Carnie Wilson Reveals Why Wilson Phillips Really Broke Up: 'We Couldn't Come Together With the Pressure'
Carnie Phillips is giving new insights into Wilson Phillips’ breakup.
The 57-year-old singer explained what led to the band’s 1993 split on a recent episode of “The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan.”
“The three of us have been friends since birth. We couldn’t come together with the pressure. Musically, we could come together, but spiritually and individually, inside of us was the egos,” she said, adding that there was a sense of “competitiveness” in the ensemble.
Carnie, who was in the group with Wendy Wilson and Chynna Phillips, was also not a fan of the fact that the band was originally going to be called “The Chynna Phillips Group.”
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“I thought to myself, ‘Well wait a minute here. There would be no group if I hadn’t gotten us together and had that love of harmony and said, ‘Get in here and sing.’ And there wouldn’t be a group if Owen Elliot hadn’t said, ‘Let’s record together.’ I mean, there were five years where we didn’t see Chynna,” she said.
Carnie also believed in the importance of the band’s collaborative dynamic.
“I feel like that’s the best way to get the most out of it. You want to be a solo artist? Great. But when it’s the three of us, it’s the three of us. And clearly the proof is in the pudding. That’s what made the group, is the three,” she added.
When Chynna decided to go solo after the band’s breakup, Carnie said she was was deeply hurt.
“So when there was this, ‘I want to stick out, I want to go solo,’ yeah, it upset me. I had to accept it. I remember crying on the phone to [producer] Glen Ballard saying, ‘How could somebody walk away from something so successful?’… It hasn’t ended. I couldn’t get over, I couldn’t get past the shock,” she said.
Carnie also said that she would ask Chynna to get the group back together on a yearly basis, but her requests were consistently declined.
If you didn’t know, Carnie and Wendy are the daughters of Beach Boys member Brian Wilson, while Chynna is the daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas and Papas. Wilson Phillips formed in 1986, and are known for their hits such as “Hold On” and “You’re In Love.”
If you didn’t see, last year, Chynna gave details about her marriage with Billy Baldwin.