"Any
time I have to get on a plane and leave my kids
for a few days, it's kind of tortuous," says
Easton. "I don't enjoy that aspect at all.
My priorities have changed like night and day for
me. My whole focus has shifted greatly. I've
scheduled my life so I have a lot more time at
home. But if I'm not going to work six nights a
week in Vegas, other places are asking me to come
in for one night, two nights or a weekend. The
last few dates like that have felt so weird. It's
so strange to get off a plane and look at my
watch and be aware of what my kids are doing at
that moment. It's weird doing homework with them
on the phone."
Easton, 44, has become a resident of Las Vegas
with her two adopted children, Jake, 7, and
Skylar, 8, and her husband, plastic surgeon John
Minoli, whom she married last November. In show
business since the age of 19, her life change
started to come about when she hit 30 and
discovered being at the pinnacle career-wise was
not the be-all, end-all. She needed something
more meaningful in her life, which is when her
children entered the picture.
"Being a mother had just never crossed my
mind. It was just not in the radar," Easton
admits. "My sole focus as far back as I can
remember was all about my dream to become a
singer. I was blessed in the sense that I got
handed so much early on in life. I got a lot of
the things people go through their 20s and 30s
craving. That success, that exposure, that being
on the road, the concerts — I was doing that
stuff so young that by the time I hit 30,1 felt I
had lived a couple of lifetimes. I was almost at
that jaded stage where you go, 'Is that all there
is? Is that it?' It wasn't making me emotionally
happy."
Easton says if she were wired differently, where
the social life of the industry and being on
everyone's A-list was important to her, it might
have been a different story. But she found that
packing and unpacking her bags, constantly
traveling from one strange city to another,
living on room service, got old fast. That left
her realizing she had to do two things in her
life. First, she had to make it about doing the
work she enjoyed as opposed to just doing what
yielded her financial reward. Second, she had to
incorporate something else in her life that was
going to give her satisfaction.
"It all boils down to the fact that after
enough therapy and enough looking at your life,
you realize that if it ain't making you happy
— even though other people think it should
be making you happy — you need to find
what's genuinely going to make you happy,"
Easton acknowledges. "That's when I started
to pursue Broadway, doing 'Man of La Mancha'
opposite Raoul Julia, as well as TV and the
cartoon voiceovers. It was doing things that were
exciting and new. It was a learning curve.
"That's also when I realized what I needed
to do was nurture someone in my life," she
continues. "I had never done that. My life
had been about me. It was like the biological
clock exploded. I needed to be a mother. That was
what I was supposed to be doing."
Easton says if she had been in a steady, serious
relationship at 34 or 35, she would have just
gone ahead and had kids. At that time, however,
she was coming out of yet another relationship
that wasn't working, with someone she didn't
wanted to have children with.
"So it was a case of, 'Well, you can go out
there and get pregnant or you can buy some sperm
— all the different options — or you
can adopt,'" she says.
When she really thought about, however, she found
that it wasn't important to her that her children
have 50 percent her DNA. DNA or not, they would
be her kids, period. Once she realized that,
adoption became the way for her to go. Easton
admits that one of the main things that having
her kids has changed the most for her is that she
has a vulnerability she never had before. Before
Jake and Skylar came along, there was nothing in
her life she thought could destroy her. Easton
says she was raised to be a survivor, which is
what she thinks made her an overachiever and so
successful at an early age, so determined and
driven.
By the time Easton turned 36, she had changed so
things were all falling into place. She was
sitting down in one place, realizing she could do
long stints in Vegas, on Broadway and other gigs
here and there. She maintains that at 38 or 39,
she was experiencing the happiest years of her
life.
"I realized I didn't have to have a life
that depended on my making an album and promoting
it, touring, and doing those kinds of shows,"
she says. "Even though I pretty much made my
own decisions early on, when I was younger I
tended to overbook my life. If I opened my
planner in the begin- ning of the year, it was
booked with things for the next 18 months that,
at the time, were a good idea. But nine months
later, when you're working on fumes and have 12
more commitments that month, you go, 'Oh, God,
I'm only doing this because I said I would. So
the pleasure factor drops."
Easton says she's learned not to be such a people-pleaser.
When her schedule gets overloaded, she can nicely
say no. There can be a load of gratification in
this business, both financially and emotionally,
but artists have jobs that constantly invite
comment, both positive and negative. As a result,
she learned the adulation she has received is not
as important as the true one-on-one connections
she has made in her life. Friends, family and her
kids have become her anchor.
Easton met Minoli about three years ago. They
became an item. Quipping that she was married
many times for 10 minutes, she admits she was the
queen of the drive-thru marriages and that the
union was always over by the time the french
fries were cold. While she had married for all
the wrong reasons, she and Minoli married as two
mature adults. Easton decided to marry him when
she realized he was as committed to being a
father to her kids as much as he was to being in
her life.
"We were together for a little over three
years. We never lived together because if I was
going to live with someone, I was going to get
married. We didn't tie the knot on a cloud of
romance and idealism like you do when you're 20,"
Easton muses. "We looked at the pros and
cons and decided we wanted to commit to each
other and work at a relationship. This is my
kids' first experience with an honest-to-goodness
for- ever dad. I see the difference it makes to
them and how invested they are in it. A family
has been made here and good, bad, or indifferent,
this family is going to stay together if I have
anything to do with it."
As for her future career, Easton says she still
has a big enough ego to enjoy the gratification
of knowing she can still do her job well. She
enjoys performing at the Las Vegas Hilton and
this year has moved from The Nightclub, where she
debuted two years ago, to the main room. She says
that it is no secret that a performer like
herself enjoys the intimacy of a small room,
liking the feeling of being able to see everyone
in the room and of having the audience wrapped
around her. She's getting used to the main
showroom, however, and says that her show works
in any size venue.
In her performance, Easton does a number of her
hits as well as cover tunes and personalized
songs that reflect what she feels and what's
going on in her life. She says that she feels a
great level of comfort on stage and doesn't feel
pressure to be what she thinks the audience is
expecting. She doesn't feel any pressure to
please anyone but herself, the upshot being that
by doing what makes her happy, her audiences seem
to be happy, too.
"I think the audience is responding to the
fact that they see I'm authentic now, that I'm
just me," Easton claims. "I'm not
someone who's trying to be part of the latest
trend. It gives me a great sense of freedom. It's
also nice to have been around long enough to be a
part of people's lives. I enjoy that. A lot of
people who come to my show are real nostalgic for
the '80s."
If she could, would she like to have another hit
record to her credit?
"I wouldn't consciously pursue trying to
make something for the charts," she responds.
"It's just not in my scope now. Will I
change my mind in 10 years? Maybe. I can't see it
but who knows. I've learned never to say never.
But right now I'd rather stick needles in my eyes."
"When I was working with David Cassidy at
the Rio, I made an album of updated versions of
some 1970s disco tunes," she adds. "The
songs were so much fun. The guys I worked with
were fabulous. I was able to record the album on
my own schedule, on my days off. I had a blast.
Then I had to pay the piper — what I call
the dog and pony show. The record company said
they needed me to come to Europe — Britain,
Holland, Germany, etc. — and do all the talk
shows, radio shows, all the record stuff, plus
make a video, which I hadn't done in years.
Halfway through the first week of promotion, I
looked at Harriet, my manager, and said, 'Don't
ever ask me to do this again.' It was everything
I hated."
If she could write her own ticket recording-wise,
she'd like the luxury to of being able to record
music she enjoys without having to worry about it
being commercial. She cites the fact that a
Christmas album, which she would like to do,
never makes the charts and an artist doesn't have
to worry about promotion or touring.
She doesn't worry about getting older either. The
fact that she is married to a plastic surgeon
aside, she enthuses that she's happier as she
gets older.
"I look forward to the next stage of my
life," she states.
It's one that will allow her to continue taking
charge of her own direction — the "Train"
stops here.
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