Two reality shows and a series of unfortunate events later, the Hogans have become fixtures on the gossip blog circuit, and the headlines they generate sometimes make the Lohans look like a portrait of domesticity.
Hogan, who now resides primarily in Miami, said she feels her parents’ fame, which burgeoned with the premiere of their family reality show “Hogan Knows Best” in 2005, didn’t directly cause their marital problems, but may have exacerbated them.
“There’s no way that a cameraman just standing there with a camera can make you get a divorce or make you have an argument” she said. “It’s just that when you want to have an argument, you know, a cameraman’s standing there.”
In November 2007, Linda Hogan filed for divorce, claiming infidelity on the part of her husband.
Though Hogan cringes at the notion of using her family’s tabloid fodder to her professional advantage, she said she views music as a cathartic means for her to process the events in her personal life.
“I don’t ever want to exploit things with my family” she says. “But at the same time, I’m an artist and what an artist does is they take inspiration from their life and they make it into a piece of work.”
Probably the most overt example of this on “Redemption” is the Destiny’s Child-esque “Dear Mom” an unsubtle rehash of the rocky relationship between Brooke and her mother, Linda, which has recently culminated in publicly-traded insults and accusations breathlessly reported by the likes of TMZ and Perez Hilton.
In the song, Hogan alternates between sadness (“I never made you cry / I never told you lies / That’s all you do to me”) and anger (“I can just imagine what you’re doing with your day / Smoking all your cares away and having a playdate” — presumably a knock to Linda Hogan’s 20-year-old paramour, Brooke and Nick’s former schoolmate Charley Hill).
“It wasn’t hard to write it, because I was really mad at the moment” she said. “I definitely had second thoughts (about putting it on the album). … It’s my mom, you know? I love her (but) she hasn’t been that great to me (lately).”
But while the song’s lyrics are heartfelt, the raw emotion regrettably gets lost amidst effects and overproduction.
Elsewhere in our conversation, Hogan spoke admiringly of her mother, whose love of disco and Motown she says inspired her musical tastes from an early age. Although the two are currently estranged, Brooke thanks Linda in the liner notes of “The Redemption” and said she sent her a copy of the album.
“She ended up actually giving it to her lawyer the second she got it” Hogan explained, with a halfhearted laugh. “So, I don’t know if she listened to (“Dear Mom”) or not, but I wish she would have just kept it for herself.”
Linda Hogan’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment on the song.
For all the turmoil in her personal life, Hogan comes across as passionate, professional, and remarkably down-to-earth when chatting about her music.
She said she spearheaded the writing and recording process, hand-picking the producers and collaborators who worked on “The Redemption.”
“The last album (2006’s “Undiscovered”) was just really so orchestrated by (producer Scott Storch) and it really had nothing to do with me” she said. “(“ËœThe Redemption’) is really my baby. I can say that I wrote 99 percent of the record.”
She is, indeed, credited as a co-writer on 11 of the album’s 13 songs, and it’s worth noting that the pair she didn’t have a hand in — “You’ll Never Be Like Him” and the rock-tinged snoozer “All I Want is You” — are the two weakest tracks.
“I love being creative and (want to be) recognized more for the music” she reiterated. “Most people know I’m not a fake. I really am here to stay, and I really do enjoy it.”
Echoing that sentiment, the title track on “The Redemption” finds Hogan addressing God, her parents, her “people” “lovers” and “haters.” She insists, “I will rise above … No one can tell you how to live your life. But as she toes the line between fame and notoriety, Hogan at times sounds as if she’s trying to convince herself of that as much as she is her audience.
“The 21-year-old reality TV star and daughter of professional wrestling icon Hulk Hogan is known more by association with her family’s scandalous antics over the past few years than for her own talents.”
“talents” should be: “abilities of conjecture”
But seriously, she should just go back to school, and learn to get a job like the rest of us. If she want’s to sing, she should go indie, where she would really need to prove herself a talent, and not have to ‘sell’ herself as one.