Music Star Cortney Page On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
…Everything happens for a reason. Also, things happen at the time, when they’re supposed to happen or things are said at the time they’re meant to be said. Thoughts are energy. And, we can bend the forces of nature for magic to happen with them.
As a part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Cortney Page.
Cortney Page is one of a kind, even though she is a double to Marilyn Monroe. She has mirrored reflection birthmarks as the late great icon too. Cortney is an original and so is her music, “The Voice of Marilyn” album of a 19-song collection. Ms. Page has had some hard knocks in life but still manages to shine. They say ‘it is not who you know in Hollywood, but it is who knows you,’ that being Cortney Page. Everything Cortney touches turns to gold. She has opened doors for others she has been affiliated to and continues to do so with her new project BoxStarr.com.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up in the suburbs of DC in a foster home with 16 siblings coming and going. I took piano and learned to read music before the age of 10 and took guitar in high school. I was also a Ballerina and had been given a dance scholarship as a young teen. I started college at age 15 and took years of classes to become an entrepreneur with no degree. I always wanted to be a singer, and as a kid, I would sing along to Seals & Croft music and imagine being on stage performing. I also took vocal lessons, when I did singing telegrams for the ‘Ron Smith Celebrity Look Alike Agency’ in the 80s-90s. I’ve been supporting myself since age 16, so I had a short-lived upbringing.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
Before I was born, my father and uncles worked for the Kennedy Administration on Capitol Hill and my mother is related to Jackie Kennedy’s mother side of the family. I’ve always heard Kennedy stories growing up. When I learned that Jackie bought up Europe with Onassis’ money and then returned everything to buy controlling power of the National Enquirer, which reported Jack and Robert’s affairs, it made me think there were love children out there and I could be one of them. Jackie O. almost bankrupted Europe to make the deal happen and actions speak louder than words. No pun intended. My songs “Naughty Illuminati” and “High Society” are about this theory.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I lived in Seattle in the early 90s and Sub Pop introduced me to Kurt Cobain to write music together. I was recording under the name “Goddess Isis,” which is the witches’ deity. I worked as a temp for radio stations and got Nirvana played on the air. I also auditioned for “Hole” and befriended Courtney Love and took her to her first Nirvana concert. I’ve been told that I worked for Microsoft as a temp too. You see, I was brutally attacked and woke up in the hospital with amnesia. I didn’t know my surroundings or people in my life at the time, so I returned to California. They say it takes 20 years to get over amnesia. I bumped into Bill Gates in 2006 and we had a conversation that made me buy Nirvana’s music that began me trying to piece together my memories.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I’ve made a lot of mistakes that make me laugh. I mention tweets in “Hollow Follow”’ and “Honey Comes Naturally” songs. I had a conversation on the phone with a website designer about twitter’s exact design and the next thing; Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were celebrity users of my idea. When twitter began, I requested and got the username @cortneypage and I took advantage of my First Amendment Rights, so my account was deleted for writing shocking tweets that I probably thought were funny. Or, it could have been a mention by the @CIA? I tweeted and inquired ‘how does the @CIA make money spying on their boss?’ @CIA posted “steal it” and I replied, “steal or steel?” I’ve learned to have better manners on Twitter as @glossypage. Not.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I’m writing a script, in hopes that Anna Biller produces it, because I’m a big fan of “The Love Witch” film. I’m doing more music for my next album to be released around Halloween and one of my songs is called, “Will Smith Punch.” I’m the face of BoxStarr.com and will be interviewing creative content creators on CRN Talk Radio, which is streamed on RokuTV. I’m also fixing up my home in Lake Arrowhead, California.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
- Love people more than animals.
- Love people more than religion.
- We are all born with a certificate of birth that gives us a social security bond (“Jungle Rumble” sung “secure bond”) that is determined on breeding and zip code, which is borrowed against for a home and college loans or bail. The value of people is individual and we are not created equal. People from Africa have more value for being from the wealthiest land in the world, because of its natural resources. We need more diversity in entertainment to balance the books.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
- I wished I had changed my name as an acting manager suggested. There are a lot of Courtney(s) in the entertainment industry. He would have signed me if I had taken his advice. I met Michael Walloch’s mother in Holmby Hills Park walking my yorkie dog, Gioia, and she arranged the meeting for me. I wished someone had told me what name to use. When you switch initials to Cortney Page, it is “Portney Cage” or “Poor me caged.”
- I went out with Jason Priestley and Brad Pitt in 1987 on a double date. I don’t remember how I met Jason, but he and I brought our roommates. I switched dates that night and I should have stuck with Brad Pitt. I address him as William. I wished someone had told me that William was going to be uber-famous.
- In the 80s, Kennedy “Rockwell” Gordy managed me as a singer and I was offered a music deal with the Playboy channel. They wanted my Goddess Isis, Inc name, but not my image. They wanted to get another model to perform my songs with my voice, because goddess Isis was black, according to mythology. I wished Kennedy had told me to sign the deal, but at the time I wanted fame and the Seattle music scene was where it was back in those days. Everything happens for a reason. Also, things happen at the time, when they’re supposed to happen or things are said at the time they’re meant to be said. Thoughts are energy. And, we can bend the forces of nature for magic to happen with them.
- I wished someone had told me not to smoke marijuana. I don’t drink, but enjoy my weed and have been a big part of my life. I feel marijuana is a double edge sword. It makes me creative, but complacent. I sang about pot in “Shag Shack” and “Grifter Zone.” “He’s a grafter, I’m a grifter…” A grafter is a marijuana grower and heard William use the term on TV, which inspired the song.
- When I bumped into Bill Gates, he helped me remember parts of my life in Seattle with him in it. A part of me wanted to throw my arms around him and kissed him at the OR Tambo International Airport. Now, I regret leaving Seattle, because of my mental illness. I wished I was told to stay and work on coping with my trauma to regain my memories, instead of running away in denial and not talking about it with a therapist. But then, there wouldn’t have been the “Calendar Girl” movie role and ‘Happy Hearts 2’ song or “The Voice of Marilyn” Album for that matter. I recorded the Album in 2012–2013 with Cory Carbaugh engineering but released it after 22–02–2022. The mirrored reflection upside down date or the center of a figure 8 for infinity from mine and Marilyn’s perceptive. Also, my Chinese birthday.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
I can recommend what I do and that is to keep a strict routine. I’m a big list maker and get a lot done by following a schedule. I also believe in going to bed and waking up at the same time daily. I don’t drink spirits, because it gives me anxiety, so I drink plenty of water instead. I take the same hour out of my day to do something creative or pamper myself. That could be listening to music or taking a bubble bath. I also schedule in my crying fits. I allow myself to think about upsetting things for hour in that day. It helps with being able to cry at will or control my feelings with my thoughts.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I was once the singer “Goddess Isis” and the chorus to my self-titled song went “Goddess Isis, Goddess Isis, Genes of Isis is Genesis, Goddess Isis Jesus’ bride, Goddess Isis, immortal ride.” We need a balance of both father time and mother earth to bless us in manifesting. I believe we need to start praying to both a male and female deity. The world needs a goddess to balance things out, which is the religion of poetry or also known as ‘witchcraft.’ Not the Hollywood kind of witchcraft, but a nature worshiper that also believes in a goddess Isis kind of witch and/or warlock. Goddess Isis is the 1st story of rebirth or reincarnation, embalming and marriage vows.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
There have been a lot of people that have helped me. The owner of CRN Talk Radio; Mike Horn, is helping me with a show right now. William helped me by telling me his story about dressing up in a chicken suit to advertise El Pollo Loco, which gave me the idea to pose with tourists on Hollywood Blvd for tips and made front-page news at the LA Times four times within a year. Shirley Temple Black helped me realize the benefits of fame, even though she lived a modest life. I’d like to model myself after Shirley Temple and live a quiet and peaceful life in the forest making music, working from home online and doing my weekly radio shows. I’m very grateful for many people I’ve known in both lives and thinking of my blessings keeps me very happy.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Think for yourself, even if people call you crazy. ‘What other people think about me is none of my business.’ — Tony Robbins
I believe I am the ‘Second Coming’ of Marilyn Monroe with birthmarks that match in the mirror. People have called me crazy, because we live in a very Christian society and no man is a prophet in their own home. There were a few people that didn’t argue with me, but more people couldn’t get their heads wrapped around it. It doesn’t matter if I was her; at least I’ve lived longer than age 36 in this lifetime.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
I would want to have lunch with Courtney Love and chain smoke through it. I believe she was a good friend by not mentioning me to the press. I had to regain my memories through time. I know people that know her and she is a very generous person. I sang that “she became the broken dove” in my song “Rumors,” because it rhymed. She’s really a rock goddess. I also wrote “Flirting with Fire” from a cop friend’s suggestion with the intentions of Courtney Love recording it too. I just want to hug her and tell her it saddens me with Kurt’s suicide and all the conspiracy theorists blaming her. I love her style and think her tweets are smart and fun. I think she is a brilliant actress from the “People vs. Larry Flynt” movie. I was hired a few times by Larry Flynt’s company to ride around in a limo passing out newly released projects and I met him at a party, so Courtney Love and I would have something to talk about. I find Courtney Love to be an interesting person.
How can our readers follow you online?
http://BoxStarr.com/CortneyPage
http://Instagram.com/CortneyPage
http://tiktok.com/CosPlayMarilyn
http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1614115380?ls=1&app=itunes
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
“A pleasure, I’m ever so sure,” quoting Marilyn Monroe from “How to Marry a Millionaire” movie.
