Toni Basil

I don't know how people get into show business if their family's not in it.

I grew up in show business, so I always knew I was going to be a dancer or a performer. I knew that was my business.

It never dawned on me I would do anything but show business.

I think, actually, I was the first person to ever sign a simultaneous video and recording deal with a record company.

Some guy decided that it would be funny to put that in my Wikipedia entry. He was adamant that 'Mickey' was about Micky Dolenz. I choreographed the 'Head' movie but I didn't really know Micky at all. I knew Davy Jones much better.

People don't connect the girl that sang 'Mickey' with the girl who was one of the seven original Lockers or the same girl who was in 'Easy Rider' or the same girl who choreographed David Bowie, Tina Turner, and Bette Midler tours. It's like I've led five lives.

I come from a very vaudevillian family.

Steps come up all the time, but not dances.

On a TV show, for instance, dancers have to be paid for a week and a half rehearsal time. So unless they're vital to a production, they're just not used.