Cyndi Lauper expelled from Catholic school twice as a child
While opening up about feeling like a misfit while growing up, singer Cyndi Lauper has revealed she was expelled from Catholic school twice as a child.
Cyndi Lauper has revealed she was expelled from Catholic school twice as a child.
The 72-year-old singer says her “political differences” with the nuns got her into trouble long before she became a pop icon.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun singer Cyndi opened up about her early school experiences during a conversation with singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams, for Rolling Stone’s Musicians on Musicians feature.
Discussing her difficulties with reading and songwriting, she said: “Listen, I can’t even read a regular book without a piece of white paper underneath every line. I don’t know if that’s because I got hit in the head with a lot of erasers. I have no idea.”
Cyndi added: “I went to Catholic school, but we had a lot of political differences, so I was asked to leave.”
She explained she was expelled “twice, once in third grade, and then again in fourth grade”.
When Gracie asked if she had been removed for talking too much, Cyndi replied: “Oh, no, no, no. For talking back.”
The Grammy-winning artist, who will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025, has previously spoken about her turbulent childhood.
In a 1984 interview with People, she described running away from home at 17 and later earning her high school equivalency diploma after leaving formal education behind.
She said: “I spent years not accepting who I was. In high school I felt out of step. Everything became unreal for me. I felt there just wasn’t any room for me in this world. But you can’t escape yourself.
“‘Why was I alive?’ I’d ask. I didn’t fit in, didn’t have nobody to do things with that I liked. I did them by myself.”
In her Rolling Stone interview, Lauper also discussed her evolution as a songwriter over her four-decade career.
She said: “Sometimes you write something, you’re like, ‘Wow, look at what we did! Genius!’ Then the next day you listen and go, ‘What the heck were you thinking?’ It’s always like that, but ain’t that what we do?”
