This is later with Lee Matthews the Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear weekday
Afternoons on the Drive. She was born six weeks before the Monterey Pop Festival
in nineteen sixty seven. Owen Elliott Kogel was seven when her mom, iconic
singer songwriter Cass Elliott, died suddenly. And now almost fifty years later,
the long awaited, deeply affecting memoir by her is out. It's called My
Mama, Cass. Owen Elliott Kugel. Welcome, Good to have you here.
Hi, good morning. I can only imagine with your mother as happy
as she always seemed, and as in love with music as she always was.
Your house was always filled with music. That's a very fair estimation.
My house, my mom's house, was always filled with music and people and
all kinds of fun stuff, lots of food. You know, it was
the place to be. You and I are about the same age, So
I do remember that era, that era of hey, let's uh, let's
all get together, let's all have great music, and let's let's make music
that means something. Yeah, ideally, the back then music was like that.
It's I don't think it's quite the same now. But I saying things
like that just you know, isolate me generationally. Well same here owhen Elliott
Google's with us. Uh the memoir she's written about her mother, Mama cass
Elliott is my mama cass How did how did she get that nickname? Uh?
Well, my mom was. My grandfather used to call my mom Cassandra,
who is a Greek goddess and she's been so that was a nickname that
he had given her, and it kind of kind of stuck. My grandfather
was one of those people that gave everybody a nickname. He called my he
called my uncle after the character as My grandfather was one of those guys that
just always, you know, had a great nickname, and he called her
Casandra. Do you remember what your grandparents' reaction to your mother's success in the
music industry, what that was like. Well, unfortunately, my grandfather passed
in nineteen sixty three, so I didn't get a chance to meet him.
But my grandmother was just so so so proud of her and had every record
album she ever made, and she was every bit the you know, the
very proud mom. I mean, when I think about the fact that my
great grandmother came to America in you know, nineteen thirteen nineteen fourteen to make
her fortune, and two generations later, her granddaughter has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. I mean, I would call that a successful trip
to the United States, wouldn't you. Absolutely, it's about the It's about
Mama Cass Elliott. It's a memoir written by her daughter, Owen Elliott kogele
My Mama Cass, a memoir out everywhere you get books. There are a
lot of myths that surrounded what became kind of known as a decadent lifestyle with
your mother and mamas and papas. I'm sorry I didn't catch the question.
I heard decadent lifestyle. But well the question is what were some of the
myths that you wanted to dispel in this memoir? Oh? Okay, yeah,
Well the biggest myth that I wanted to spell is the myth about the
ham sandwich and about my mother choking on hand sandwich and dying. And that's
not how she passed. She passed due to a heart attack. She stayed
up for many, many hours after her last performance at the London Palladium and
you know, definitely burned a candle at both ends and had a heart attack
died in her sleep. My Mama cast the memoir from Owen Elliott Kugele,
Mama Cass's daughter. What were some of the songs she would sing to you?
Oh? You know, that's actually something that people ask me a lot
my mom. My mom sang for a living, so she wasn't really coming
home and singing to me per se. It wasn't. She didn't sing me
dream a little dream of me to go to sleep. That just wasn't our
family. Wasn't the way our family worked. She worked all the time,
so she really kind of wasn't there a lot when I was getting put to
bed at night? Where were you? Were you at your aunt's house or
your grandmother's? No, no, no. I lived with my mom until
I was seven, and at when she passed, I moved in with my
aunt and my uncle. My grandmother lived. My grandmother lived on the East
coast. We lived on the West coast, So after my mom passed,
my grandmother moved to the West coast. Owen Elliott Coogle My Mama Cass is
the name of her memoir about the famous singer, and she was starting to
kind of break out on her own and get out of that Mama's and Papa's
shadow. With her first solo hit, make your Own kind of Music,
well she was, I mean she was. She had finally really started to
be recognized other than Mama Cass, although the monika was something that that definitely
stuck. I do believe had she been given the gift of a longer life,
she would have been able to shed that moniker much easier than she was.
So she did. She really dream Little Dream of Me was the first
single that she put out the solo artists. But she really chose really wonderful
songs with positive lyrics. You know, almost every one of the songs that
she chose for herself had a positive lyric, you know, like New World
Coming, like make her Own kind of music. All those songs, the
lyrics really speak to very positive you know stuff, and I think she really
loved that. Her style, too, was almost nineteen forty is a big
band lead vocalist kind of you know, kind of that that powerful voice you
had, you know, back in the day you had to have that powerful
voice to penetrate the radio, and she had that powerful voice that could sing
that kind of music. Oh yeah, her voice definitely lent herself, lent
itself to you know, those types of songs. So that's why songs like
dream Little Dream of Me, which you know it was not the first time
that song had been recorded. Yeah, she really made it her own,
you know. She she had kind of a she has one of those voices.
It was very it could really do a lot of different things in different
styles. Oh and Elliott Kugele My Mama Casts a memoir. Yeah, it's
a shame she didn't live long enough to do like a jazz or standards album.
She'd have been so good at it, oh gosh, and play Vegas.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, she'd be doing all kinds of things.
You know. I actually like to sit and think what would she have
done, you know what, what possibly you know, what kind of career
would she had been looking at? You know, and I'd like to think
that she'd be looking at something along the lines of a bet Middler. Yeah,
well, you know someone like that who just you know all is just
working and doing what she loves born she was. Oh And Elliottkugele is the
author of the long awaited, mythbusting and deeply affecting memoir Mama, My Mama
Casts a memoir. And I recently saw a video on YouTube of her and
John Denver and I guess it was on one of John Denver's specials in the
early seventies singing jet Plane. She was the perfect for the accompaniment of jet
plane. Oh yeah, well, she sounded great singing with any any man.
If you think about you know them, the Mamas and the Papas,
and even preceding that with the Big Three and with the Mugwamps. You know,
they were what did she say, they were just you know, they
were diverse. They were sexually diverse, if that's if that's what they're putting
in you know. Owen Elliott Cougle. The name of the memoir is My
Mama Casts. If you love the behind the scenes stories like this, like
I do about some of the greats of the era, you will love this
as a summer read, and it's available everywhere you get books. Owen Elliott
Coogle, thank you for joining us, Thanks for having me. Thanks for
listening to Later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to
listen to the Drive Live weekday afternoon is from five to seven. An iHeartMedia presentation