Here is part of the interview with Perla regarding the E Rock Star Wives show...and more.
Stand by your manSeptember 6, 2007
Next to the rest of the spouse line-up, which range from the genetically blessed to the surgically enhanced, Slash's on-again, off-again lover of 17 years looks the least likely candidate for rock royalty. Short and stocky, with red hair and small features, she is more Sharon Osbourne than Jerry Hall. But of the women in this group who can claim to have been around long enough to have survived the bumpy back-seat ride on the rock'n'roll highway, 34-year-old Cuban-born Perla Hudson has the most staunch philosophy on how to keep her man. Unlike some of the other wives interviewed on the show, it doesn't involve titillating him with threesomes or adhering to the rock mantra: "what happens on tour stays on tour".
"Never let them see you're insecure," she tells Green Guide. "Be strong. And you need to know how to release the reins a bit, to let them have a moment to come back to you . . . The minute you get insecure, men will look elsewhere. I'm not the type of girl that continually asks her husband, 'So, do I look fat?'. I tell him I look hot. I'm very assertive like that and you have to be with a man in Slash's position . . . whether it's a girl flirting with him or trying to get with him, Slash is a grown man and maybe he knows better. If he did anything I'd castrate him."
All the wives in the show (with the exception of Lia Neil, who is in the process of divorcing Vince) stress the importance of having their own careers. Porn star Tera Patrick has released an "interactive" movie. Cheryl Cooper teaches ballet, Mitzi Martin is a model who has the occasional role in teen slacker movies, Susan Holmes designs bikinis.
If Perla's pilot for a television drama, which she says is "loosely based" on her relationship, was indeed inspired by actual events, Slash might consider himself lucky to have hung onto the family jewels. Then again, his wife's own closet is not without its skeletons. Titled Madam Teresa, her script follows the misadventures of a rock'n'roll family that has "many dark little secrets".
"It's inspired by us completely," she explains. "The wife is a madam but the husband doesn't know. The husband has a thing for under-age girls and they find out when an illegitimate child comes to the door. It's a pretty crazy story."
Perla freely admits to having once run an escort service. And she knows what it's like to be the "other woman". When Perla's relationship with Slash reignited five years after they first met (she was a 17-year-old groupie who talked her way backstage at a Guns N' Roses concert), he was married to model Renee Suran. But Perla won back his heart and the pair eloped to Hawaii. They now have two sons (London, five, and Cash, three) and live in one of two sprawling houses they own in the Hollywood Hills.
"I'm a full-time mother and wife," Perla says. "I'm a very hands-on person. I cook in the house, I oversee everything myself. After getting sober, we fired assistants, chefs, everything and I pretty much took over."
Newfound sobriety is a universal theme of Rock Star Wives. Every musician interviewed is in recovery, their wives tut-tutting about the messy past. But Perla is the only wife who admits to battling her own demons, going "completely sober" a year ago, after years of making the most of the free drugs and booze that come with the territory.
"I went sober first and then (Slash) did it after me. Before, we'd each be sober but at different times, and one of us was always manning the ship. Then it got to the point where we were both just wasted and then we said, 'OK, we have kids now, we've got to get everything straight', so we did it and it's been wonderful. It's like a whole new relationship."
According to the perky male voiceover that interjects throughout the rapid-fire footage of interview snippets, constant cut-away shots and repetitive shock statements from the stars and their wives, the greatest trade-offfor a life of "non-stop suspicion" and a "never-ending struggle against crazed fans" is the promise of "immortality" - going down in rock history as a songwriter's muse.
Sadly, for Perla Hudson, that is an honour unlikely to be bestowed upon her. "Slash writes songs but he doesn't say, 'This one's for you, darling, you inspired this one," she says. "There's none of that. I wish."
Complete story and photo here:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/stand-by-your-man/2007/09/05/1188783247476.html
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