Lee Aaron has changed from an ’80s rock queen into a family-focused jazz and pop singer.Family friendly
Alex Browne
November 17, 2007
Award-winning singer-songwriter Lee Aaron was once the painfully shy girl who hung around the music room after school to study and practice.
Discovered while still in her teens, she went on to become a world-renowned, multi-platinum-selling rock diva, even though her background was primarily musical theatre.
But Aaron has long since transcended her 1980s ‘Metal Queen’ image to become a highly respected pop and jazz singer performing both standards and new originals in selected shows and a series of well-received albums.
She’s also become very much a family person. When the singer – also a fine photographer – is not performing, she lives quietly in South Surrey with her husband, drummer John Cody, two foster sons, and she and John’s children Angella, 3, and Jett, 1.
Alex Browne: I see from your website (www.leeaaron.com) you’re busy doing shows again this December. How does that work with the two little ones at home?
Lee Aaron: Well… they come along whenever it’s possible. When it’s not, we have a nanny live in for the duration. We are never away more than three days at a time, and that’s not all that often. These days, I only do 10 to 15 shows a year.
AB: What has become the principal focus of your life?
LA: These tiny humans I live with. They just won’t have it any other way. But I’m OK with it. They’re pretty neat.
AB: What’s an average day for you?
LA: Get up, playgroup, ballet, preschool, errands, lunch, play, nap – that’s mom’s time to squeeze eight hours of phone calls, e-mails, creative time, reading and dinner preparation into two very efficient hours. Then it’s play, dinner, play, sometimes shopping, bath, stories, bedtime… a smidge of mommy and daddy time then bedtime.
AB: You’ve said Jett is showing the earmarks of becoming a drummer like his dad. Is Angella showing an interest in music?
LA: Our son is like Bamm-Bamm from the Flintstones. What he lacks in finesse he more than makes up for in attitude! Our daughter can invent a song about any subject matter on the spot. Right now her favourite topics are ponies and ballerinas, with naughty monkeys and magic dolphins thrown in for a plot twist.
AB: Do you have a hobby or an interest not many people know about?
LA: I love art and I’m a big non-fiction reader. I teach Sunday school to the pre-K set – and love it! I volunteer. And I’m working on being a better blogger.
AB: What’s your favourite thing to do?
LA: Go to the beach with my family.
AB: Are you still getting calls for rock shows? What new directions are you taking musically?
LA: I will be out performing again next summer doing a few festivals. We’ve put together a hybrid show of the old and the new. The older Lee Aaron hits revised with a more modern approach, the newer pop-jazz played a bit more aggressively.
It works very well and seems to relate to a couple of generations of fans. It’s fun to play, and family friendly.
AB: If there was something in your life you could have done differently, what would that have been?
LA: Had 11 children, like my grandma. I just love a bustling house. But got to see the world so I really have no complaints about how it all turned out.
