Following a tough year in 2022 that included a milestone birthday, the end of a long-term romantic relationship, a teenage daughter leaving the nest and dealing with her aging mother’s signs of Alzheimer’s, singer-songwriter Joan Osborne poured it all into her new album.
And that’s why it’s no surprise that the now 61-year-old multi-Grammy-nominated singer, who shot to fame with her 1995 hit “One of Us,” says it’s the most personal record she has ever made.
“I think part of it has to do with being the age I am and not feeling this necessity to sort of protect myself so much, or to hide and be mysterious in the songwriting,” Osborne said during a phone interview from her New York home as she was recovering from oral surgery just ahead of a national tour in support of her eleventh album, “Nobody Owns You.”
“I was going through a lot of different things within my family and relationships and I thought this is all that I can think of now. So instead of trying to separate this out and make music that is not about this, I’m going to try to use all of this as material and try to turn this very tumultuous and often painful stuff into something beautiful,” she said.
The tour lands the soulful singer at the recently opened Venice West venue in Venice on Thursday, Nov. 16. The evening will feature the new songs and her famous hits.
Osborne reached international fame with her album “Relish” that included the hit “One of Us,” which topped the charts in several countries, earned multiple Grammy nominations and was used as the theme song for the hit television series “Joan of Arcadia.”
“I do still enjoy playing it live. If it was a different kind of song, like a booty-shake-type of song I might be tired of it. But if it had to be one song, that’s a pretty interesting song to be the one I’m known for,” she said.
As that single climbed the charts, it was all a whirlwind time for the Kentucky-born singer.
“It was all a little bit like a crazy dream at the time,” Osborne said. “I also was so gratified that the record seemed to be connecting with so many people. It sold millions of copies and it seemed to really be having this emotional impact on people and I think that’s what every artist dreams of, to have that kind of reach and affect so many people.”
In her decades-long career Osborne has touched on many genres including rock, soul, pop, R&B, blues and country. The new 12-track album, which was released in September, leans heavily on the Americana and rootsy vibe with banjos, lap steel guitars, piano, organ and baritone guitar in the mix with a bit of a pop polish wrapped in her deeply personal songs.
“It’s still sometimes difficult to sing the songs live because I’m still very close to those feelings, but I have to say I’m most proud of the fact that the songs are very honest and very simple and straightforward,” she said.
One of those songs is a sort of message to her past self titled “I Should’ve Danced More.”
“That sort of taking stock process led me to this thought of you know I’ve done way too much cleaning in my life, I just need to dance more,” she said.
The title track “Nobody Owns You” is a song many parents of older teens can relate to. It’s a message about female empowerment, which Osborne wrote for her college-bound daughter who, at the moment, may not be that interested in listening to her mother.
“As much as we’ve come so far in supporting our girls and our young women and telling them they could be anything in the world, I still think they live in this culture where they think nobody can be mad at them and they have to please everyone and they have to put other people’s need before their own,” she said.
“My daughter is a teenager so she’s not really that open to listening to what I have to say to her, so that’s kind of frustrating. But I have an outlet where I can put these words into songs. So maybe she’ll listen to it now or at some point in the future,” she continued.
There are also odes to her mother in songs like “Secret Wine,” which is about her mother’s dementia and dealing with the end of her life.
“I think I feel glad that I was able to put that level of honesty in the songs and in the performance, too,” Osborne said.
And as far as her recent surgery goes, which was for the removal of a cyst in her jaw that required the extraction of a wisdom tooth, it was really nothing compared to the emotional year she’s had.
“I’m a little bit shaky, I had to have oral surgery last week and I’m still not 100 percent back, but I will be by the time I come to Venice,” she said.
Joan Osborne
When: 8 p.m. Nov. 16
Where: Venice West, 1717 Lincoln Blvd., Venice
Tickets: $55 at Ticketweb.com
