The Dream, The Voice, The Journey: Jan Daley's Path to Fame
This is the EWN Podcast Network.
Cathy:Welcome to late boomers, our podcast guide to creating your third act with style, power, and impact. Hi. I'm Cathy Worthington.
Jan Daley:And I'm Merry Elkins. Join us as we bring you conversations with successful entrepreneurs, entertainers, and people with vision who are making a difference in the world.
Cathy:Everyone has a story, and we'll take you along for the ride on each interview, recounting the journey our guests have taken to get where they are, inspiring you to create your own path to success. Let's get started. Hi. I'm Kathy Worthington. Welcome to our latest late boomers episode.
Cathy:I'm here with my cohost, Mary Elkins, and we're excited to bring you Grammy and Academy Award nominated singer songwriter and actress Jan Daly.
Merry:And I'm Merry Elkins. Jan is celebrating the success of her new country album, The Girls in Love, and we will be chatting with her all about her fascinating life and her gift for defying ageism and being a true Renaissance woman, an inspiration for the boomers in our audience. Thank you, Jan, for being here, and welcome.
Jan Daley:Thank you. And I'm just delighted to be here, and and nobody knows what we've gone through to actually put this together, but we're here and alive. I'm talking and, you know, yeah, let's do it. Well, tell us a
Cathy:little bit about how you began your career and the early experiences you had that defined you.
Jan Daley:Wow. You have an hour just on that, right? Of course. You know, I always loved singing. I started out piano, you know, with the piano, classical piano, all that whole thing.
Jan Daley:And I think just one thing leads to another, but I was as a kid, I was on this beam. I had these big dreams, and I had no connections. I lived in a rural area outside of Los Angeles, and I I think if there was a talent show, Jan Daly was there. And I everything I learned from, everything I did, I like, oh, I'll never do that again, or, oh, I should I smiled better on this, you know. You just learn by doing, and I think that's what I did.
Jan Daley:Nobody taught me how to get into the business. I knew no one, as I said before, but I think I think I auditioned started auditioning maybe later when I well, actually, I I went to college, to a junior college. Was gonna go to UCLA, and but in the meantime, I had a girlfriend who said, hey, Jim, there's miss Glendale, and it goes to miss America. Why don't we do that together? And I was like, really?
Jan Daley:And so she convinced me to go. Well, lo and behold, I became miss long story short, Miss California. Oh. So yeah. So it that opened a lot of doors, and I was exposed to people in the business, and I think that's how everything started to roll.
Jan Daley:But in in, you know, in college, I was singing for every event. Oh, get Jan. She'll do it. You know, that kind of thing. And so I I was just always plugged in.
Jan Daley:You know, I took theater arts and so I was learning to act and all that. And but really the Miss California really opened the doors. And as as I was going you know, as I was finishing the JC, the junior college, I get a call and asked if I would, you know, audition for for a new show television show. And but it was an MGM production, and four star was the other, you know, the other studio doing this, and so I had to go there. And I literally just sang in in the president's room, the president of Four Star's, and and they said, oh, so we hear you sing.
Jan Daley:So why don't you sing something? You know? And of course this is my very first kind of audition. I didn't know what I was responsible to do. So I just started singing I think Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and and he sat there and he went, that's very nice.
Jan Daley:And I thought, oh, boy. I've blown it, you know. So I walked down, and and I did get a call, and I didn't have a second audition. And if you're an actress, you know, you you hope for a second audition. But they said you're hired.
Jan Daley:And I went, oh my god. So it was like it's probably not a way to get into show business because then you think everything's going to be easy. Right? Mhmm. But that's what happened.
Jan Daley:So I did this show that was called Here Come the Stars. And George Jessel you're way too young to even know who he was. I was way too young to know who he was. But he was kind of like the host, and it was every week was a we were celebrating one star, and then they would have a pan panel like the Friars Club, which the Friars Club in Beverly Hills would do this. And so I I met everybody.
Jan Daley:I met Bing Crosby, Anthony Quinn, all these stars, and I was sitting next to him, and Debbie Reynolds, who was my idol, and just all these people, and lo and behold, Bob Hope. And there's a picture of us on this wall somewhere of me sitting next to Bob Hope. And, you know, I have to backtrack. Actually, I went on tour with five guys right out of college before I did this in before I did this audition. I just remember.
Jan Daley:I went, no. No. That's I did that first because when I look at the pictures, I'm about forty pounds heavier, and that just reminded me. Oh, yes. That was the tour where you eat at two in the morning, and you know, you're starving and you're living at a dollar 50 a day.
Jan Daley:So the tour came first, and well, you know, I was never exposed to five guys, and they're all like very, you know, they've been on tours before, and this was like my first tour, and I was the girl singer. And I always felt like, you know, I was kind of square, and they were like hip. And but we did that for like nine months. And so when I came back, that's when I got the audition. And it was perfect because then I had a little more savvy of what what the business was about and what audiences liked.
Jan Daley:And so even though I did Over the Rainbow, which was, you know, kind of a lot of audition songs, think that gave me the, you know, the advantage of maybe someone who's just starting out or hadn't traveled. You know, I think that's why I got it. Because I thought, Wait, was that the first? You know. But it's so long ago.
Cathy:But then I also read in your bio where you had a really kind of sad thing that happened to you that kind of changed your trajectory, and it became a happy thing. Why don't you talk about that, too?
Jan Daley:And, you know, I didn't. I just went in for a regular checkup, and sure enough, I went stage four Oh cervical gosh. Oh my Oh gosh. So it was like a real, what?
Merry:What a wake up call that is.
Jan Daley:Yeah. It was. And in those days, I say, in the pioneer days, they didn't have what they have now. And they said, well, we'll give you a hysterectomy. I was like, wait a minute.
Jan Daley:I don't even have a boyfriend.
Cathy:I would love to have a family.
Jan Daley:And so I went to four doctors, and each one that was the the fix, you know. Know hysterectomy perfect, and you don't have to worry. And so, you know, I was still having hope. And I went to the fifth doctor, and he said, You know, he said, You're healthy, other than having cancer. You're a healthy, sturdy person.
Jan Daley:And he said, I have something that is experimental, but I think it will help you and give you at least one in a million chances of having a child. So, I said, absolutely, I'm on board. And it was some a little bit of an operation called a cold cone. I I didn't know what it was, but I didn't care. It was at least giving me a chance, and wasn't going to have a hysterectomy.
Jan Daley:So that really ended up curing the cancer. And yeah. So then you had a baby. Well, and then I I got pregnant. And, of course, you have to backstep that I did get married in in the meantime.
Jan Daley:And someone in Orange County and very different, you know, Midwestern, grew up on a dairy farm, know, completely opposite. But being in the business by by the time I got pregnant, it it was like I think I got pregnant in like when I was 29. So I had been in the business and opened for Don Rickles and opened for all these legendary comedians.
Cathy:And
Jan Daley:so I I was ripe for finding a real person who was faithful, who was who was truthful, you know, and not showbiz kind of person.
Merry:But then you were a stay at home mom, though, for a long time, weren't you?
Jan Daley:Well, so there's the next part of the story. So we were married, and I got pregnant like, the next year, and so we were really excited, and I lost it. So we were still excited, because we said, Well, at least I got pregnant. And sure enough, second pregnancy came along, like maybe five, six months later. And even though I I'm sorry, I get emotional.
Cathy:Even though
Jan Daley:I really it's a girl's thing. Okay. I was bleeding the first five months. So I was literally they were waiting if I was going to abort this, you know, this child, this human little child. And so the fifth month was what I was waiting for.
Jan Daley:In the middle of this, was doing the Sanyo commercials and all this stuff, I was like running to the bathroom, you know, doing my thing. And anyway, after the fifth month, she hung in there, and I had a baby girl. And so it was my miracle baby. And so of course, I'm in the middle of a very big career at this point. And I'm doing this, and I'm acting here, and I'm, you know, I'm contracted to MGM, and just a whole bunch of stuff was going on.
Jan Daley:And yet I thought I could do it all as a mom, But you one instance where I was, I think in New York, and we were having a family get together, reunion, and that was in Wisconsin. So I flew there, and I'm standing there waiting for my husband and my daughter. Golly. When you get older, cry a lot. Anyway So I'm waiting for them, and my husband kind of stains back, and my daughter just walked right past me that she didn't she didn't recognize me.
Jan Daley:And I went, okay. That's not gonna that's not gonna happen. She was two, I had been away, you know, on and off, on and off. And I don't think it, you know, calculated in her mind that I was her mom. And so at that point, I knew that I had to change my life.
Jan Daley:And so I said, I'm I told my agent and my manager, and I said, you know, I I need to do this. So I walked away. But I continued to act because I knew I could choose if it was going to be here, could do it. If it was going to be on location, I couldn't. So I continued to act and did a 150 commercials.
Jan Daley:And I did Muriel. I did Sanyo for five years. You know, it was a blessing, and it also furnished my home. And so anyway, so I did that, and I took off twenty years. And, you know, so that's you went to Nashville.
Merry:Right? You didn't you go to So that's then.
Jan Daley:So then I began to I knew what I wanted to do because while I was a mom, started writing songs. So I'd write a song a week, and then I was going to class, with Jack Siegel, who wrote When Sunny Gets Flu, which ironically is one of the first songs that was a big hit on my my first album, and it became my number one jazz album. And so so I started to go to Nashville when she went off to college, and it was wonderful. It was just a wonderful songwriting community in Nashville, and and I really I I got hooked. And, we I I still am in contact with a couple writers, but I don't I I started writing out of convenience just with myself, you know.
Jan Daley:So, So yeah, carry me that's how the songwriting started.
Cathy:That's great. We want to hear a little bit more about your travels with Bob Hope, if there are any more tidbits with that, because it led to receiving the prestigious Presidential Award from the Vietnam Veterans of America. Now, what's the time gap in there? When was the award? The award was just this last year.
Cathy:Oh, my. Yeah. Just '24. So And the travels are what? Like in the sixties?
Jan Daley:Oh, in the seventies. I I was doing Seventies.
Cathy:Seventies. Seventies.
Jan Daley:Wind down wind down from Wind down of Bob Hope.
Cathy:Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Jan Daley:And the war.
Cathy:Well, there was a lot of war in in the seventies. I remember the protests.
Jan Daley:Oh, yeah. In fact, there's one story that I do tell that is Bob Hope was really great in that the whole crew never told us if we came close to any kind of disastrous meaning a bomb over here, or or Vietnam come, you know, just around the corner, that kind of thing.
Cathy:They Mhmm.
Jan Daley:They kept us ignorant of that, which was a good idea because you can't go on stage and be, you know, your eyes jetting everywhere thinking, well, there's, you know, there's the enemy. So it one day in particular, we were in Da Nang, and Da Nang has a big hill in in no. It was in front of us. So you would see all all the guys, probably 30,000. And you had, you know, the playing ground here, and then you could see them.
Jan Daley:They were sitting on this hill. And, you know, I I would close the show. I mean, I sang in the beginning, and then I closed the show with Silent Night, and as I was singing it, I thought, well, that's strange. Look at all those guys. They're getting up, and they're going to the back of that hill.
Jan Daley:And I said, well, maybe they're going for a smoke or, you know, I didn't know. And so by the time I closed the show, usually after that, we would, you know, assign autographs to the GIs. And all of a sudden, our crew came back and they said, come on, we're taking you off stage. Well, I said, we haven't finished. And all our makeup and stuff, he said, no.
Jan Daley:No. We'll we'll take all that. So they threw us in the helicopters, and as we pulled up, we could see the Vietcong that had surrounded our show, our entire show. I mean, you know, the stage, the whole thing. And the guys were evidently were geared in to saying, hey.
Jan Daley:You know, we've got a problem in the back of this mountain. And so they were going and starting to do their thing with the Viet Cong, whether it was shooting. I don't know what they were doing, but they were leaving, and that's what I was seeing when I was singing.
Merry:Yeah. You couldn't hear anything? You couldn't hear bombs or guns or anything?
Jan Daley:No. No. No. So it was, you know, it was a very tall hill. I don't you would think you'd see a bomb, but I don't think they were I think it was a hand to hand thing.
Jan Daley:That's how they could get in there without anybody else noticing them. They weren't I don't know where they were coming from. But anyway, we got off stage, and that was the first time that we really you know, we went, Oh, that's right. We're in the middle of a war. Because they kept it so up and so positive that we didn't worry.
Jan Daley:And that was a good thing.
Merry:Yeah. That's
Cathy:a good
Merry:thing. Boy. Who was on stage with you besides Bob Hope? Did you have any other singers or dancers or actresses? Yeah.
Jan Daley:A good friend of mine, Jim Neighbors, was on with me. And golly, there was a Miss World Jane God, I've forgotten her name. And then of course the Gold Diggers. There was there was would happen Yes. We would go to different sites, obviously.
Jan Daley:And sometimes we would pick up stars, and then somebody else would leave. But I stayed through, you know, the entire thing because I was the Goyle singer again. And think Bob hired me because I reminded him of Dolores, his wife. And she was a great singer and had this low voice as I did, and I think he kept kept me on because of that, you know.
Merry:You were the star. You were their Renaissance woman. So Yes. I mean, talk about that. You've done so much.
Merry:Talk about being that type of woman who's a Renaissance You
Jan Daley:know, I guess, these last three years now, a record producer from Motown evidently was going through the Grammy list of singers and so forth, and he came upon My Name, and he listened to When Sunny Gets Blue. Right? And I hit this amazing note. Have to say I'm very proud that I hit this note. And he just fell in love with my voice.
Jan Daley:And they gave him my information. He called me one day and said, Where have you been? I said, Well, I had a baby. All over the planet. All over.
Jan Daley:Right. Exactly. And so he kind of took me under his wing and said, Hey, you know, I haven't heard anybody with this kind of voice in a long time. Let's do something. I said, Okay.
Jan Daley:Know, was ready
Merry:for Not going to say no.
Jan Daley:Exactly. No. Never. And so he really kind of led me. His name is Michael B.
Jan Daley:Sutton, and he's written with Michael Jackson. I mean, had a long career as a songwriter, but also as a musician and producer. And so we put out a song that I had recorded with Jack Segal, wrote When Sunny Gets Blue, and it became a number one traditional jazz album. I didn't even know I was a jazz singer. I just loved music, you know.
Jan Daley:So Fantastic. Yeah. And then we had singles out of that. We had that particular, Way of a Woman, the name of the album, went up the charts, and it was just amazing. Things, things, and they were always, Oh, how about this?
Jan Daley:How about that? And so I became very busy with doing all this promotion, And then finally, he said, you know, you write songs and you've got a couple of these songs on on this jazz album. So why don't do you have any more? And of course, I wrote a song a week for how many years? Twenty years.
Jan Daley:So I said, yeah. I just have a few. And so I sent him about 10, I think, 10 songs, and he sent them down to Nashville. I don't know where he decided that, you know I I think because we'd already done the jazz thing, and I forgot to tell you that Way of a Woman, we they at one point they wanted to promote that as a single, and they said, this is not really a jazz song. This is a pop song, and this is the one that's rode between Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga on the pop charts for three months.
Merry:Not bad.
Jan Daley:Yeah. It was just amazing. I was like, and then he takes my songs and takes them to Nashville. I go, wait a minute. So they loved my songs and said, wow.
Jan Daley:You should do an album. This will do well. And the first two songs that they chose out of the album went to number one on the country international country
Cathy:the charts.
Jan Daley:And so, I mean, I must give him a lot of credit in that he kind of resurrected my singing career, and because by the time you know, I was kind of in cabaret and doing a Broadway album and that kind of thing, but I really, really wasn't completely satisfied with what I was doing. And he, you know, really led me in the right direction, and gave me kind of a new life in two fields, and now we're pushing this new country album, The Girls in Love.
Merry:It's great. And you have a great YouTube video on that with you singing it and looking with the cowboy hat and boots.
Jan Daley:I had to go out and buy that, of course, in my cute now though I love wearing my cowboy boots because yeah, I think we both all know that our feet start I love all that.
Cathy:Oh, yeah. I wore cowboy boots last night, I was really happy I had gotten them down and put them back on.
Jan Daley:Exactly. Yeah.
Cathy:You've been nominated a Grammy and an Academy Award as a singer and recording artist, and that must feel so good. Right? You know, I guess I don't look at those things until
Jan Daley:my publicist Cheryl Kagan put them all into this bio, and I'm like, wow, I guess I did do a lot of stuff. And the Academy Award came from a movie that that I sang in the movie. And so that that was the song that was, you know, nominated for an Academy Award. Mhmm. So and and that was, you know, a long time ago.
Jan Daley:But it gives me that credit, and hopefully something else that I write will be in a movie. Maybe a movie that I want to make, which is I'll touch on my father, who I'm yes. One of the songs on this country album is dedicated to my mom and dad. Oh, here I go again. Okay.
Jan Daley:So Aw. I always get emotional, you know, with my father especially, because my father I was born in March of nineteen forty five, and my father well, the war was over, and they were all waiting to come back, all the GIs. And my father volunteered to pick up POWs. And that was in May, and he was shut down in May.
Merry:Yeah.
Jan Daley:And I never got to meet him. And so I mean, I knew I had one picture of my father, and that was it. And most women in those days remarried, and they remarried within three years. Because if they had children, you know, women were women that are women today. And not that they couldn't have been, but it just wasn't for women to do, to have careers and so forth.
Jan Daley:And so so my mom remarried, and I never got to really talk to her because my stepfather was very jealous, so we never talked about him. But nineeleven yeah, nineeleven came along, and both my parents had died then, my stepfather and my mom. And I said, I know what I want to do. I'm going to their house, and we are going to look for everything, you know, that that I know my mother must have saved something. And sure enough, she did.
Jan Daley:Two boxes filled with love letters and photos. And it was just I sat on the floor and cried while I'm opening up all these things. And I found I found my father was very close to my my well, my grandmother, my mother's grandmother mother, and and they were very close, and he was writing letters to her during the war, and when I was born, he sent a letter to my Nana, and it said, Nana, I have a girl, and she's gonna be a superstar. I never ever had known this. And knowing my grandmother, I'm surprised that she didn't tell me years later.
Jan Daley:You know, she she never mentioned. She probably forgot, you know. But so so
Merry:Or watched her become a superstar.
Jan Daley:Well, I'm working on it. But
Cathy:Well, you know, speaking of that, tell us about your new country album, The Girls in Love, and why your songs resonate so much with women.
Jan Daley:I think because the Girls in Love was a younger I think every girl has been in love. And then there are girls that haven't been in love. So I think that's my youngest song on there, and how I was feeling when I was just young in love.
Cathy:You're you're delving like back into Right, early
Jan Daley:right. How wonderful it feels. And if you think about your first love, or it can be your third love or fifth love, but there's one love that just generates that feeling of, Oh my God, I'm in euphoria. I'm in heaven, and he's saying the right things, and I'm holding on to him, and we're watching football. You know, that kind of thing, and that's what the song's about.
Jan Daley:Whereas The Way of a Woman, which is also on on the album, is about a little later love, maybe thirties, forties, whatever. It can be all the way, you know, into later later time where the man is not being truthful. And she's talking about you know the way of a woman, what we put up with, and what we go through when we know deep in our heart that that's not the truth that you're hearing from Him. And so I think that resonated with a lot of women. And I think there isn't probably one woman that hasn't gone through an unhappy relationship or someone who was not truthful to them.
Jan Daley:And so that really yeah. That resonated.
Merry:So you have to write a boomer song now about love late in life.
Jan Daley:Yes. And I do have one. You know, I met my boyfriend fourteen years ago. We finally figured out how long ago it was. But what's interesting is that we've known each other for forty years, and he managed me.
Jan Daley:I mean, they've managed everyone from Julie Andrews, Carol Burnett, but they managed a lot of people, and a lot of big stars, Neil Diamond, all that. And and he was just a whippersnapper coming into this for lawyers. He was a lawyer, but that's not what he wanted. He said, I practiced for three and a half minutes. But he was the one that was assigned to me.
Jan Daley:Well, we've got this new artist Jan Daly, and so and he always tells the story. Oh, that's so romantic. Yeah. Yeah. But he tells the story.
Jan Daley:He said, she would walk into my home. I'm walking to my office, and I I didn't hear anything, see anything, except this floating blonde coming into my office. And all I wanted to do is get a cheap motel.
Cathy:Oh dear.
Merry:So was not the first sight.
Jan Daley:It was weird. I had no clue. I was married. I had my two, three year old
Merry:kid And
Jan Daley:so, you know, I I knew nothing of this until fourteen years ago. I was in New York singing at Feinstein's. And and he was in the audience. And somebody said, oh, let's go to the, you know, let's go to Feinstein's. And and he goes, oh, who's playing?
Jan Daley:And he saw Jan Daly, and he went, you're kidding. So we hadn't talked for, you know, maybe twenty years. So he was sitting in the audience. I did my whole, you know, show. And then I got this note saying there's someone in the audience.
Jan Daley:His name is Steve maybe I shouldn't
Cathy:mention his name. But anyway It's fine to mention his name if you're comfortable, if he's okay
Jan Daley:with it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Steve Sauer. And and I went, Oh my God, I've talked to him forever.
Jan Daley:And at that time I was really looking for another manager. And so of course I went up there. And no, he came up to me. That's what it was. And I didn't even recognize him because when I knew him, had long hair and a beard.
Jan Daley:This time he's got a little salt and pepper going through and short hair. And so it's Steve Souard. I went, oh my god. How are you? So long story short Wow.
Jan Daley:He said, let's get together, and I said, great. I'm thinking again business only, and he's thinking monkey business. And so so anyway
Merry:Well, that is an that
Cathy:that is an inspiration for
Merry:I do too. And that's an inspiration for all the boogers out there who are looking to find a relationship in their older years. And but you know what? Looking at you, you look like you've been able to combat ageism and
Jan Daley:I'm trying.
Merry:To keep going. Well, how do you do that?
Jan Daley:You know, I must say I think everyone has to have something to get up to. And like like when I get up in the morning, I'm gonna go for a run. Okay. So but I also have an agenda of what I need to do for the day. And because I have this re energized career, it's all about my career.
Jan Daley:But I can say to the all the ladies out there, all the guys, is that don't retire too soon. And if you do, choose something that you've never done before, or have a list of things that is in your on your bucket list, and and decide, and say, oh, okay. I'm gonna take six months on this one and six months on that one. But have something that makes you interesting and excited about life. And I think, you know, because I've had this, you know, resurgence, I'm excited about life.
Jan Daley:And I never know what's going to happen. And I think really that's the key, that you have to not look for retirement. I have a girlfriend that's I said, well, how's retirement going? She went, well, I'm bored. I said, well, you know, because when you work so hard, which most people do, you look forward to just relaxing and not having this tension and stress, but you have to say, Okay, I can do that for six months, and then have a B plan and a C plan so that you go If you've got a spouse
Cathy:Otherwise, you're just going to end up lying in bed all
Jan Daley:day. Exactly. Don't You're watching TV or something.
Cathy:Right. Right. Well, you know, Leigh, tell us a little bit about your acting career and who your favorite people were to work with. Some highlights from that.
Jan Daley:Okay. I won't the lowlights. Okay. I won't mention those people. The highlights I loved Anthony Quinn.
Jan Daley:Yeah, Anthony Quinn. I don't want to bad mouth anybody. But Anthony Quinn was great, and he was interested in people. He's a very interesting person, and and he's the kind of he was the kind of person who was always involved. He was involved in art, so it wasn't just the acting.
Jan Daley:Yeah. He painted, didn't Yes. He was a painter, and so I loved working with him. Lawrence Harvey. Okay.
Jan Daley:So Lawrence
Merry:Oh, Harvey my mother loved him.
Jan Daley:Yes. Wow. Lawrence Harvey was big. He was this enormous and yet personable actor, and really into the other actor. You know?
Jan Daley:He would say, give me more. You know? Give me more. What do you want to say? What is it that you have to say?
Jan Daley:And so he was almost like a coach in in a lot of things because I was still, you know, making my way through it. Must have been very young. I was. I was. And that was before I really went to Darryl Hickman had the best, best, and I learned the most from him in his classes, believe it or not.
Jan Daley:And he was wonderful. So I wish that I'd been doing those classes when I was doing, you know, a scene with Laurence Harvey. But he was really interesting, an interesting person, and always had a young actress as his girlfriend.
Merry:Yeah. Well, being the actress and songwriter and singer and Renaissance woman that you are, talk about perhaps what you feel proudest of in your variegated and exciting career.
Jan Daley:Well, know I'm the proudest of my daughter, and now I'm the proudest of my granddaughter. Yeah. I think really having a family and having that time. And I'm glad that I you know, sometimes I was saying, oh, why did I take all those years, you know, trying to get back into the business? I sometimes question it.
Jan Daley:But I will never trade that time. And and that's really what I'm most proud of. I mean, most of my project, I'm always proud of my projects. My Any particular one? Standout?
Jan Daley:Well, I mean, I think Way of a Woman's jazz album was great, because I have four of my songs on there as well. But I think this this one is My Country of Amendment, and I think I will be very proud of it because all the songs are written by me, and represent a lot of different stages of my life. And I think they will speak to a lot of people. I write I have a song about my mom. She was a dreamer.
Jan Daley:Then I have a song I I don't have I have two songs that I wrote, one for my daughter, one for my granddaughter, but they're not on this. But maybe on another another album, they will be. And both of them have their own video on my YouTube channel. Oh.
Cathy:Did your daughter did your daughter have a career? She
Jan Daley:she did, and she kind of pulled the jam daily as as it was. Oh, worked for Lion yeah. But she was very successful. She worked for MGM. She was a marketing and promoter for movies, and sometimes would you know, premieres and stuff.
Jan Daley:So she was, you know, go, go, you know. She was really loving all that. And at one point she was I think she was working for Lionsgate at this point. She'd been with them a year and a half, and she got sick. It's a disease I'd never heard of, and it's called SIBO.
Jan Daley:It attacks the small intestines, and it took her down. And I think nobody believed her when, you know, she wouldn't show up because she she couldn't move. She couldn't move out of bed. It's so bad. And you learn to cope with it.
Jan Daley:And I think she you know, they fired her right away, of course, and because they couldn't figure it out. You know? I think that led her at this point, she had a her daughter was maybe kind of the same age, two or three. And when she was coping with this and trying to figure out how to live with this disease, that I think it went through her mind, you know. And I had told her what I had done, and we you have an know, and I didn't tell you that after Aubrey, my daughter, I got pregnant again five months later and then lost that child, unfortunately.
Jan Daley:I'm an only child. She's an only child, and then her daughter's an only child. It's not what we planned, but that's we will be blessed with what we have. So I think she I think she kind of saw the writing on the wall and just thought, you know, the more I get to know my child, the more I don't want to be away from her, and I don't want to her not to know me and not to have my input into her life. Yeah.
Jan Daley:Right. So that's what she's doing, and my granddaughter oh, she's 15, and she's traveling That's wonderful. Yeah. She's traveling across the country. She's a six foot and a volleyball player.
Jan Daley:Oh, wonderful. That's terrific.
Cathy:Yeah. That's exciting. Yeah. Well, Jan, what would you like our Late Boomers podcast audience to have as their takeaway today?
Jan Daley:I've got just the thing. Thought you were right. It's never too late. You're never too old or young to realize your dreams or to make a new one.
Merry:Ah, I love that. I love that.
Jan Daley:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's what my life represents at this point. And I just you know, at 30 I thought my life was over. You know, in this business you think you're old at 30. And so, you know, and I've heard 30 year olds or 35 year olds saying, Oh, yeah, nah, nah, And they're giving up.
Jan Daley:And I'm like, no. No. If you want to give it up and do something, you know, really good, you know, raise children, that's great. Do charity, whatever. But don't give up because there's more to your life than right now, and there's more coming.
Jan Daley:And it's just going to be, you know, things that you don't expect, and just take them on head on.
Merry:What's your
Jan Daley:What's next my what?
Merry:Your next dream.
Jan Daley:Well, really want to finish. During COVID, I wrote about my father and learning all about him. And then reading all the letters and seeing all the pictures, how our lives intertwined and how so much that I took after him, but also how much we thought alike. And I just want to show, you know, two generations coming together without ever knowing each other.
Cathy:Nice. I love that.
Merry:So thank you so much, Jan.
Jan Daley:Thank you, guys. Yeah. Thank you.
Merry:It's great talking to you. And our guest today on Late Boomers has been singer, songwriter, actress Jan Daly, an award winner. You can check out her website jandaly.com. That's j a n d a l e y. And listen to her music wherever you listen.
Merry:And stay stay with us for a few more minutes and listen to Sure. One of one one of her songs, which you're going to play right here on Late Boomers. Thank you again, Jan.
Cathy:Please tell friends uh-huh. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. Please tell your friends about our Late Boomers podcast and visit our new website, lateboomers.us, where you can easily see all our episodes and find an interview that resonates with you.
Cathy:And next week, we'll be talking with Joe Owens, author of Feeling Groovy, A Boomer Guide to Ageless Aging. We're on Instagram iamkathywarthington and iammariealkinson lateboomers. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. We do appreciate our listeners so much, and stay tuned now for one of Jan's songs. Thanks again, Jan.
Cathy:Thank you. Thank you for joining us on late boomers, the podcast that is your guide to creating a third act with style, power, and impact. Please visit our website and get in touch with us at lateboomers.us. If you would like to listen to or download other episodes of late boomers, go to ewnpodcastnetwork.com.
Jan Daley:This podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, and most other major podcast sites. We hope you make use of the wisdom you've gained here and that you enjoy a successful third act with your own style, power, and impact.
