Being a third of Grammy-nominated group Wilson Phillips has sometimes been hard on Carnie Wilson.
“I remember when they came to one of our recording sessions very early on, maybe we had recorded half the album,” Wilson told Billy Corgan on a recent episode of his Magnificent Others podcast. “And [a record company executive] came in, and he said to me, ‘What are we going to do about this weight problem of yours?’ Verbatim.”
Wilson, who often sings with Chynna Phillips and sister Wendy Wilson, was floored.
“And I remember running into the bathroom and just sobbing,” she said. “And feeling so like, ‘This isn’t right. We’re making a record and this is art.'”
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Carnie Wilson pictured in 2022
Wilson identified the executive as former SBK Records’ Arma Andon, whom she said “wound up becoming a good friend of mine.”
She said he eventually apologized for his words.
“Cause I said, ‘Unacceptable. You hurt me so badly when you did that,'” Wilson recalled. “And he said, ‘I just can’t believe I said that. I am so sorry.’ And it took years, and I just said, ‘You’re so funny and so great and then you were a f—ing an a–hole for saying that to me. Why did you do that? It’s like you lost control and you really chose the wrong words. And were you really afraid that my fat was going to make us not successful?'”
Corgan teased, “Well, see if you’d been skinny, you would have sold 11 million [records]” instead of the 10 million the group actually sold.
Wilson Phillips produced two albums, their self-titled debut in 1990 and 1992’s Shadow and Light, before breaking up. They’ve since reunited for several more albums, including their latest, 2012’s Dedicated, a tribute to their famous parents from the Beach Boys and the Mamas and the Papas.
Wilson also spoke about the group’s videos, which they made for hit singles including “Hold On,” “Release Me,” and “Impulsive.” She remembered being unhappy with the way things went down on the clip for “You Won’t See Me Cry,” the first single off their less successful second album, Shadows and Light.
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“It was the worst experience ever,” Wilson said, noting that the singers had new management by then who strongly believed in a “sex sells” strategy.
“I just had to wear these corsets that were sucking me in and trying to make me look as skinny as possible. I spent, I don’t know, something like $50 thousand on corsets,” she revealed. “It was insane. I had pinched [myself], and it was bleeding. I had sores on my waist from cinching and trying to look skinny, and it was just awful.”
She recalled that there was always an attitude of “hide Carnie in the videos.”
In some ways, she embraced her role — “it was kind of like a power thing, I have to admit” — but she agreed with Corgan that she would be treated differently in the modern world.
“I could not understand why somebody would just make fun of me,” she said of the early ’90s. “Focus on the music. Who cares if I’m heavier than the other two?”
Watch Wilson and Corgan’s conversation above.
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