How did you come to grips with the fact that, despite having this wonderful new album to promote, you know you’re going to be asked about Wonder Woman.
Well, yeah! There’s not one time in my life that I have ever been on an interview and have not been asked about Wonder Woman. If I made it a problem for myself, I would be wasting my time! Wonder Woman was great! It’s like, “Go with the flow, baby!” People love that character. It’s a way people want to communicate with me. It’s kind of like dissing them to say, “I don’t want to talk about that.” Then it’s like, “Well, get over yourself!” I’ve always found it a huge waste of time to be bitter over something you can’t change. Why not embrace it? I figured that out 30 years ago. I have two choices: try to run from it or embrace it.

How many times have you seen drag queens dressed as Wonder Woman?
You know, there are some that are really at the top of their . . . A lot. Let’s just say “a lot.” There’s an identification with the character and the secret self. I get it. I get the homage. I suppose they’re playing the character in no different way than I did. I’m not her either, but I’m known as playing her and identified with her. It’s a great thing to be identified with!

On a very personal note, you’ve talked openly about your struggles with alcohol addiction.
Right.

Statistics show gays and lesbians have a higher rate of drug and alcohol addiction than heterosexuals.
I did not know that.

Would you share a little of your experience, strength and hope around that subject?
Well, the statistics I was not aware of, and it’s not surprising actually. All it takes is to go to any AA meeting, and you see famous people, motorcycle riders, doctors, lawyers, guys who work for the CIA or FBI, a general in the military. You see men, women and young people of all ages, and once again, so much of it is trying to mask feelings. When you are trying to avoid facing yourself, your feelings and when others around you are asking you to behave in a certain way because of religion or whatever, it’s very frightening. Alcohol addiction, drug addiction and violent behavior are much more prevalent in societies where the government is a religious government because it’s a narrow road. There’s no way it can include or “rule” in a way where everyone fits into that narrow, narrow, narrow place. [There is] lack of tolerance for anyone deviating from a very narrow road. I would hope that within the gay and lesbian community, I know there are a lot of places for AA meetings. My own addiction, I was so predisposed. I didn’t really start drinking until my late 20s. It was so prevalent on my mother’s side. I just couldn’t believe it -- I was drinking differently than anybody I knew – but I didn’t believe it was something I couldn’t handle, because “I could handle anything.” We all need help in various ways.

I was particularly curious, because I’m personally a little over five years sober.
Congratulations!

Thank you! When I found out about your struggles with sobriety, I wanted your perspective.
Well, you know, each of us have to do it in our own way, but there is almost this secret community I discovered when I started going to [12-step] meetings. You feel so alone when you’re in the middle of it, then there are all these people willing to help you. It all still comes down to ourselves. That’s the thing I think I would encourage in our lives: take charge of your own life and be responsible for your own feelings and behavior. Don’t always blame everybody else.

So after nearly 30 years of wanting to record a new album, what’s it like to have it completed?
It’s fantastic! What’s interesting about it is that I did an album that sold three copies. (Giggles.) That was a joke. I did some recording work and started in the recording industry singing jingles when I moved to L.A. I was working as a low-paying background singer and working with these studio musicians I knew who had these little gigs and things. When I moved to L.A., they said, “Don’t tell anyone you’re a singer, because producers don’t want to hire singers who are trying to be actors.” So I didn’t tell anyone. Then I got famous and went back to singing. Then it was, “Recording people don’t want actors who think they can sing.” (Laughs.) And that was fine. I’ve achieved mostly everything I’ve ever set my mind on doing. More importantly than that, I just sent my youngest off to college. They’re happy, they’re healthy and I’m married to a great guy. When it came time and I went back into singing, the initial thought was not to make an album like I was deciding to record again. It was more to archive where I was when I came back to singing. As it progressed, and I began singing more things, I really wasn’t happy with some of the choices of music and the mixing. So I went to Tennessee, and I recorded new things. Then I decided it took a little bit of both to describe where I was at the time I completed the album. I think it’s the same for any person that has a creative work. It defines more about who they are when the project was finished than the person they are during the year or so it takes to get the work out, the film finished, the painting in the gallery, the album out to the public. That being said, I’m very happy with the finished product!

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