Dionne Warwick sounds off on Elon Musk, Donald Trump, CNN doc

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There’s no shortage of topics Dionne Warwick can talk about: Her status as one of music’s most beloved and enduring singers. A six-decade career marked by a catalog of big hits including Walk on By, Do You Know the Way to San Jose and I Say a Little Prayer. Working with top songwriters to create tunes specifically for him. Raising millions of dollars to fight AIDS with the anthem Thats What Friends Are For.

All that and more is spotlighted in the new documentary Dionne Warwick: Dont Make Me Over, which airs Sunday on CNN.

But when journalists interview Warwick these days, they almost always ask about Pete Davidson.

About 90% of interviewers ask me if I would date Pete Davidson, Warwick said a few days after his 82nd birthday, referring to the comedian whose revolving-door romances with Kim Kardashian, Kate Beckinsale, Ariana Grande and others have become constant tabloid fodder.

The inquiry was prompted by a tweet from Warwick after Davidson was linked to model Emily Ratajkowski: I’m going to date Pete Davidson next.

The quip is just one of the witty, freewheeling tweets the entertainer has dished out in recent years. The missives became such a social media sensation that she was dubbed the Queen of Twitter. She fired off a similarly flirtatious tweet about Leonardo DiCaprio following reports that the Oscar winners cutoff age for boyfriends is 25: You dont know what youre missing.

Warwick said, When they ask me about Pete, I say, Give me a break. He paused for a few seconds before adding, Hes dating everyone else. Why not me? punctuate the comment with laughter.

The velvet-voiced singer celebrates the new year with a documentary on his life and achievements. The film features footage of Warwick dating back to his early gospel performances and includes his award-winning partnership with songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Warwicks stumbles are also touched upon, including financial problems and his association with the Psychic Friends Network in the 1990s. But the emphasis is on his achievements, professional and personal.

Former President Clinton, Quincy Jones, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg, the late Olivia Newton-John and many others are among those featured in the film that explores Warwicks voice, hits and impact on popular culture.

Warwick says the documentary, along with his 2010 memoir My Life, as I See It, accurately reflects how he approaches his craft and his life.

I have nothing to be ashamed of, Warwick said as he sipped coffee in a Beverly Hills hotel lounge hours before a performance of hits and Christmas carols at Cal State Los Angeles. I lived the way I was raised to live it. My grandfather, who is the wisest man on Earth second only to Jesus, told me to always tell the truth. The truth is always available, so why lie? There are all these people who have opinions about Dionne, and now those opinions are going to be put forth. This is the absolute truth.

He credits his family and his mentors for keeping him on track: When it looked like I was going in the wrong direction, they grabbed my little butt. I listened carefully. They loved me. They spoiled me to death. I loved it then, and I love it now. I’m still spoiled. I really am, and I let everyone know.

Among the most revelatory details on Dont Make Me Over is how the singer first turned up his nose when offered Heartbreaker and Do You Know the Way to San Jose, two of his biggest hits. Dogg recalled a summit where Warwick invited him and other gangsta rappers to his house, warning them to stop using inflammatory lyrics about women.

Calling the documentary a labor of love, producer, writer and co-director Dave Wooley described Warwick in a statement as a transformational, global icon.

During our conversation, Warwick opened up about his farewell tour, his obsession with Twitter and his feelings about I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the new biopic about his cousin Whitney Houston.

Happy belated birthday. How did you spend the day?

Thank you! My two children treated me to my favorite Italian restaurant. Afterwards, we hung out and had lots of laughs, as we always do. They are two of the craziest young men in my life. It’s very cool.

You announced your big day on Twitter. What do you think of all the controversy about Twitter these days?

I’m going to find out what Mr. Musk. I hope to meet him. I want to ask him, Wheres your head? Where are you going with this? A lot of people jump, and I want to know what he thinks before I decide to stay. Or leave.

What are your concerns?

Everyone is welcome to go crazy back, ignoring what social media is all about.

Is there a possibility you will leave?

It depends on what Mr. Musk. I don’t jump to conclusions. I had the opportunity to work [former Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey]. He actually thanked me for going on Twitter as an adult that showed some sense, and how I actually turned it around so kids weren’t constantly bashing each other or swearing and all that craziness. I let them know, You don’t have to do all that craziness. There is a way to say what you want to say, and always end it with a smile.

What was your reaction when you first saw Dont Make Me Over?

I was really impressed. There are things I have forgotten over the years. And then all these people were talking about me. I loved it, and it was huge. It’s also emotional to see people near and dear to me that are no longer with me.

What was it like to see young Dionne perform?

I did a lot of this: [puts hands over face]. But that’s me.

Dionne Warwick at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1968.

(David Redfern / Redferns)

I really enjoyed the stories of how you rejected Do You Know the Way to San Jose.

I accused Hal David of not writing it. I said Hal, you gave me lyrics that were very positive and sensitive. Now you want me to sing Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa? It was the same when Barry Gibb presented me with Heartbreaker. I said, Barry, I don’t think so. He said, Yes, it is. We go back and forth, back and forth. Then [Arista Records founder] Clive Davis and the Bee Gees reached out to me and said, You’re going to record this song. Barry assured me, This will be one of your biggest hits.

So what happened when those songs became big hits?

I cried all the way to the bank.

There are also some things about the difficult times you are having with the Psychic Friends Network and finances.

We all go through ups and downs. There is a reason for that. There was an accountant who was on the left side of things and I didn’t do the right thing, and left me in a position where taxes were owed because they weren’t filed. Filing bankruptcy seemed like the way to get myself out of trouble. And if General Motors can file for bankruptcy, why not Dionne?

This latest tour is sometimes referred to as your farewell tour.

That is not true. But I’m slowing down. I will no longer be running around the world 362 days a year. I will really pick and choose. I’m at a stage in my life where running through airports is not my strong suit. I feel like I have to preserve Dionne.

You’ve performed so many of your hits hundreds of thousands of times. How do you keep it fresh?

I love every one of my songs. They were written for me. They are my children. I took liberty with quite a few of them and changed them to bring them into the 21st century. I had the pleasure of re-recording a lot of them with a new feel, and it was wonderfully accepted.

Your time on The Celebrity Apprentice will be, simply put, unforgettable.

That was a joke. I said I would because it deals with charitable contributions. When I got involved, I discovered that it was quite a bit more than that. People were showing their true colors, and I felt like I didn’t belong there. I got to the point where women I couldn’t call women I didn’t want to be around.

You and Donald Trump used to be friends. How do you feel about him now?

Oh, my God. I don’t know who this man is. He is not the person I met many, many years ago, the one I met when I performed at his casinos or his houses. I don’t know what happened to him. To me, he is a terrifying creature. I distance myself from people like that.

A lot of your music is related to movies. I have to tell you that one of my favorite soundtracks is The Woman in Red, which you did with Stevie Wonder.

That was an extraordinary experience. Gene Wilder called me and asked if I would be the musical coordinator for that film. I said, what is that? He just said, Im sure you’ll find a way. I called him later and said, I know who’s going to write the music. Stevie Wonder. Gene said, But Dionne, she has to watch the movie to know where the music fits. I said, Hell see it. Trust me. They had a screening for the movie, with temporary music, and I told Stevie to come with me. He sat to my left. When people were laughing, he would ask me what was going on, and I would describe what was going on. Literally, Stevie saw the movie through my eyes. At three or four in the morning, he called me and said, Dionne, listen, listen! He just wrote I Just Called to Say I Love You. The Academy Award he won spoke volumes for his ability.

Speaking of movies, there is a new movie about your cousin Whitney Houston. You have been critical of previous projects about him. Did you see?

They screened it for me last night. Finally, people will get the story about Whitney that they should have gotten from the beginning. His legacy, which is his music, is what matters. This movie justifies who he really is. It deals with all the issues he’s going through, but it doesn’t dwell on them. The essence of the film is what his music should be. I love Clive [Davis, who is an producer] he kept his promise to me.

I heard that a series about your life is being made on Netflix.

What happened is still being discussed. There are parts of my life that the documentary doesn’t cover, and I don’t want those parts to be told after I’m gone. I want to do it while Im still here to tell the truth. LeToya Luckett is the wonderful actress who plays me, and she’s fun and funny. Even though he looks like me. I talked to him a few times, and he did his homework. He knows me better than I know myself.

So is there anything left you want to accomplish?

Yes. Winning a Tony, an Emmy and an Oscar not necessarily in that order.

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