on't get old! Do not get old!" Nancy Sinatra advises when the title of her favorite Morrissey song escapes her. But here's the thing: when she says it, the way she says it, delivered in that breathy contralto and punctuated with a sex-kittenish laugh, she hardly sounds compromised by time. At sixty-four, the music and movie icon most famous for mixing sexuality and feminism in "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" sounds more vital and authentic than a pile of current pop tarts. That's partly why Sinatra's daughter, producer A.J. Azzarto, suggested she drop "that old stuff" and record an album with a younger batch of musicians. The resulting CD, Nancy Sinatra, is beautiful and spellbinding, notable both for its haunting arrangements and the sheer number of luminaries who wanted in on the project. Thurston Moore, Jon Spencer, Calexico, Pete Yorn, Bono and, most famously, Morrissey an obsessive Nancy Sinatra fan are just some who contribute and/or appear on tracks.

Sinatra has taken her knocks over the years for her choice of music, for her close relationship with mentor/producer Lee Hazlewood (which spawned a number of successful hits) but there's no denying the staying power of her songs and her influence on generations of performers. We spoke with her on the phone from her home in Beverly Hills. Alison M. Rosen

How did you and Morrissey get to know each other?
Morrissey introduced himself to me when I was in London on one of my trips about ten years ago. I knew who he was, of course, having two teenage daughters at the time. We actually have a poster of Morrissey hanging in our house. It's huge! It was over my daughter Amanda's bed as she was growing up. I think he was kind of surprised that I knew who he was, but he came to my hotel room just to say hello. He brought several singles and albums for me to sign, and he brought me a couple of songs by other people that he felt I should be recording. He just knew everything about my music. I was really flattered and humbled to think that this man from a generation behind me is so enamored with what I was doing, and of course I loved his work. I think he's one of the great poets of all time. We've been friends now for ten years.

And you're neighbors, right?
No, Morrissey lives about seven minutes away by car. It's pretty close, but it's not a walk I would like to take.

Do you have a favorite song of his?
I'm drawn still to "Bengali in Platforms," but I do love the new album. There's so much on there that's gorgeous.

I wonder what it's like for your daughters to find out that Morrissey loves their mom.
It's funny, huh? You know, A.J. just told me recently in an email that she'd never met him in person, and I said, "Oh my God, that's right! We have to fix that!"

What's the biggest misconception about you?
Perhaps that I don't take my music seriously, because I do — very seriously. It could be because many of the songs I do may seem frivolous or tongue-in-cheek. Perhaps they are to some people, but not to me.

How did you feel about being voted No. 12 in Blender magazine's "50 Sexiest Artists of All Time" list?
Oh, isn't that funny? It's interesting to me that the people who are responsible for things like that go through the past and do research. I often wonder who they are, and I'd like to thank them personally. It's nice to be remembered for something like that.

Is being "sexy" something you think about? Do you believe you're sexy and try to stay that way, or is it just something that other people call you?
I have a theory about this. I think being sexy is not anything that you can manufacture, and I think that's what's happening to a lot of young women in music today. I don't think you can take a Barbie doll and make it sexy. I think the less manufacturing you do, the better. The sexiest people to me are the people who don't even realize they're sexy. I think part of being sexy is the innocence of not knowing about it. I never have said, "Well, okay, I'm going to try really hard to be sexy now or look sexy now." I just would laugh. If I have that kind of appeal, it's just a thing that I was born with. It's not something I like to work at.

Where does the 1995 Playboy pictorial fit in?
Doing Playboy was not sexy. It was deliberate and posed and painted. I had so much body makeup on, and so much makeup on my face. The makeup artist is brilliant, don't misunderstand; I just hired her again recently for a photo shoot. She's just amazing and you feel very special, and the lighting's great, and you're very protected, and it's a very nice experience . . . but it's not sexy to me.

What made you do it?
I needed the publicity. I needed to call attention to the fact that I was trying to get back into music and back into show business. I had been a mom for so long, and it's hard to get back in, so you really need to use every tool at your disposal. That was handy.

Madonna has said that her earliest fantasies were to either be you or a nun.
You know that was very sweet of her to mention me. I've never met her, and I've always admired her, so it was flattering. I must say about finding out that I'd influenced so many women, though, I felt a huge responsibility. It became kind of a weight on my shoulders. Once I got back out there after the Playboy thing and I started getting some jobs and started touring and I had people coming to my shows saying, "You're the reason I got into the music business," and it's lovely, but you just pray that the music business is a good place for them to be. You don't want to be the person that caused them to ruin their lives, you know.

What is "Some Velvet Morning" about?
It's either Lee on drugs, or Lee writing about drugs, or Lee writing about a fantasy of his. But it's basically a really good song, and people just love it to this day. Lee's a fine songwriter; we did an album last year called Nancy and Lee Three; some of his newer songs are included. Unfortunately we don't have the label for it here. It's out in Australia on Warner Brothers.

I think people are still curious about your relationship with Lee.
I had a terrible crush on Lee. He was my mentor, and I guess like good psychiatrists, you transfer your feelings. I think a lot of it was hero worship and I think the chemistry would have probably been there for us sexually if we had become involved, but he was very married and had young children. I was single. I could have really done anything I wanted to do, I suppose, but I didn't. Maybe the sexual tension was good, because maybe it came out in the music.

And are you single now?
I'm single. I'm widowed. My husband died in 1985.

Are you dating at all?
Yes, dating. Dating is almost an absurd word at my age, but that's what it's called. "Keeping company with." [Laughs.] I go out with friends mostly. There's a nice man in my life, but we'll see what happens with that. It's a very fledgling relationship.

Do you have the same concerns that you've always had? Is it the same things that make you nervous?
Absolutely! "What do I wear? Does my hair look shitty?" Normal, silly stuff. Paula Poundstone said, "I want a man in my life, not in my house." At the moment, that's kind of how I feel, but that could change. You get to be a certain age, and you feel like you want separate bedrooms from your partner. But then you get to be a little older, then you start thinking, "Well, maybe we should have separate houses." [Laughter]

Why separate bedrooms?
People sleep in different rhythms. I want to be able to turn the light on and read if I wake up in the night. I don't want to get out of bed to do it. If you have connecting bedrooms, you can still sleep together and share, and then split up when it's time to sleep. It's just a theory, but I think it could work. I saw it in a movie once. It was East Side West Side, a very old movie from the '40s, and the set was beautifully done. Their sleeping quarters were two bedrooms, but they could look at each other across this kind of archway thing, and I thought, "Wow, how cool is that?" I'll let you know if it works, if and when I do it!  n°

To buy Nancy Sinatra (Sanctuary Records), click here.

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