everyone "loved" Bono, he was immediately drawn to and fascinated by her "knockout brunette" friend, Melissa.
However, Melissa's sexuality meant she was far from being interested in Bono.
Cher explained: "Saying little, I watched him chatting up Melissa like a pro and admired the way he put everyone around him at ease. What he didn't know was that although he amused Melissa, he wasn't her type – she was gay."
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The Grammy winner has gone into detail about being suicidal during her marriage to Bono.
Cher went on to live and work with Sonny after bopping around with different friends, although her mom wasn't too happy with her 16-year-old daughter shacking up with a man 10 years her senior.
While they were friends for a while at the start, they got married in 1964 and divorced in 1975, welcoming one child, Chaz, along the way.
The collaborators had an incredibly tumultuous relationship, with Cher even admitting in her memoir to having suicidal thoughts while married to Bono.
Bono, who went on to serve as the 16th mayor of Palm Springs, California, died in January 1998.
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