WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.040 --> 00:00:09.960
This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast More what You Hear weekday

2
00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:14.599
Afternoons on the Drive. She was
born six weeks before the Monterey Pop Festival

3
00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:19.039
in nineteen sixty seven. Owen Elliott
Kogel was seven when her mom, iconic

4
00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:24.120
singer songwriter Cass Elliott, died suddenly. And now almost fifty years later,

5
00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:29.120
the long awaited, deeply affecting memoir
by her is out. It's called My

6
00:00:29.480 --> 00:00:34.159
Mama, Cass. Owen Elliott Kugel. Welcome, Good to have you here.

7
00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:38.159
Hi, good morning. I can
only imagine with your mother as happy

8
00:00:38.200 --> 00:00:42.200
as she always seemed, and as
in love with music as she always was.

9
00:00:42.759 --> 00:00:49.560
Your house was always filled with music. That's a very fair estimation.

10
00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:53.799
My house, my mom's house,
was always filled with music and people and

11
00:00:55.240 --> 00:00:58.840
all kinds of fun stuff, lots
of food. You know, it was

12
00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.039
the place to be. You and
I are about the same age, So

13
00:01:02.079 --> 00:01:06.640
I do remember that era, that
era of hey, let's uh, let's

14
00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:11.239
all get together, let's all have
great music, and let's let's make music

15
00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:18.840
that means something. Yeah, ideally, the back then music was like that.

16
00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:22.280
It's I don't think it's quite the
same now. But I saying things

17
00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:29.000
like that just you know, isolate
me generationally. Well same here owhen Elliott

18
00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:32.680
Google's with us. Uh the memoir
she's written about her mother, Mama cass

19
00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:38.879
Elliott is my mama cass How did
how did she get that nickname? Uh?

20
00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:45.159
Well, my mom was. My
grandfather used to call my mom Cassandra,

21
00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:49.640
who is a Greek goddess and she's
been so that was a nickname that

22
00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:53.560
he had given her, and it
kind of kind of stuck. My grandfather

23
00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:59.079
was one of those people that gave
everybody a nickname. He called my he

24
00:01:59.159 --> 00:02:06.120
called my uncle after the character as
My grandfather was one of those guys that

25
00:02:06.319 --> 00:02:08.039
just always, you know, had
a great nickname, and he called her

26
00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:15.000
Casandra. Do you remember what your
grandparents' reaction to your mother's success in the

27
00:02:15.080 --> 00:02:21.639
music industry, what that was like. Well, unfortunately, my grandfather passed

28
00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:24.159
in nineteen sixty three, so I
didn't get a chance to meet him.

29
00:02:24.240 --> 00:02:31.280
But my grandmother was just so so
so proud of her and had every record

30
00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:38.319
album she ever made, and she
was every bit the you know, the

31
00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:42.759
very proud mom. I mean,
when I think about the fact that my

32
00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:50.919
great grandmother came to America in you
know, nineteen thirteen nineteen fourteen to make

33
00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:57.639
her fortune, and two generations later, her granddaughter has a star on the

34
00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:01.840
Hollywood Walk of Fame. I mean, I would call that a successful trip

35
00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:07.560
to the United States, wouldn't you. Absolutely, it's about the It's about

36
00:03:07.599 --> 00:03:12.159
Mama Cass Elliott. It's a memoir
written by her daughter, Owen Elliott kogele

37
00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:15.439
My Mama Cass, a memoir out
everywhere you get books. There are a

38
00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:23.240
lot of myths that surrounded what became
kind of known as a decadent lifestyle with

39
00:03:23.280 --> 00:03:30.199
your mother and mamas and papas.
I'm sorry I didn't catch the question.

40
00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:35.199
I heard decadent lifestyle. But well
the question is what were some of the

41
00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:38.840
myths that you wanted to dispel in
this memoir? Oh? Okay, yeah,

42
00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:44.960
Well the biggest myth that I wanted
to spell is the myth about the

43
00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:51.879
ham sandwich and about my mother choking
on hand sandwich and dying. And that's

44
00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:57.240
not how she passed. She passed
due to a heart attack. She stayed

45
00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:02.400
up for many, many hours after
her last performance at the London Palladium and

46
00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:09.439
you know, definitely burned a candle
at both ends and had a heart attack

47
00:04:10.039 --> 00:04:15.080
died in her sleep. My Mama
cast the memoir from Owen Elliott Kugele,

48
00:04:15.319 --> 00:04:19.240
Mama Cass's daughter. What were some
of the songs she would sing to you?

49
00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:25.040
Oh? You know, that's actually
something that people ask me a lot

50
00:04:25.560 --> 00:04:29.720
my mom. My mom sang for
a living, so she wasn't really coming

51
00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:33.759
home and singing to me per se. It wasn't. She didn't sing me

52
00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:38.920
dream a little dream of me to
go to sleep. That just wasn't our

53
00:04:39.079 --> 00:04:45.079
family. Wasn't the way our family
worked. She worked all the time,

54
00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:47.560
so she really kind of wasn't there
a lot when I was getting put to

55
00:04:47.639 --> 00:04:50.839
bed at night? Where were you? Were you at your aunt's house or

56
00:04:50.879 --> 00:04:56.680
your grandmother's? No, no,
no. I lived with my mom until

57
00:04:56.680 --> 00:05:00.839
I was seven, and at when
she passed, I moved in with my

58
00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:05.160
aunt and my uncle. My grandmother
lived. My grandmother lived on the East

59
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:10.199
coast. We lived on the West
coast, So after my mom passed,

60
00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:15.079
my grandmother moved to the West coast. Owen Elliott Coogle My Mama Cass is

61
00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:17.920
the name of her memoir about the
famous singer, and she was starting to

62
00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:21.600
kind of break out on her own
and get out of that Mama's and Papa's

63
00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:28.000
shadow. With her first solo hit, make your Own kind of Music,

64
00:05:30.600 --> 00:05:34.600
well she was, I mean she
was. She had finally really started to

65
00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:41.399
be recognized other than Mama Cass,
although the monika was something that that definitely

66
00:05:41.439 --> 00:05:46.439
stuck. I do believe had she
been given the gift of a longer life,

67
00:05:46.040 --> 00:05:51.279
she would have been able to shed
that moniker much easier than she was.

68
00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:58.600
So she did. She really dream
Little Dream of Me was the first

69
00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:06.399
single that she put out the solo
artists. But she really chose really wonderful

70
00:06:06.480 --> 00:06:12.120
songs with positive lyrics. You know, almost every one of the songs that

71
00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:16.199
she chose for herself had a positive
lyric, you know, like New World

72
00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:19.480
Coming, like make her Own kind
of music. All those songs, the

73
00:06:19.560 --> 00:06:25.839
lyrics really speak to very positive you
know stuff, and I think she really

74
00:06:25.879 --> 00:06:32.360
loved that. Her style, too, was almost nineteen forty is a big

75
00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:39.000
band lead vocalist kind of you know, kind of that that powerful voice you

76
00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.439
had, you know, back in
the day you had to have that powerful

77
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.319
voice to penetrate the radio, and
she had that powerful voice that could sing

78
00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:50.519
that kind of music. Oh yeah, her voice definitely lent herself, lent

79
00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:55.920
itself to you know, those types
of songs. So that's why songs like

80
00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:58.879
dream Little Dream of Me, which
you know it was not the first time

81
00:06:58.920 --> 00:07:01.120
that song had been recorded. Yeah, she really made it her own,

82
00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:04.600
you know. She she had kind
of a she has one of those voices.

83
00:07:04.600 --> 00:07:09.879
It was very it could really do
a lot of different things in different

84
00:07:09.879 --> 00:07:14.040
styles. Oh and Elliott Kugele My
Mama Casts a memoir. Yeah, it's

85
00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.480
a shame she didn't live long enough
to do like a jazz or standards album.

86
00:07:16.519 --> 00:07:20.439
She'd have been so good at it, oh gosh, and play Vegas.

87
00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:25.839
Yeah, I mean, yeah,
she'd be doing all kinds of things.

88
00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:30.160
You know. I actually like to
sit and think what would she have

89
00:07:30.279 --> 00:07:32.399
done, you know what, what
possibly you know, what kind of career

90
00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:34.800
would she had been looking at?
You know, and I'd like to think

91
00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:39.279
that she'd be looking at something along
the lines of a bet Middler. Yeah,

92
00:07:39.319 --> 00:07:43.199
well, you know someone like that
who just you know all is just

93
00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:47.319
working and doing what she loves born
she was. Oh And Elliottkugele is the

94
00:07:47.360 --> 00:07:53.120
author of the long awaited, mythbusting
and deeply affecting memoir Mama, My Mama

95
00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:59.879
Casts a memoir. And I recently
saw a video on YouTube of her and

96
00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:03.600
John Denver and I guess it was
on one of John Denver's specials in the

97
00:08:03.639 --> 00:08:07.279
early seventies singing jet Plane. She
was the perfect for the accompaniment of jet

98
00:08:07.319 --> 00:08:13.360
plane. Oh yeah, well,
she sounded great singing with any any man.

99
00:08:13.439 --> 00:08:16.040
If you think about you know them, the Mamas and the Papas,

100
00:08:16.199 --> 00:08:22.439
and even preceding that with the Big
Three and with the Mugwamps. You know,

101
00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:26.240
they were what did she say,
they were just you know, they

102
00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:31.360
were diverse. They were sexually diverse, if that's if that's what they're putting

103
00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:35.320
in you know. Owen Elliott Cougle. The name of the memoir is My

104
00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:39.480
Mama Casts. If you love the
behind the scenes stories like this, like

105
00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.879
I do about some of the greats
of the era, you will love this

106
00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.240
as a summer read, and it's
available everywhere you get books. Owen Elliott

107
00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:50.879
Coogle, thank you for joining us, Thanks for having me. Thanks for

108
00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:56.360
listening to Later with Lee Matthews,
the Lee Matthews Podcast, and remember to

109
00:08:56.440 --> 00:09:01.600
listen to the Drive Live weekday afternoon
is from five to seven. An iHeartMedia presentation