I have always noticed you have such a collaborative experience about the art you make, and I think you are such a fantastic teacher. I know Joan Rivers was somebody that you held dear as a teacher. How do you view yourself as a teacher?

Oh, thank you. I guess it's just that I'm always interested to hear what people say. You know, when I present them with an idea or present them with ideas about music. Like music, for me is, is really collaborative. I mean, I start with the writing of lyrics and then a melody, and then I kind of need input to try to figure out, like, what is this soundscape like? What is this whole thing going to sound like, and what are the people who are like playing different instruments, what do they hear when they hear so that, to me, they're really fascinating. Part of it is that when you bring this skeleton of the idea, and then they put all of the flesh and blood into it, it's really so amazing. When you have, like, this incredible Frankenstein monster, it's a great thing.

I love the first line that says, I don't take your breath away. And like, I think that's okay. And the other line that I loved was, cats are here to redeem us. How, how does the first released single Lucky Gift speak to you?

For me, it's the idea that love is not for the beautiful is for everyone, and we all can feel it, and that it's not about like this. It's not necessarily about romance, but it can be, yeah, and it's just like, about like, being able to enjoy the idea of romance and love and not necessarily feel like you're a leading lady, you know, and cats are here to redeem us. Cats are really like what I love about cats is that what they allow you to be in their presence. It’s such a gift. You know, cats really teach us about true consent, because cats will only allow you to be near them and pet them and love them if they love you. And it's like a very important thing to acknowledge. I think they're just perfect. And I think that they really have taught me so much.

Who is your naughtiest pet?

My naughtiest pet is my dog, Lucia. She is the best dog. She actually is not very naughty. She's a really well behaved, specially trained and everything. Yeah, unless there's a squirrel outside, which I actually had to put her in another room downstairs, because there's a squirrel up here that she keeps talking to. But they're all pretty good. Like, all my animals are really pretty well behaved. I think, like, if you take care of them, they'll take care of you, yeah. So as long as they have enough, like, enrichment, as long as they have, like, good, whatever. You know, of course, food and water perfect, but everything is really high quality, and they get a lot of play time, they'll be really, they're just really fun to be around.

Why is it so important to you to, like, explore, not the beautiful side in life, when it seems like that's what a lot of us want to celebrate?

Well, I think it's just fun. Like, to me, it's really fun to revel in what is true about being human, what's true about aging, what's true about being woman, being a queer woman in entertainment, like, all the things that are true to me, I think are really funny, and I always respond well to that. Like I like artists who are just into the ugly, embracing the ugly, like Joan Rivers was, you know, to me, I love that. So, I think it's important to like, not help kind of have a lot of artifice in kind of what I'm doing if I present myself on social media like, I never, I don't, I don't really get filters. I don't really edit. I don't want to, because it's like, why this is what I look like. I don't care. Unlike Joan, I don't think I'll get any plastic surgery. I just feel like, what would happen if I just aged like it was kind of fun. Like, let's just see how it goes, because I never really identified as like a pretty girl. So, I think it never was important to me to look any certain way, other than I just wanted to be heard. And I think that's what I'm just continuing with.

You have always been so loud and proud and have encouraged so many people to be able to go back to their communities and be loud and powerful. And you know what pushes you to keep being that drum today?

We have to do it to also like as an older person, like we have to do it for younger queer people who are getting bullied in school. They're getting bullied by this anti trans legislation, they're getting bullied by the homophobic rhetoric that's out there, you know, incoming administration. And so, we have to stand up for ourselves, not just for us, but for the younger generation. Who really have it even worse, because we were able to grow up in a society that we legalized gay marriage, we were able to figure out like a place in society, a place in media. And so now we're at this point of society going way to the right, and so I think it's really important to stand up and be heard and be very loud and be very aggressive about it, and also for loopholes in there too. I think that's really important because we can't take the high road anymore. We’ve seen how that turns, it turns on us and makes us go backwards. I think it's really about getting dirty and fighting really hard. I really wanted Kamala Harris to be president. I really worked as hard as I could on that, and I know a lot of people did, and we're just so heartbroken, and we have to take that and really spy. The thing is, we didn't lose that much. It's not that much. So, we're it's not like we're that far off from winning again, yes, and I think, yeah, that's important to remember.

Is there anything personal about the album that you would like to share?

My first celebrity autograph when I was a really little kid was Robin Williams and then I knew him in comedy, and you know, he was such an incredible force. And so, you know, to sort of make sense of our own grief about it, I started a homeless outreach around 2014 when he died, because he was a big advocate for the homeless. And so we played the song, wrote the song, and played the song out on the street at Hollis at camp, and said it was really powerful there. I'm really, really grateful that I'm able to put the song out on this album. I think it's really beautiful, and I really proud of it.

There’s a song for Next Benedict, who was the non-binary teenager who unfortunately passed away due to a lot of the fault of the Oklahoma Board of Education, and the way that they handled it, and the way that they handled their bullying and bullying, not only by people In school, kids in school, but by the state, essentially. I wrote a song for trans kids and non binary kids called you can be you, which is a hopeful sort of like, promise to them that it's going to be okay, that they're going to be okay, that they're okay. And it's just like for me this, the album is filled with really personal songs that are, you know, sung for people who have died, like the sun baked bread is for my friend Jerry, who I worked on the homeless outreach with, and she sang on a lot of the songs that we sang in the street on this record. So she's not with us anymore. So I wrote that song for her. It's a love song that that sort of love that will never be resolved, but I think that, yeah, for me, the album is all about love in all different forms.

How do you love to enjoy a day off?

I love just hanging out, playing with the cats, taking my dog for a walk, like cooking them food, which I am starting to do a little bit of. You know, I can't always do it, but like when I do it, they really appreciate it. But yeah, I love just taking care of my animals and my garden, which is kind of not in a good shape right now because I've been so busy, but, you know, taking care of all the living things around my house, including myself.

Make sure you check out Margaret Cho’s new album, Lucky Gift and find her on tour across the US!

MARGARET CHO’S “LUCKY GIFT” SINGLE IS OUT NOW! CHO’S FIRST NEW MUSIC ALBUM IN 8 YEARS WILL BE RELEASED FEBRUARY 14, 2025 AND IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER TODAY!