Cher bares all about Sonny Bono, 'beautiful' Gregg Allman and why drugs are 'boring'

Cher’s life has been so extraordinary, so filled with zigzagging career moves and intense loves that after more than 400 pages of her memoir, she’s only brushed the beginnings of her detour from music to an acclaimed film career.

“Cher: The Memoir, Part One” (out Nov. 19, Harper Collins, 413 pages, $36), packs intricate details about her difficult childhood (her mom was forced to keep Cher in a religious home for children while she worked); her early singing experiences with “force of nature” Darlene Love and an unhinged Phil Spector; the emotional roller coaster that was Sonny Bono; and her unshakable love for Gregg Allman.

Devotees hoping to hear her singular voice – both writing and otherwise – delve into “Silkwood,” Gene Simmons, “Moonstruck,” Richie Sambora, “If I Could Turn Back Time” video fishnets, Oscars, her incredible resurgence on the charts at age 52 with “Believe” and a Broadway musical about her life will have to practice patience. Part 2 of Cher's memoir is due out in 2025.

“I haven’t even thought about part two,” Cher, 78, tells USA TODAY in a voice that is at once throaty, whimsical and serious. “I’m a last-minute kind of person. I have to drag my feet and this process was rough. Some of the days I’d go, you guys, I have to take a break and the publishing company is going, we need it yesterday. And finally they gave up on that.”

Cher 'wanted to make it honest' when writing her memoir

As expected from someone as divinely unflinching as Cher, her memoir recounts an unsettled home life and frequent moves around California and New York. (The audiobook features Cher opening each chapter – she says her dyslexia prevented her from reading more ? with Stephanie J. Block, who portrayed her in Broadway's "The Cher Show," handling the rest.)

Cher's mother, Georgia (who died in 2022 at age 96), worked tirelessly to provide for young Cherilyn and her half-sister, Georganne (known to all as “Gee”) as stepfather John Southall flitted in and out of their lives.

Cher is forgiving of the shortcomings of her mother, from whom she developed her love of Dr Pepper, and shares droves of poignant and humorous tales, such as “drop-dead gorgeous” lothario Warren Beatty asking her on a date when she was 15. Cher’s mother instantly quashed the idea, not realizing it was Beatty who was querying. When he called the house to ask Georgia for permission to date her daughter, who was almost a decade younger, mom “literally melted in front of my eyes” when she realized who she was talking to, Cher writes.

But, as even Cher experienced, conjuring memories is an emotionally arduous task.

“In the beginning, I didn’t want to tell (my story),” she says. “But at some point I realized if you don’t want to tell it, then give the people their money back. And then I decided I had to be a lot more honest and forthcoming and once I started, it really wasn’t bad.”

Cher says she worked with a ghostwriter at the beginning of the process, but decided “I didn’t need people as much as I thought.” She notes in the book that her recollections are based on memories, and says now that if she had a problem remembering, she’d call Gee or Paulette Howell, her best friend for 50 years, for a memory nudge.

“I wanted to make it honest, and I think in the end it is,” she says. “I didn’t give people information. I gave them stories.”

Cher still doesn't understand her relationship with Sonny Bono

Salvatore Bono entered Cher’s life as a protector and champion, talking her up to his boss, Phil Spector (or Phillip, as Cher refers to him throughout the book), which landed her backing vocalist duties on Spector-produced ‘60s hits including The Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and The Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.”

Bono was “desperate for respect,” as Cher writes, but also dedicated to promoting her solo career.

By the early ‘70s, as their CBS smash variety spectacle, “The Sonny & Cher Show,” regaled viewers with a combination of snappy humor softened by appearances from high-profile musical guests and Bob Mackie outfits, Bono grew more temperamental and unfaithful, partially due to an addiction to valium and prescription painkillers.

“I don’t know if it was love/hate, but it was rough. It was really, really rough,” Cher says of her relationship with the man she’ll always be connected with in pop culture lore. “I didn’t understand him and I was hurt and angry, but it was more hurt because I couldn’t understand, why would you do this? And in the end, in that last year, I just thought, I don’t think I can do this much longer because it’s killing me.”

The couple, who are parents to Chas, divorced in 1975, effectively terminating their popular TV routine. (Chas, as she was called then, later transitioned from female to male, legally becoming Chaz Bono in 2010. With Chaz's blessing, Cher refers to him as Chas, "the name he went by during the years covered in this book.")

Not long after her divorce, Cher returned to the screen with her own variety outing, simply called “Cher.” Her written memories of the “sheer terror” she felt on opening night and her ability to succeed regardless is but one example of the unyielding tenacity that has made her an icon.

But despite the controlling nature of Bono, who died in 1998 after a skiing accident, Cher still maintains a slot in her heart for the man who helped create her career.

“Sonny and my relationship is hard to understand because it’s hard for me to understand. Even as angry as I got with him, there was a bond that I couldn’t break. Even after he took all of my money. There was that certain thing. It was hero worship. We were both striving for this thing and we loved it so much. But he was a piece of work.”

Cher recalls her enduring love for Gregg Allman

Cher is much more benevolent in her writing about Allman, whom she met when she attended his concert at the Troubadour in Los Angeles with Paulette. Cher was unfamiliar with The Allman Brothers’ music, but Paulette was a fan, so she tagged along to the show. Allman spotted her and sent his right-hand man, Chank Middleton, to pass her a note that began, “Dear enchanting lady.”

“Oh my God, I was so crazy about Gregory,” she says, the lilt in her voice noticeably changing. “I loved him so much and he was so wonderful. He was this amazing man who happened to be a heroin addict.” She pauses, then laughs ruefully. “I guess you can’t have everything.”

But, Cher continues, Allman, who died in 2017 from liver cancer, was “really amazing and sweet” but his drug use spurred an end to their marriage after three years and after the birth of son Elijah Blue.

Although both of her husbands were tortured by drug addiction, Cher never had an interest in illicit substances.

“I didn’t see the fun in it. I remember I called my doctor once and asked, ‘Can you die from a hangover?’ Drugs were boring to me. People doing coke want to talk your ear off and people on heroin, they nod off,” she says. “Gregory was quite an intelligent man, but sometimes he wasn’t able to put things together because of drugs. He was beautiful. We used to lay in bed and he would play his guitar.”

Cher is preparing the 'greatest songs' she's ever recorded

As Cher enters yet another era, she’s ecstatic to share that she’s working on a new album with “some of the greatest songs I’ve ever had – and I don’t use that word lightly because I’m a snob when it comes to music.”

Her current beau, music executive Alexander Edwards, 38, shepherded her 2023 Christmas album, “Christmas,” which features longtime pals Cyndi Lauper and Darlene Love as well as rapper Tyga and crooner Michael Bublé, and is serving as her muse with her upcoming material.

She recently received an overdue induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (singing with “fun” Dua Lipa was a highlight, she says) and delivered a speech that hammered her “never give up” ethos. It’s an attitude she hopes is part of her legacy.

“Don’t pay attention to people. They don’t know what they’re doing sometimes and have no vision. They don’t want to see what’s coming and if you have some with vision, you’re lucky,” she says.

Cher also drops a significant message to women and says she hopes young women in particular read and learn from her memoir.

“I want to remind them of what we went through and what we have the chance to achieve,” she says. “It’s still uphill for women. And to the young women starting out I say, you’ve gotta be balls to the wall.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cher's memoir includes Sonny Bono, Gregg Allman, more revelations