Debbie Harry reflects on life at 80
Debbie Harry has opened up about turning 80 this year, admitting she has discovered the “one bad thing about ageing”.
The Blondie frontwoman, who reaches the age milestone on July 1st, discussed growing older in a new interview, saying that she doesn’t think about it very often because she has always felt younger than her age.
“I don’t walk around thinking every minute, ‘Oh my God, I’m going be 80’—but that’s sort of how I feel,” she told The Times. “My mother used to say in her head she was 25 and I’m the same.”
Harry also said that thinking about ageing constantly “could be your downfall”, adding that she isn’t concerned with having the same life she did when she was younger because she’s already “done that”.
The singer said that “the beauty of ageing” reveals itself when you realise “you know what it’s about.” She said: “You have it in your heart and soul and your memory bank … or does that sound like an excuse? Should I go out and party every night?”
However, this realisation doesn’t mean she isn’t up for having a big party for her 80th. In fact, she plans to “have a whopping great” one with her friends and family, despite sharing that “one of the bad things” about growing older is that “everyone’s gone already”.
Reminiscing about the parties she would attend when she was younger, she recalled looking around at one particular event at the CBGB’s gallery “in the 1980s or maybe 1990s” and noticing how around half of the musicians in the photos “were gone” and “that was years ago.”
She reflected: “It’s what they call diminishing returns.”
Still, reaching 80 also comes with many benefits and moments of gratitude, as Harry also noted how she no longer experiences nervousness on stage and feels she has been “treated very generously by the fickle finger of fate.”
Evidently, the iconic rock star still thirsts to explore the many avenues in her grip and will no doubt enter her 80s with the same drive that propelled her success in the late 1970s.
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