Debbie Harry says she'd have 'made more money as a hooker'

9 December 2019

Debbie Harry says she would have "made a lot more money" as a prostitute.

Debbie Harry

The Blondie legend has laughed off rumours she was a sex worker before she turned to rock music, and she explained she was "always about" her career, although she found it difficult being "a woman in a man's world".

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday's EVENT magazine, she said: "Musician or hooker? I would definitely have made a lot more money if I'd been a hooker, not a singer.

"There were always rumours about me like that. I was a woman in a man's world. I was different. A girl in a band.

"Not everybody liked it so what do you expect? But for me it was always about the music. Still is. I'm still out there doing it."

The 74-year-old star has never married or had any children, and she explained she has made "sacrifices" for her career in music.

The 'Maria' hitmaker added: "When you are a woman in a band you make sacrifices. I don't think I could ever have held down a marriage and I never wanted children.

"I was adopted and that gave me a different outlook. I always thought that there were too many children out there needing parents and so I was conflicted."

Meanwhile, Debbie - who made a name for herself after forming Blondie in New York in 1974 - admitted while her early fame felt like "sex", the experience was also "strangely anticlimactic" after enjoying the journey much more.

In her book 'Face It', she wrote: "Fame was a sensual sort of feeling, initially. It felt like having sex, a wash of electricity coursing through your fingers and your legs, sometimes a flushed feeling at the base of your throat. It was exciting, but at the same time strangely anticlimactic.

"I've come to the conclusion that for me, the best of Blondie was the early days of the band, when we were struggling artists scuttling around New York's Lower East Side just trying to get something going. Everybody got by on no money.

"Nobody talked about mainstream success. Who wanted to be mainstream? What we were doing was so much better than that."