Nancy Sinatra
"Summer Wine" duo partner Lee Hazlewood broke her heart
Nancy Sinatra released a new album when she was 80.
© Henry Mcgee / Globe Photos
Lee Hazlewood was instrumental in Nancy Sinatra's breakthrough in the 1960s. But he broke her heart, as she now revealed.
At the age of 80, Nancy Sinatra released a new album this year. She owes her international breakthrough in the 1960s to one thing: Lee Hazlewood (1929-2007), who worked with her on songs such as "These Boots Are Made for Walking" (1966) or "Summer Wine" (1967). But the same man who made her successful and who was her duet partner for many years also broke her heart, as Frank Sinatra's (1915-1998) daughter revealed in an interview with "Bild am Sonntag".
When she first met him in 1964, the chemistry between the two was right away. "Lee introduced us to many songs he thought would be appropriate for me, including 'These Boots Are Made For Walking," says Sinatra. It was not a good time for her. She had just divorced her first husband, had no apartment of her own and moved in with her mother when she was 24.
"He broke my heart with it"
The now 80-year-old doesn't want to make it clear whether she was in love with her songwriter and project partner at the time. "Lee was married. He was always there for me, but we never really saw each other as lovers," she describes. However, he broke her heart when he "disappeared overnight". They were in the middle of the album when he moved to Sweden: "Without telling me about it or saying goodbye. He broke my heart with it."
Three years before Hazlewood's death in 2007, the successful duo recorded another album together. He never gave her the reasons for his sudden disappearance. "I found it difficult to forgive him. But I have to say that I owe him my career."
She still thinks about her kissing scene with Elvis
Hazlewood isn't the only ex Nancy Sinatra remembers today. In 1968 she shot with Elvis Presley for his film "Speedway", in which there was a kissing scene between the two. "It was sparkling," recalls Sinatra. "We had to do the scene twice, then it was done. It's a shame, actually."
Sinatra, who lives alone in a house in the Palm Springs desert, now feels lonely. Mainly because of the corona pandemic; Every now and then her daughters Amanda and AJ come by and stand outside wearing masks, she describes. "But that's not the same as a hug." Sinatra has been widowed since 1985, her second husband Hugh Lambert died of cancer at the age of 55. In 2018, her mother, Nancy Sr., died at the age of 101.