In 1997, Streisand sat down with Barbara Walters to publicize her new album, Higher Ground. This was Barbra's fifth interview with Barbara — and Streisand brought husband-to-be Jim Brolin along and appeared on camera with him.
First, the two ladies addressed the inspiration for the new album. Barbra, over footage of her 1994 Las Vegas concert, said: “Virginia Clinton Kelly was an incredible support system for me. I told her I was frightened to sing and I asked her which night she’d like to come, Friday or Saturday, and she’d said, ‘Well, I’ll be there both nights’ she spent the last weekend of her life with me.”
Kelly passed away two days after the concerts. “When I went to her funeral,” Barbra said, “I was sitting in this room with hundreds of people paying tribute to her, and all of a sudden this girl started to sing a song called ‘On Holy Ground.’ The music unified us and I said, I must sing this song.”
They also discussed the Academy Awards, when Celine Dion stepped up to sing “I Finally Found Someone” and Barbra had left the auditorium. “I was heartbroken, because I knew that this would be a wonderful moment on television to have her singing, flash to me, next to my love Jim Brolin, of a song that I wrote called ‘I Finally Found Someone.’ This is a wonderful moment to capture on tape, right? Why would I miss it? Is the press this cynical to make up a story that I would have deliberately done this to her?”
Walters:
In this album, what is the message that you’re trying to bring to people?
Barbra:
What the world seems to want now, which is coming together, they want to unite, they want to love one another.
While walking the grounds of Barbra's homes, she and Barbara Walters roamed through the rose garden. “We’re looking to try to cultivate a rose that has a great smell, and is strong, and vibrant and good color,” Barbra explained about a possible “Barbra Streisand Rose.” [Note:
They succeeded!]
Talking about love, Streisand revealed: “I think for the first time in my life I’m not afraid to love. You see, what Jim does with me too in my life is, he fills a void that I never thought could be filled. Not having a father it was this kind of deep hole that could never be filled. Not only is he my lover and my friend, my best friend, but he fills the role of my dad at times, you know.”
After a commercial break, Jim Brolin joined the interview. Walters asked him if their relationship was “50-50” and Brolin replied, “It’s a hundred—a hundred.”
The couple were coy about revealing an actual wedding date.
Walters:
Did you ever think that this would happen to you in quite this way?
Brolin:
No. I know you’re talking to her, but, no.
Barbra:
No, you can’t imagine it. You’ve imagined it all your life, but then you can’t imagine it cause it’s never happened. And then it happens and then you can’t imagine it. But then you imagined it all the time, but now it’s here, so it’s hard to imagine.
Walters concluded the broadcast with statement from Barbra: “The stories about postponing my wedding for a world tour are ridiculous. That presupposes that I can’t get married and sing at the same time. Jim and I want to tour the world, but alone. If I sing, it will be to him privately. If I tour at all, it will probably be in the year 1999. What people don’t understand is that my personal life is far more important to me than my professional life.”
