BELINDA CARLISLE - WHAT I KNOW NOW

THE GO-GO'S SINGER LOOKS BACK ON 40 PLUS YEARS OF FAME AND FINDING PEACE AFTER FACING ADDICTION

- ILANA KAPLAN

"I've always winged it as I went along," Carlisle says of her career.

She’s gone through multiple breakups with the Go-Go’s, battled addiction and, most recently, undergone vocal cord surgery. But the toughest moment in Belinda Carlisle’s life came when she turned 40. The milestone itself didn’t bother the singer-songwriter. “I was dropped by my record company on my birthday,” she recalls. For someone whose purpose had been intertwined with her work, the shift was jarring. But Carlisle quickly realized it was an opportunity for self-discovery. “I had always been defined by my career and what I did,” she says. “It was like the beginning of finding out who I really was as a person, as a woman.”

After her band the Go-Go’s rose to ’80s glory with smash singles including “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got the Beat,” the L.A. native, 66, carved out a successful solo career, highlighted by her 1987 chart-topping hit “Heaven Is a Place on Earth.” While she’ll “never say never” to another Go-Go’s record, Carlisle doesn’t think that’s likely. Instead the pop star—who survived childhood abuse and decades-long struggles with alcohol and cocaine addiction—has her sights set on the future. She’ll host her Animal People Alliance fundraising Christmas celebration on Dec. 12 in Los Angeles; the Go-Go’s will reunite to perform at the Coachella music festival in Indio, Calif., in April; and she expects to drop a new solo record next year. “I’m just having fun,” says Carlisle, who is based in Mexico City with her husband, retired film producer Morgan Mason, 69, with whom she shares son James, 32. “I do what’s fun at this point in my life.”

Here Carlisle opens up about how sobriety helps her enjoy life to the fullest, her secret to a long marriage and the greatest lesson she learned from the Go-Go’s.

Teamwork takes time.