Cher opens up about life with Sonny

It took too long for Cher to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "I thought, what do I have to do?" she said. "I've had number one records in all these decades. I had a song ["Believe"] that changed music forever. And so, what is it that I've gotta do?"

This year she finally made it. At her induction ceremony last month, she said, "It was easier getting divorced from two men than it was to get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!"

It also took forever for Cher to write her story. This week, "Cher: The Memoir – Part One" finally comes out. Asked what she wanted to say with the book, she replied, "In the beginning, I didn't wanna say much. And then at some point, I just thought, Cher, do it or give the money back."

The book centers on her years with Sonny, and her itinerant childhood with a mother who married at least seven times. She writes of how she had to be a grownup from the beginning: "One time we were driving in the car and she said, 'Cher, I don't know how we're gonna pay the rent. What do you think?' And I was like, 'Okay, how is this gonna work? How are we gonna do this?'"

In 1962, Cherilyn Sarkisian met Sonny Bono in a coffee shop. He was wearing a mohair suit and a mustard-colored shirt with a white collar. "I thought it was like when Tony met Maria," she said. "Everybody disappeared, and it was just the two of us."

But she said it was not love at first sight. "It was something," Cher said. "I never felt it before."

Sonny was 27, Cher was 16. "It wasn't passionate; I just loved him," she said.

What did she love about him? "How he was different than anyone else. And he made me laugh. And we had a dream."

That dream came true. By the mid-1960s, Sonny & Cher had five songs in the top 50 at the same time. They had a #1 hit with "I Got You Babe."

In the 1970s, on "The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour," they'd become America's favorite couple, with their banter, their songs, and that Bob Mackie wardrobe: "And then, when they started to realize that people were tuning in because of what I was wearing, then they just gave us all the money we needed," she said. "It was so much fun."

But Sonny began to change. "He just started not to care," Cher said.

About what? "About me."

He didn't like her going out, or even talking with their band. But one member had his eye on her: A guitarist by the name of Bill. One night Cher met up with him. "We walked back to this place where the guys used to get high before the show. And then he kissed me, and it was like, Oh, my God."

Somehow word got back to Sonny. "I don't know if I can actually say what happened because it's so personal, and it's so … it's embarrassing," Cher said.

But it's in the book: After Sonny asked her what she wanted to do, Cher writes: "I said, 'I want to sleep with Bill.' It all seems crazy now. I didn't mean it, but I thought saying those words was the only way that he would let me go."

"I thought if I do this, it's over," she said. "He's not gonna be able to come back. We're not gonna be able to be Sonny & Cher. I just wanna blow it up. But I didn't know I wanted to blow it up until I was blowing it up."

They offered her anything to keep up appearances: "Because everybody was afraid I was gonna blow up the show. They just said, 'What do you want?' And I said, 'Well, I want my own place in Malibu. And I want $5,000 a month. Hello? And I want freedom.'"

But Sonny & Cher kept up the façade for two more years, until Cher's new boyfriend, record executive David Geffen, got a copy of her contract, and she learned the shocking truth: "Sonny owned 95 percent of the company and his lawyer owned five," she said. "And it was called Cher Enterprises, but I own nothing! And we'd worked together for almost 12 years."

She confronted Sonny: "I said, 'When was the moment that you thought this would be a good idea?' And he said, 'I always knew you'd leave me.' And I said, 'That's not a reason! Son, how could you do it? I was there by your side working, all those nights, all those days, through good, through bad.' He didn't have an answer.

"And we were still friends after that," she said.

Even after Cher married Gregg Allman and was pregnant with their son, she rejoined Sonny for a revival of their TV show.

Mason asked, "Can you explain why it was that up on that stage all the other stuff seemed to go away?"

"Because we had fun with each other," Cher replied. "And because on stage, there was no marriage. There was no discord. There was no word for our relationship. And you couldn't cut it with a chainsaw."

WATCH ANTHONY MASON'S EXTENDED INTERVIEW WITH CHER: 

Cher would go on to win an Oscar, for "Moonstruck." But that's for part two of her memoir, which she still has to write.

As for her music, she says she's got another album she wants to make. When? "After I get rid of this book!" she laughed. "Because talking is harder on your voice than singing. And I want to record an album, and 78 is not exactly a time in your life when you want to. I hope I'm Tony Bennett!"

READ AN EXCERPT: "Cher: The Memoir – Part One"

     
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Story produced by Jay Kernis. Editor: Steven Tyler. 

Anthony Mason

Anthony Mason is a senior culture and senior national correspondent for CBS News. He has been a frequent contributor to "CBS Sunday Morning."