‘Half as wild’

Eighties rock icon Kim Wilde wants to do it again: she presents herself in top form with her new album ‘Never say never’. The not so wild Kim in the Durchblick-interview about the highlights of her career, painful situations and the beautiful landscape of Austria.

To begin with, the now 46 year old Kimberley Smith is an unbelievably beautiful person, who also has something fragile about her. And one who has already had two careers and may have another one in sight: since the eighties she rocks as Kim Wilde on the stages of the world, and since the end of the nineties she is as a mother of two children an expert of gardens and plants on the English television. She has also written books like ‘Gardening with children’.

‘The landscape here in Austria is beautiful! There are so many roses here’, she exclaims, since gardening is a matter of her heart now. It’s the same with music: she has recently signed a new recording contract. ‘I never thought I would record another album’, she laughs. But three years ago she stormed the charts with Nena: ‘Anyplace, anywhere, anytime’ delived the sympathetic Kim her second career in music. That, while she has already achieved everything there is to achieve in that field. Also the dream of many musicians: having a number one hit in the USA.

Kim, do you remember when you had this first number one in America?
Yes, I do. But it wasn’t a good day…

Why?
I was at the dentist during that day, so the hit was only a side thing at the time.

Still, the day was one of the founding stones of her successful career, with kids like ‘Kids in America’, ‘Cambodia’ and ‘You came’.

The time for our interview is almost over, the record company representative is looking at the watch. But Kim is in the middle of our chat and tells some hilarious tales…

What was the most painful incident during all those years?
That must have been during a performance in Belgium. My brother was in the audience and I introduced him and dedicated the next song to him, then I totally forgot the lyrics. So I sang ‘la la la’ for most of that song.

But there’s a better one:
When I started out at 20, getting famous in England, I met a star producer in London. I spontaneously invited him to a party I was organising that night. I lived with my parents at the time, in kindof a boring area. And so the party ended pretty early on in the evening, like is customary in that area. At half past eleven I was fast asleep. The next morning my father was pretty mad at me, because the star producer arrived at one with his girlfriend, coming especially from London for the occasion. And my father simply drove him away. I didn’t notice any of that and was very embarrassed about it. I would never become a rock star like that, I said to my dad…

But she did become a star.
With blind people Kim has many positive experiences: ‘One of my babysitters was blind and her husband learned her to do her own make-up. I thought it was fantastic how she got along without seeing herself, and she always looked great. I admired her for that.