Belinda's Happy Awakening

FROM ROCK ’N’ ROLL EXCESSES TO SPIRITUALITY AND CLEAN LIVING – 80S HIT-MAKER, BELINDA CARLISLE, OPENS UP TO PAUL EWART ABOUT LIFE AFTER ADDICTION

Heaven Is a Place on Earth, Leave a Light On, Summer Rain… Belinda Carlisle’s string of chart-toppers provided the soundtrack to much of the 80s and early 90s. And decades later, we’re still humming along to her infectious hits.

But behind the bubblegum pop songs and her clean-cut, all-American image, the star was secretly struggling with an eating disorder and drug and alcohol addiction. A battle that would last 30 years until a three-day-long cocaine binge left the then 47-year-old fearing for her life and of “being found dead in that hotel room” if she continued down the path of self destruction.

“I just knew I couldn’t continue the life that I was living,” the singer tells Good Health of her epiphany. “It was definitely a life-changing moment – the only solution I had was to move forward and to build a spiritual base to then live my life upon. It’s really something I never thought I’d say as I was the most non-spiritual person you could ever meet!”

First finding fame fronting 80s new wave girl band The Go-Go’s, in three years the band sold more than seven million albums becoming one of the most successful all-female rock bands in history. However, this rise to stardom came at a price with a young Belinda sucked into the clichéd world of the hard-partying rock star existing on a diet of sex, drugs and booze.

A labour of love

The band split up after seven years together in 1985, but the star launched a solo career that spawned hit albums well into the 90s. As she straddled the charts, her addictions continued to spiral– until more than a decade ago when she turned her life around and began her journey from a booze- and drug-addled rock ’n’ roller to a Pilates enthusiast and Kundalini yoga aficionado.