Cyndi Lauper Gets Real About Aging Philosophy at 71: 'It F---ing Sucks' but 'Trick Is Not to Get Too Decrepit' (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Cyndi Lauper in 2024.Photo:Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

The hilariously candidCyndi Lauperisn’t one to mince words — especially when it comes to aging.

“It f—ing sucks. Like in ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,’ you could even say it blows!” she tells PEOPLE with a laugh.

The pop icon, 71, who is about to embark on herGirls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, says that despite not enjoying the growing older process, she does her best to stay in shape and stave offfeelingold.

“What you need to do is take care of yourself,” says the singer, who first rose to fame with the 1983 release of her debut albumShe’s So Unusualwhen she was 30.

“That’s the major thing. I try to force myself to do something — the bike, the walking, the weights, the yoga. Yoga’s great, because it just puts you in a zone mentally. But who wants to get old and decrepit? Nobody! But the trick is, I guess, not to gettoodecrepit.”

Last June, the singertold PEOPLE that she’s never been excitedabout getting older:

“One year, when I was 38, I remember back then I wasn’t going to get up or talk to anybody,” Lauper said at the time.

“Even at 30, [producer] Rick Chertoff told me, ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Life starts at 30. Get up, and come on now. We’re going out to eat.’ So, I’m just going to have to get over it [this year],” she said.

Cyndi Lauper performing at Glastonbury in June 2024.Leon Neal/Getty Images

Leon Neal/Getty Images

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Lauper’s upcoming tour kicks off on Oct. 18 in Montreal and will play in arenas around the country before ending in Europe in late February. Lauper says she’s thrilled to take her show on the road and is especially excited about a big arena tour since she’d only ever done one before.

“I was an opener for other acts at arenas, then I got to do one big tour for myself,” she tells PEOPLE.

“Then I got pregnant with my son [Declyn, now 26], and I was worried I couldn’t do a whole show, so I went back to being an opener again. So watch out, kids, once an opener, always an opener!”

“I never tried to live in the past because I know that everything changes in the world and in your life,” she says. “There are so many different chapters that not being able to open a new one is criminal.”

For more from Cyndi Lauper, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

source: people.com