“I thought that’s a good idea”: 9-year-old Cher’s Craziest Act After “Stealing” a Horse Foreshadowed Her Future as a Daring Pop Star

Often referred to as the Goddess of Pop, singer Cher is described as an artist who incorporated female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for being the other half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, and the couple rose to fame in 1965. After the couple split in 1975, Cher released her disco album Take Me Home and her career reached new peaks in 1998 with the release of her dance-pop album.

With a successful career over the years in the industry, Cher is regarded as one of the world’s best-selling music artists, and she was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has released the first part of her two-part memoir, Cher: The Memoir, Part One, about which she spoke to Jimmy Fallon on his show. She also hinted about her future music.

Cher recalls stealing a horse and jumping on a freight train at the age of 9

Music legend Cher appeared on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, where she spoke about her recently released Cher: The Memoir, Part One. She revealed that it was hard for her to recall her entire life and tell it to someone. The memoir chronicles her life as Cherilyn, her rise to fame, and her life with Sonny Bono. The artist said,

It was a bitch. It’s not going through your life that’s hard so much. But I did it a couple of times because the first time it didn’t work out. The second time I just didn’t want to tell anything.

Cher noted that it’s hard because one wants to keep parts of their lives to themselves and guard them. She also shared with the audience that her life is much more complicated than what they can imagine and than they know.

During the conversation, when Jimmy Fallon asked the singer where she got her fearlessness from, she shared that she didn’t know how to do things any other way than what she had done. She further added,

When I was 9 years old, I took a horse and hopped on a freight train, so that’s kind of what it is. I rode it to the end of the fences, and then I saw a freight train, and I thought, ‘That’s a good idea.’.

The singer continued that she then called her mother, who thought what she did was cool. Cher noted that the only thing her mother got upset about was the fact that she had thrown her lunch pail away. The artist also recalled during the conversation that when Sonny & Cher made it to the industry, people did not like them, so they had to go to England to become successful.

Cher also revealed on the show that she is working on her new album.

Cher describes writing her memoir as ‘extremely tiring’

Goddess of Pop’s part one of her two-part memoir is out for the fans to read and know the artist a little bit better. In her conversation with EW, the artist goes into detail about her process of writing her memoir, and she describes the process as very tiring for her. She added,

We did this for months—going back and forth. But sometimes I would just say, ‘You guys, I just can’t do this anymore. I will be glad when this is over.’ Because sometimes when we were in the bad part, the bad part weighed so heavily. Now it’s over, and it’s not a part of me.

It has been stated that when someone talks about their past to someone without them judging for whatever has happened, it’s considered cathartic. So, upon asking Cher about the same process, the singer noted that she did not know if the process was healing because for her it was just exasperating and tiring. She recalled that while working on the memoir, she felt like she didn’t want to go, but some funny memory would pop up, and she was able to push herself.

The singer detailed that it’s hard telling everything about one’s life, as some things don’t belong, and she wasn’t forthcoming in the first version. Cher then added that it took her some time and went back and made the decision to say much more than she intended to. But she mentioned there were a few things that she just couldn’t share.

These are stories that happened, and even though some of them are rough, how do you tell your story without telling your story? I was afraid to do it in the beginning. But once I made the decision to do it, I just made the decision.

Cher had mentioned to the publication that her mother was very vocal about her terrible childhood, and she had included some of that in her book.

Part One of her memoir ends in 1982 before she went to NYC to pursue her career as an actress. Part 2 is the beginning of something completely new.

Cher: The Memoir, Part One is now available.