Pop goddess Beyoncé Knowles is a virtual music-making machine who has been operating at full throttle ever since she streaked into orbit with Destiny’s Child in the late 1990s.
That machine is in dire need of maintenance and repair after a remarkable 13-year run. Beyoncé is finally self-imposing a moratorium from recording, performing or making scheduled public appearances. Even though part of her doesn’t want to take the six-month furlough from the only game she knows, she also knows a sabbatical will be therapeutic for her — and it will finally give her fans a chance to miss her for a change.
“It’s definitely time to take a break, to recharge my batteries. I’d like to take about six months and not go into the studio. I need to just live life, to be inspired by things again,” she said in an interview with USA Today. “I’m going to do random things. I want to go to restaurants, maybe take a class and see some movies and Broadway shows.”
Even though delicious harmonies continue to dance in her brain without fail, she says she will do her best to repel the irresistible temptation to dive back into the nearest studio.
“I wrote out a contract with myself. I made a list of everything I want to do that has nothing to do with music. Well, some of it does,” she admitted. “But I promised myself that I would not go back on tour or in the studio until I finished these things. It will be the hardest thing in the world for me to make myself not do an album and shoot a video and turn it in and say, ‘I’m ready!’ I already have all these melodies and ideas in my head. I have to tell myself, ‘Sit down! Sit down!’ ”
–terry shropshire
