Starting out really punk came from not knowing any better and listening to music like that, not knowing how to play music – well, still not knowing how to play music.
BETH DITTOStarting out really punk came from not knowing any better and listening to music like that, not knowing how to play music – well, still not knowing how to play music.
BETH DITTOI can take care of a house, and some people I meet, I think, ‘You don’t even know how to make a bed.
BETH DITTOI don’t have a good attention span and can’t spend long in record stores or video shops or games emporiums without getting grumpy.
BETH DITTOFor my group of friends is Lady Gaga eye-opening? No. She’s a less dangerous version of what was so cool about pop culture in the 80s. Back then it was so gay and so punk in so many ways.
BETH DITTOSomeone told me once that Lucinda Williams takes six years between albums, and that’s what stuck to me; it’s like, you really are a factory. You don’t do things to make them, on your own time.
BETH DITTOThe shape is the most important to me because it is what really matters and what’s really missing in the market. Anything else is easier.
BETH DITTOI have no control over what people think of me but I have 100% control of what I think of myself.
BETH DITTOWhen you get a certain amount of media attention, I think people are like, “Where’s your other album?”
BETH DITTOYou know how people love to glamorize poverty? There’s nothing glamorous about it. But it did make me really creative. Those days, I was literally taking t-shirts in the day and sewing them back together to make dresses for the night.
BETH DITTOTo be thin and to stay really thin, sometimes some people literally do coke all the time. Some people smoke cigarettes instead of eating. That’s crazy. But that’s ‘okay’ because you look healthier.
BETH DITTOWe all seek approval, and our mother’s seal is usually the most important. The nitty gritty is that we have to accept ourselves, even if it is just to be ready for the next cut-down. Mom’s blessing or not.
BETH DITTOHigh school wasn’t so bad though because, by then, I had worked out that there were far more nerdy kids and poor kids than there were rich, popular kids, so, at the very least, we had them outnumbered.
BETH DITTOAs a kid, I was always mad – just noticing the women at Thanksgiving, running around the kitchen, while the men were watching football. For one, I don’t want to cook, and for two, I hate football. I was stuck in the middle.
BETH DITTOI’m naturally a mousy blonde, so I dye my hair, and my eyebrows would disappear if I didn’t get through at least a pencil a month.
BETH DITTOProducts are a must – full stop. I’m sorry to say it, but that bob won’t look so sleek on its own – you need a little help. It doesn’t have to be the high-end stuff that they sell in the salon. Products you find in the supermarket are just as good, and sometimes better.
BETH DITTOMy size has helped make me an amazing performer too. The cliche of the Funny Fat Friend: I absolutely was that character – I am that character… It’s a complicated bag of tools I acquired, and I’ve put them all to work onstage.
BETH DITTO