Diane Warren interview: ‘Diane Warren: Relentless’
At this point in Diane Warren's illustrious and very successful career, there isn't a lot she hasn't achieved. The Grammy-, Emmy-, and Golden Globe-winning songwriter ("I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," "If I Could Turn Back Time") has racked up nearly every accolade and award a person working in this industry could receive. Those of us who follow award seasons closely know that Warren is a perennial Oscar nominee, with 16 total nominations thus far and an honorary Oscar awarded in 2022 at the Academy's 13th Governor's Awards.
In the documentary Diane Warren: Relentless, filmmaker Bess Kargman explores Warren's unique genius, her early life and influences, and modest lifestyle. The film features interviews and insightful, often hilarious anecdotes from Warren's famous collaborators including: Cher, Jennifer Hudson, LeAnn Rimes, Common, and earned Warren a 16th Grammy nomination for her song "Dear Me," performed by Kesha.
Gold Derby caught up with Warren to discuss the documentary, her thoughts on her famous collaborators' honest commentary, and why she's still her own toughest critic.
Gold Derby: How are you feeling about the documentary overall?
Diane Warren: It was an interesting experience. I wasn't the easiest subject, in fact, one of the cameramen quit [during filming] because he didn't think I was taking it seriously enough. At one point I said, "I'll be right back." I started working on a song in the other room and I never came back. And in fact, we did some of the interview in this room. That was some of the backdrop.
It's actually really cool. I love that some of my really old friends are in it, because they're all honest. And then you have the Chers of the world, and Jennifer Hudson, and David Foster and Clive Davis and people like that, just great artists and great people to be in there, too. At the end of the day, I'm really happy I did it. And I love the song I wrote for it. And yeah, it won at the HMMAs last night. It won best song from a doc and the documentary won. Who knew? And the documentary got nominated for a Grammy, I was really surprised. Grammy nominations morning, my phone started blowing up. I'm like, "What's going on?" And so it's really cool. And I'm really proud. I really loved the song. The whole thing was different to write a song for a movie about me, which was a strange experience.
Also very poetic too, to have Kesha record that song.
Yeah, I'll tell you why. I've written songs for a lot of movies. I want to tie it up emotionally and always start with: "What do I want to hear?" So what do I want to hear in a movie about me? Well, I was a pretty fucked up kid, bullied and you know, kids were mean to me and and no, I didn't feel understood and I felt alone in the world. It was hard being a kid for me and music pretty much saved me and I wanted to write a song to that kid. So I wanted the fucked up older me to write a song to the fucked up younger me. I wanted to write a song to her going, "You know what? It's gonna be OK." And that's what "Dear Me" is. We all have that wounded child in us and to me, the song was kind of a love letter to that wounded child and the wounded child in all of us. And Kesha, what I do when I'm thinking about an artist for one of my songs is I'm a casting director, when I cast a song. That artist has to be authentic to the movie. H.E.R. was authentic, she did "The Journey" last year, when Lady Gaga did "Till It Happens To You," she was authentic. So for "Dear Me," I thought, "Who's my authentic avatar?" And to me, it was Kesha. There wasn't plan B for who was gonna do it. It was gonna be Kesha because she's a great singer. And also, her story, she had a difficult life, you know, so I knew that it would connect with her on a deep level and that it could be, the beauty of it is it's her song, too. I knew she would feel it in her soul. And when she came in the studio and I played it for her, she just started crying. It just, you feel the song and it becomes theirs. And when Kesha had that reaction, I knew I was right.
GD: Was there any one person's story about you that surprised you about what people talked about in the film?
Warren: Well, I just think everybody said the truth. Even when David Foster says, "You're difficult," well, I could be difficult — not difficult in a mean way. My difficulty is because it's in the service of the song, in the service of my work. I'm not an a--hole. And I didn't want anybody to just say, "You're great, you're great." Like how boring is that? Well, of course it's nice when they say that too but it's great when someone's honest.
GD: What was the first instrument you actually picked up and were you self-taught with everything?
Warren: Guitar. I'm self-taught as a musician. My dad brought me a little guitar from Tijuana when I was like 10 or 11, something like that. I started writing songs when I was 11. And then I got really obsessed when I was about 14. I'm just as obsessed and possessed by songwriting as I ever was. And I think I'm writing my best songs. I think I'm always learning. I think this is one of my best songs.
How do you judge your own work? Are you graceful or are you hard on yourself?
Warren: I'm really hard on myself. If I'm gonna work on that song for days, which is what I do on a song, especially lyrics, then I have to really love it. I have to believe in it and I have very high standards. So it has to be something that I wanna spend time with.
What's the quickest you've ever written a song and the longest?
Warren: Oh, I don't even know. God, one of the quickest I remember, was a long time ago, a song I wrote for Michael Bolton called "When I'm Back on My Feet Again." I remember that one just wrote itself and most of them aren't like that. A lot of times part of it will write itself and then you think, "Oh, this one's gonna be easy" and then the bridge will take... like the song I'm writing right now, every part was really easy except the bridge is a f--king bitch and I've been working on it for two days but I'll get it. It's coming together.
This article and video are presented by Greenwich Entertainment.
