Cass Elliot.Photo:Donaldson Collection/Getty
Donaldson Collection/Getty
Cass Elliot’s daughter is honoring her mother’s legacy.
Owen Elliot-Kugellannounced Tuesday withRolling Stonethat she will publish a memoir entitledMy Mama, Cassnext year.
“I’ve wanted to tell her story for a really, really long time, and I didn’t know how to do it,” Elliot-Kugell, who had been developing the book for over a decade, toldRolling Stone. “I’m still not really confident about it because it’s so new to me.”
Elliot, who died at age 32 in 1974, was best known for being a member of Grammy-winning ’60s folk rock band the Mamas & the Papas. Born Ellen Naomi Cohen in Baltimore, she joined the group in 1965, appearing on hits like “California Dreamin” and “Monday, Monday.” Elliot also released five solo albums, which included songs “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and “Make Your Own Kind of Music,” which had a TikTok resurgence this year. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Elliot-Kugell was only 7 years old when her mother died. In the book, she details her mother’s early life and prominence in the ’60s counterculture movement.My Mama, Cassalso features multiple interviews, including Mamas & Papas members Michelle Phillips and Denny Doherty, who died in 2007 (Elliot-Kugell notes that many of the interviews come from informal conversations).
The Mamas & The Papas.GAB Archive/Redferns
“It wasn’t enough that we had lost her, to then be [made into] a joke,” Elliot-Kugell toldRolling Stone. “I’d say probably 50 percent of the people don’t believe it now. The other 50 percent probably still do.”
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Cass Elliot in 1970.Donaldson Collection/Getty
Ultimately,My Mama, Cassexplores the many multitudes of the legendary singer. In a press statement, Elliot-Kugell says that writing the book allowed her to gain new insight into her mother.
“What I discovered writing this book is that my mother was a woman far ahead of her time,” she says. “She was a trailblazer, a successful woman in a male-dominated business. An iconic artist, she was the most loyal of friends, of which she had many. Most importantly, she was a single mother who just wanted someone of her very own. That was me.”My Mama, Casswill publish in May 2024 from Hachette Books.
source: people.com
