In a recent interview with BBC’s Sarah Montague, Grace Jones clarified her stance on a few contemporary pop acts, an elaboration that was prompted after an accusatory excerpt from her upcoming memoir, I’ll Never Write My Memoirs, was published in Time Out London. In this passage, she’d spoken particularly of one pop star, saying:
I remember when one of the singers on the list of those who came after me first said that she wanted to work with me. Everyone around me is going: ‘You have to do it, it will be so good for you, it will introduce you to a whole new audience, you will make a lot of money’. No! It will be good for her; she will draw from everything I have built and add it to her brand, and I will get nothing back except for a little temporary attention. No one could believe that I said no, but I am okay on my own. I am okay not worrying about a new audience. If the fuck don’t feel right, don’t fuck it.
Said singer, it seems from the interview, was likely Lady Gaga; when Montague asked Jones why she turned down the offer to collaborate with Gaga, Jones tried to deflect by saying she “says no a lot”; when further pressed as to whether there was any temptation, Jones finally answered with an acerbic and defiant “no” before going on to describe how Gaga is “too affected” and “still looking for herself.”
But is there any contemporary pop star by whom Jones is inspired and would conceivably entertain the thought of a collaboration? “[Adele]’s genuine,” Jones praises, “you can feel it. You can’t fake it.”
I’ll Never Write My Memoirs will be released on September 24th, 2015 via Simon & Schuster UK.