Cyndi Lauper admits her overnight fame 'scared the hell' out of her

Cyndi Lauper became an 80s icon almost overnight, changing her life completely.

The pop legend, now 71, told Vulture in an interview published November 14 that the runaway success of her 1983 debut album, She’s So Unusual, came with a whirlwind she wasn’t prepared for.

“I used to walk, listen, sit, write, and walk some more,” Lauper recalled. But once fame hit, life became anything but ordinary. She recalled one frightening encounter when a car stopped abruptly in front of her and people jumped out. “Luckily, they just wanted autographs, but this type of thing scared the hell out of me.”

Fame also brought other unexpected challenges. “I found myself taking off all the things that I collected and loved and hiding them,” she explained. “I had all these feelings that were exploding in colour, and all of a sudden it was like, Suck it back in, bitch, you can’t go anywhere.”

Released when Lauper was 30, She’s So Unusual catapulted her into stardom, earning her two Grammys and spawning hits like Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Time After Time.