The new Stephanie Mills - singer - Interview

Ebony, Dec, 1992 by Lynn Norment

With a new attitude, a new show, a new album and a new love, former child star is finally her own woman

FOR more than a decade, Stephanie Mills was riding high on success. In the mid-70s, at age 17, she was on Broadway starring in The Wiz, for which she won rave reviews and a Tony Award. She then recorded a succession of gold and platinum albums, and won even more fans and a Grammy Award.

By the late-80s, she was rich and famous. But Stephanie Mills was also unhappy. Two marriages had failed. Millions had been stolen from her. And she was disappointed with the response to her 1988 release, Home, a title taken from her signature Wiz finale.

"The lowest point for me was when Home didn't sell as well as I thought it would," she says, sipping hot chocolate in a suite at the Mayfair Regent Hotel on Chicago's Gold Coast. "The hardest thing is for an artist to go into a studio and do an album and it not be supported like you think it should.

"I was tired of doing the same old thing; it got redundant," continued the petite, 35-year-old woman who practically grew up on stage before the eyes of millions. "But instead of wallowing in my misery, I just made some changes."

Changes, indeed. Yes, that distinctive voice is still in its prime, but the spirit is now renewed. "The Stephanie Mills of the '90s is in control of her own feelings, her own life, her own career," she says with pride. "And not just on the surface, but I'm really in control of what goes on in my life and what I do."

Stephanie Mills not only has a new attitude, but also a new album, a new love and a new manager. Shes also starring as Dorothy in an updated production of The Wiz that is touring the U.S. through May. And, most importantly, she's happy. "My life has gone through a lot of changes, some good, some bad," she says, gazing out the window onto Lake Michigan. "I learned something from all the experiences that has made me the person I am today. I've undergone a spiritual renewal from 1990 to 1992. It has been very educational to me in learning myself, through my music and through therapy. I'm really getting to know what Stephanie wants to do. Before, I was just a puppet entertainer. Things were done for me and around me. Now I control everything, and that's a good feeling."

Her new recording, Something Real, reflects the new persona. Mills did not sit back and let others choose the songs for her to sing, as she had done in the past. She maintained creative control of the project, selecting the songs herself, even writing a couple of them. Never again, says the perky entertainer, will she relinquish control to others. She attends every meeting about every aspect of her career. And, most importantly, she personally keeps tabs on her money. "I believe entertainers should know whats going on and do their own banking," she says adamantly. "Yes, millions have been taken from me. If you are not on top of it and you make a lot of money, and you trust business managers to be honest with you and tell you whats going on, then, yes, money will be taken from you.

But she is not bitter about the losses. "I've never been a money kind of person," she says. "I'm still young and I have myself, so I don't really worry about it."

Mills credits her spiritual renewal to two years of therapy and reading Marianne Williamson's popular book, Return To Love. "I've been in therapy for two to three years, and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me," she confesses. "You really learn about yourself and it helps you realize why people act the way they do. Sometimes things that happened in the past, in your childhood, are suppressed and subconsciously come out in your behavior. If you find a good therapist whom you can talk to and express yourself to, therapy can help you grow in so many ways. Fears that you have will just disappear."

The fear of dissolution of yet another relationship is what actually pushed Mills to seek therapy. She was married in the '70s for a brief period, and again in the mid-80s. Both marriages ended in less than two years. "I had failed at marriage for the second time, and marriage is very important to me," she says of her decision to seek therapy. "But I realized that it wasn't [the men] so much as it was me. I had a problem, growing up in the business the way I grew up. There was a lot of anger inside of me due to things that had happened in the business. I didn't want to become hard and angry. I knew I needed help and I couldn't help myself. I needed to see someone who could help me understand my behavior." She pauses and pours more hot chocolate into the white china cup.

"And I also wanted to know why my relationships never made it to two years. 1 knew it was me. You can't blame it on another person. That's where a lot of women go wrong... carrying over from a bad relationship to a new relationship."

As an entertainer, Mills says it is difficult for her to meet compatible men, especially because "I don't drink, I don't smoke and I don't party." She adds that most men she meets aren't content with a social life that revolves around movies, shopping, museums and an occasional outing to the theater. "And honesty and trust are big factors for me," she says. "And it has to be a spiritual person. It has to be someone who has God as the center of his life to be a mate for me."