Diane Warren on being star-struck, writing for Beyonce and Cher ‘humping a canon’ for If I Could Turn Back Time

The songwriter was also behind Cher’s hit Turn Back Time (Picture: Michael Tran/ Getty)

Songwriter Diane Warren, 64, on finally doing her own album, writing for Cher and Beyoncé, and the one book that changed her life.

So, why did it take you so long to do this album?

Sorry, I have a needy cat trying to climb up my leg. Erm, I don’t know.

I was thinking, all these DJ producers — Mark Ronson, David Guetta, Calvin Harris — put together these albums with all these featured artists and I thought, ‘No songwriter has done that so why the f**k can’t it be me?’

It started with this John Legend song that’s on the album called Where Is Your Heart.

Do you write with specific people in mind?

No, I just kind of write a great song. On this album, I wrote the James Arthur song, You Go First, which is one of my favourites on this album, with his voice in my head.

I’m really drawn to voices that have pain in them and James’s voice has a lot of angst and pain which was perfect for that song. I didn’t really know him but when I wrote that song I reached out to him and said, ‘I have a song I’m going to send to you…’

Diane wrote You Go First with Jame Arthur’s unique voice in mind (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock)

Does anyone ever say no to you?

Oh, yeah! People say no to me all the time. But sometimes it’s just not meant to be their song, you know. Sometimes I get a better artist for it and it’s like, ‘Thank you for saying no. Because you said no, the right artist did it.’

Can you choose a favourite song of yours or is that like choosing a favourite child?

It’s hard to choose a favourite. I have favourites, plural.

I Was Here by Beyoncé, Because You Loved Me by Celine, some you haven’t even heard yet… A couple on this album.

I Was Here by Beyoncé is one of Diane’s favourite songs (Picture: Brooks Kraft/ Getty Images)

Do you get to know the artists who perform your songs? Did Cher become your friend after If I Could Turn Back Time?

I’m friendly with her but we don’t hang out. She probably doesn’t want to hang out with me. Some people I become friends with but a lot of the time I’m just giving a song to someone.

It must be such a thrill when you see a video like Turn Back Time and think, ‘That idea in my head now has a ship and sailors…’

And Cher humping a cannon. At the time that was really risqué.

With this album, were you in the room when the singers were recording?

Paloma Faith sang Blessings in the studio but that was right before the shutdown. Paloma is great.

I wrote Only Love Can Hurt Like This for Paloma and I think Blessings from this album could be another hit for her.

Who were the songwriters you loved growing up?

I was the biggest Beatles fan ever and the end of last year, Ringo asked me for a song and I gave him Here’s To The Night and it’s quite a singalong chorus so I said, ‘Let’s get all your old friends…’ and all I could think about was Paul McCartney…

So we got Lenny Kravitz and Corinne Bailey Rae and Dave Grohl and Sheryl Crow but most important of all Paul McCartney’s on there.

It was so exciting to have two Beatles singing on the song, me a little kid who obsessively bought Beatles records. I can still pinch myself.

Do you get star-struck?

With that! Oh yeah! My other songwriting influences were from the Brill Building in New York: Goffin-King, Mann and Weil, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich. I feel like I’m almost continuing the tradition of that time.

That was like a songwriting factory. Is that how you feel like you work?

Yeah. That’s what I am. In a good way though. I’m very hand-made.

How would you feel about being on stage yourself?

No! I get stage fright so the idea of being on a stage doesn’t appeal to me, unless I get an Oscar. Because I’ve lost 12 times, I’d be happy to go on stage for that. I’m going to try again this year. That would be a huge thrill I’m not going to lie.

It’s funny now that I’m the woman with the most Oscar losses in any category not to have won… Which is quite a cool thing, I suppose.

You’ve got quite a trademark look with the fringe and everything.

It’s the only way my hair will look. It won’t do anything else. There’s a picture on my Instagram of my father holding me when I was a baby and the hair is exactly the same.

Because You Loved Me was for your father, wasn’t it?

It was for the movie Up Close And Personal but I was thinking about my father when I wrote it. I was thanking my dad for believing in me.

He got me the subscription to [music industry bible] Billboard when I was 14 because that was school for me. I got kicked out of school. It wasn’t teaching me what I wanted to know. Reading Billboard was school. That was the book I needed to read.

There are a lot of British singers on this album, aren’t there?

That’s because you guys have the best singers: Paloma, James Arthur, James Morrison, those are all great singers. I’m a big fan of British music. You guys appreciate singers more than the US.

Diane Warren: The Cave Sessions Vol. 1 is out now

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