and lifelong New Yorker.

For over four decades, she's been interviewing

the biggest artists on the planet.

Now she has a new book called,

"Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls,"

which is available now.

Here is Lisa Robinson.

Lisa, oh, my gosh, thank you so much for coming on the show.

It's great -- I can't believe I got you to Zoom.

This is so exciting. -I can't either.

It's only the third time I've done it,

but for you, absolutely.

Thanks for having me on.

-Oh, please. I love you.

Obviously, I've known you for a long time.

I will say this one thing about you that I think is true,

but anytime I saw you at a party or an event or something,

I always knew it was a good party because --

-Oh, thank you.

-That meant I was in the right place.

-I went to an awful lot of them,

so there must've been a lot of good parties.

-Yeah, it meant I was in the right place.

I go, "Okay, I'm in the right party."

For those who are not familiar with your work,

I want to give them an idea

of how incredible your career has been.

You've been a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair"

for over 20 years.

"Rolling Stone" has called you rock journalism's top insider.

"Washington Post" says you're a pioneering music journalist.

Basically anything that's happened in music

over the past 45 years, you've had a front-row seat.

Do you agree with these?

-The pioneering thing is hilarious

because it conjures up an image

of, like, a covered wagon going west or something.

I'm not that old. -Yeah, no, but I like that.

-I was one of the few women in the '70s

who managed to break into that boys club.

I traveled with Zeppelin, I traveled with the Stones,

and then it all sort of fell into place.

Just as Keith Richards says, "It was a lucky accident."

And I just started interviewing people.

And I think the reason I was able to have that kind of access

was that I wasn't a reviewer, I wasn't a critic,

I wasn't judging anyone.

I was a fan like you are.

And, you know, I just loved talking to them about music.

I mean, even with the guys, Mick Jagger,

I would talk about shoes.

We would gossip about other musicians.

He would ask me "What's Bowie like?

What's Bryan Ferry doing" when he was dating

Bryan Ferry's girlfriend behind his back.

But that kind of stuff would happen all the time,

and this went on for about 30 years.

-Yeah. -Meanwhile, I interviewed

hundreds of women, and nobody ever asked me about the girls.

Hence the title of the book.

And I figured, "Wait a minute. I've talked to Tina Turner,

Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks --"

all the way up now to Adele, Rihanna, Beyoncé, Gaga,

and I just thought, "I'm a woman. They're women."

And I wanted to tell some of their stories.

-Yeah, and who better to tell these stories?

I want to read one line from here.

It says, "When a man becomes successful and famous,

he gets more of everything.

When a woman gets successful and famous, she loses something."

What do you mean by that? -Yeah.

Well, I think Gaga said that, but also the idea

was Bonnie Raitt told me when she was married her husband

was always referred to as Mr. Bonnie Raitt.

Stevie Nicks told me

she couldn't bring other boyfriends around Fleetwood Mac

because Lindsey Buckingham would be furious.

And she couldn't have a child

because it would have broken up the band.

There are endless stories in this book about women

whose marriages and relationships fell apart

when they became really successful and their boyfriends

or their husbands couldn't deal with it.

Their egos just couldn't deal with it.

And also, a lot of women gave up their careers

when they became mothers.

There's a whole chapter on motherhood.

I just think that women have a tougher time in general,

and this whole book, to me, it's about rich, famous women

who have the same problems that all women have --

problems with relationships, with money,

with male record executives, with abuse.

You know, all these topics are covered in the book.

-I remember reading up in some article

I was reading about you that you said, like, I think

all of your interviews -- again, correct me if I'm wrong --

you used three analog tape recorders, never digital.

-Actually they're right behind me.

Yeah. I went to interview John Lennon once,

and the tape screwed up, the cassette.

This was in the '70s, of course.

And he was very kind.

He let me come back and do the interview again.

And ever since then, I bring three,

so I have this whole setup of three analog cassette recorders.

And in fact, the only other person I know who uses cassette,

I interviewed Quest and Lin-Manuel Miranda once,

and Lin-Manuel told me he also uses cassettes.

And everybody stares at it.

Beyoncé once looked at it and she said,

"Did you ever think of moving up to digital?"

So I got a digital tape recorder.

-Of course. -I have a diagram

as if it were done for a 5-year-old,

really practically with crayons of how to work it.

And I went to interview Lady Gaga

for the first time in the Beverly Hills Hotel

in a bungalow with the setup of the three analog tape recorders,

and I was so proud to bring out the digital one.

And guess which one didn't work.

-Of course. -The digital one.

-The digital one. Of course. -So I stick with what I know.

-I was wondering if I could maybe show you some stills

of pictures of you in the book and just tell me the first thing

that pops in your mind when you see these photos

and about these artists.

Like, there's you and Beyoncé.

-Oh, Beyoncé!

Well, the first thing that pops in my mind,

and really, this is absolutely the truth.

When I first started to interview her,

she was doing her solo album

and she told me about the struggles that she had had,

which you would not think she had had from Destiny's Child,

but this is my point.

Every one of these women go through 10 years

before they get to where they are.

And Beyoncé was dropped by a label,

Destiny's was dropped by a label,

and when she did her first solo album,

they told her, at the record company,

she didn't have a single.

And she said, "They were right, I had four."

And the other thing she said that I loved --

that she did that I loved, we ordered a pizza

when we were doing this interview and she had one slice.

Now, the idea of being that disciplined to have one slice,

I ate the entire rest of the pizza.

-[ Laughing ] Who has one slice of pizza?

-We were at a party once where they brought us a brownie,

and she cut it into four parts, four squares,

and she had one square.

And I said, "I can't --

Who could eat one square of a brownie?"

And she said, "It's part of my job."

So that's how disciplined she was.

-Discipline right there. -I absolutely was in awe

because I ate the rest of the whole thing.

-[ Laughs ] Good for you. Yeah, I would too.

How about this picture right here of Janet Jackson?

-Judging by my hair, I think she was around five.

It was in the '70s,

and I was interviewing the Jackson 5 a lot at that time.

And she was very camera shy.

She didn't want to pose for the camera.

But I interviewed her when she was five,

but then I interviewed her again in the '80s after "Control"

and "Rhythm Nation" came out.

And the thing that impressed me about her was

she had no illusions about show business.

She grew up in a show business family.

She was very close to Michael,

and she said to me that her brother, Michael Jackson,

told her, "Don't ever let bad things

said about you bother you.

Just ignore it and put it in your music."

And when I talked to her after "Control" came out,

she was very clear about the fact

that her father managed her --

and this is all in the family chapter in the book --

but that he worked for her, that she didn't work for him.

And then ultimately she fired him and hired another manager.

So that was what "Control" was all about.

-Lisa, you knocked it out of the park with this one.

Thank you for writing it. -Thank you.

-Thank you so much for coming on.

I miss you. I love talking to you.

And I can't believe I got you to Zoom.

This is legendary for me. I love it.

-This is probably the last time I'm gonna do it.

-[ Laughs ] Lisa Robinson, everybody.

Her book, "Nobody Ever Asked Me About the Girls,"

is available now. It's a great read.