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This is Later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast more what you Hear weekday

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afternoons on the Drive. Gloria Gaynor
is a superstar no matter how you look

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at it, But unlike many of
her other contemporaries of the day, she

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is still around. As her song
says, she will survive. And that's

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the title of a new documentary that
features the life and times of Gloria Gaynor.

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Only on Tuesday the thirteenth, she
joins us, Now, how are

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you hello? I'm great things,
how are you fantastic? I wanted to

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start with most artists of your generation, Gloria got their start in gospel music.

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But you kind of went the other
way around, didn't you. Yes,

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I did. I did. My
mother was inundated with church and decided

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that she wasn't gonna do that to
her children and did take us go to

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church at all. So I was
very little church in my life. Once

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in a while i'd go with my
grandmother, but yeah, no church.

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That's funny too, because that's where
children are usually first exposed to music,

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singing the hymns, enjoying how they
make you feel, and the joy of

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music. Yes, absolutely so.
How did well. I mean I did

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get a bit of that. I'd
go once in a while with my grandmother.

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But yeah, But then, how
did music start for you? Then?

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Did you know at an early age
you were music was for you started

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with my brothers. My brothers all
all had great voices, and they all

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sang together. They wouldn't let me
sing with them because I was a girl.

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Well you look great, by the
way. When I first saw the

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publicity shot, I thought, wow, did they get Tony Braxton to play

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Gloria? No? No, you
talk about your life and time and it's

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been a long, a long row
for you. But at the same time,

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your your main song, your staple
song. I mean you had a

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lot, but the staple song is
I Will Survive. Did you have any

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inkling because I see it used in
a lot of cancer survivor advertisements and programs.

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Did you have any idea that it
would be glammed onto by the cancer

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survivor community like it would? Well, No, I did it never thought

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about that. I just thought that
it would be grabbed by and and and

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and used by people who were going
through anything in their lives that they felt

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was insurmountable and yet hope they survived. And so when you first saw the

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song and we're going to perform the
song, did that grab you? Or

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did the fact that it was kind
of a disco tune grab you? No,

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we grab me? Was the lyrics? Yeah, Because I was to

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the to the producers to record a
different song that the record company and president

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had shown and I asked them what
would be the B side and they showed

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me the lyrics. But I Will
Survive, and I thought it were stupid.

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I mean, this is a hit
song because I was relating it to

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the fact that I was standing there
in a back brace after having had surgery

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on my spine, and the fact
that my mother had passed away recently,

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And so I felt that everybody would
relate to that song whatever it is they

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were going through and hope they would
survive well. And they do really,

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And I know it was born of
that disco era and certainly got a lot

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of play in the disco clubs,
but it's not one of those disco songs.

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When you hear it, you think
disco. You think of the inspirational

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lyrics exactly exactly, very strong,
very good lyrics. Wish I could say

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I'd written it Gloria Gainer I Will
Survive, the documentary about her life and

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faith and hope and magnificent second act
out in theaters on Tuesday, Tuesday,

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Only you do talk about your paralysis. Let's let's talk about how that came

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about. Well, I was performing
at the biggest theater in New York City

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and doing one of the skips on
the show. I fell backwards over a

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monitor, but I jumped back up
and finished the show and went out to

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breakfast with my group afterwards, and
went home, went to bed, w

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to sleep, woke up the next
morning paralyzed on the waist down. Oh

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my goodness. So it was a
severe back injury. Luckily you were able

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to have surgery and correct it.
Yeah. Yeah, backbreak for three months

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doing which at which time I recorded
I Will Survive. And so was that

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a painful process? It was a
very painful process because I was, like

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I said, it was a hospital
for three months doing all kinds of testing.

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Some of the testing itself was very
painful, and of course it was

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painful after the surgery and final fusion, had to wear a back brace for

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three months, and I was in
that brace when I recorded I Will Survive,

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which was what I was relating one
of the things I was relating to

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the song, and how I recognized
that other people will relate difficult things that

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they were going through to the song
as well. Gloria Gaynor with us I

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Will Survive. It is out in
theaters now well on one night, one

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night only, and that is Tuesday. And in it you are joined by

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many of your contemporaries in the business. I'm joined by a great gospel artist

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who I was so happy and pleased
to join on the event. Bart Millard

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and Jason Krabb and Mike Farris and
Alana Adams all came to help me on

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this project, and I was so
very very happy because they are megastars and

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I was really really pleased to have
them join me. Is blessed? You

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also completed a college degree. Was
it in music? No, the college

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degree was in psychology. Because I
was raised without a father. I wanted

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to start an organization or support an
organization that is helping young fathers estranged fathers

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to understand how important it is that
they be in the lives of their children,

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whether they live with them or not. And I wanted to have some

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background that these young fellas would you
know, and not think I was some

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idiot, you know, just trying
to you know, palm off. You

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know, I don't know what they
would have thought of me. I think

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they would look at me and think
of their baby mama. I tried to

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get some you know, some credentials
behind and some wisdom knowledge behind what I

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was trying to share with them,
Gloria Gain or I Will Survive. And

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you see all of this in the
documentary It is on Tuesday night, Tuesday

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night only and in theaters only,
and your gospel album. What made you

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decide to come back to gospel,
not that you were ever there in the

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first place, but like I said
started the conversation, most start in gospel

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work their way out, and you
went the other way around. So what

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made you go back to gospel?
What made me go to gospel music was

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my faith and recognizing that even with
I Will Survive, it has been my

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faith that has carried me through all
of the difficult times in my life.

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God has been there for me one
hundred percent of the time, was one

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hundred percent of the way, and
I wanted to share that with other people

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through my music. And my previous
management kept telling me, you know I

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wanted to do it for years,
but kept stalling me. But the new

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management had respect for me and my
designs and desires for my life, felt

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that I had something to offer in
the gospel market and was willing to help

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me accomplish. That got a wrap
and actually I Will Survive Imagine could be

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arranged as a gospel song. I
thank you for joining us, Gloria Gainer

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will be watching your documentary on Tuesday
the thirteenth. Thank you so much,

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I bless thanks for listening to Later
with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven

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