Ken Grand-Pierre
Sophie B. Hawkins, the trailblazing singer-songwriter who shot to fame in the early ’90s on the backs of hits like “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” and “As I Lay Me Down,” has a lot going on that she can’t wait to talk about, namely the impending release of Free Myself, her first album in more than a decade. But first, she needs to tell us about the huge gray wolf she saw yesterday in her neighbor’s driveway.
“It was really shocking. It was like out of a dream. It was five in the morning, and I look up, and there’s a timber wolf just sauntering down the driveway,” she excitedly tells The Daily Beast over Zoom from her home in Connecticut. “It was like a message from a dream. They were alone, and I thought wolves travel in packs.”
It’s impossible not to think of her “lone wolf” story over the next 40 minutes as Hawkins not only describes Free Myself—an album she made after ending a 17-year relationship—but reflects on her unlikely fame in the ’90s. It’s not that she lacked any of the talent or determination to become a star; the multi-instrumentalist has the kind of husky voice that instantly seduces you as well as a knack for evocative, quirky songwriting. But she never felt like she belonged in the mainstream pop lane she stumbled into with her seminal debut album, 1992’s Tongues and Tails, and subsequent Grammy nomination.