The Bangles "Manic Monday"

The blessing and curse of success, is that your success tends to define you to a world of people. It seems particularly true with early success.

Some folks grin and bear it. I thought Matthew Broderick was a little more rueful, than wistful, during the Oscars this year, when, during a tribute to the late John Hughes, he described being recognized every day, as Ferris Bueller.

Some pretend it didn't happen. To this day, the Beastie Boys insist that their early beer-drinking, songs about girls and giant inflatable penis schtick was intentionally "ironic."

Some folks are stoic. Jimmy Buffett always plays "Margaritville" in concert, saying that that song got him through his lean years, and he's always willing to play it.

Some folks just shut the door on it. Arlo Guthrie went through years of refusing to play "Alice's Restaurant."

And some folks embrace it. At that Lilith Fair gig I mentioned in Monday's post, Susanna Hoffs actually led the crowd in a solo acoustic version of "Walk Like An Egyptian," which she didn't have to do (and probably didn't necessarily WANT to do), but did do, with cheeky aplomb.

And she won me over, late in our conversation, during the Person Of The Week interview.

We had been scheduled to talk by phone at a certain hour. (It sounds like a weird, teenage nightmare but) I literally waited for an hour, by the studio phone, waiting for Susanna to call. When she didn't call, I checked in with Claudia, who'd set up the interview.

After a few calls back and forth, Claudia let me know that Susanna had had a brief emergency at home, and wanted to reschedule for later in the day.

The second time, she called right on time, and apologized several times.

At the end of the interview, as we were wrapping up, to let her know that I really wasn't offended that she had missed our first appointment, we had this exchange.

Listen to it here.

I just thought that was so cool. There was no reason to bring up the song. I'm sure, like Matthew Broderick and his "Ferris" fans, Susanna has been on the receiving end of a joke like that.

But it showed a comfort with her past success, that lends confidence to the many projects she's currently a part of. And which I'll write about later this week.