Kim Wilde: 'I got bored with Kids in America - but I've fallen back in love with music again'

“I kept saying no. I thought: No one wants to see a middle aged Kim Wilde with a mortgage and kids, I can’t be that pin up Kim anymore,” the 80s icon reveals.

“But to my total astonishment the audiences were not only accepting, they lapped it up. So I’ve stuck around and that gave me the courage for a comeback. I fell in love with music again.”

For many years, Wilde admits with honesty that she did not want to perform her debut hit single Kids From America, the song that propelled her to worldwide recognition when she was just 17.

“I got a bit bored with being Kim Wilde and Kids in America. Fame is a rollercoaster and there were ups and downs and I just wanted out.”

Written by her rock ‘n roll legend dad Marty and her record producer brother Ricky, the song was the first of a string of 17 UK top 40 hits for the singer, including You Came, Chequered Love and Never Trust a Stranger.

She also toured with David Bowie and Michael Jackson and sold more than 30 million records.

But then she quit the music industry, got married, had her children and started a new career as a landscape gardener.

“I got into horticulture and everything changed. I had a good break from that song. I needed some time out.”

These days, she fully embraces what Kids in America means to her legacy as an artist and will be performing it when she appears in Kim Wilde – The Singles Tour (Sheffield City Hall, March 27, and York Barbican, March 28, 2027) with fellow ’80s star Tiffany as her special guest.

“That song has given me so much more than a hit single. It's given me a whole career. I absolutely adore singing it now. I love the energy it brings to the crowd. They go crazy,” she says.

And none more so than the Yorkshire audiences. She laughs affectionately.

“They are very enthusiastic. I love York. It’s such a beautiful place. I spent my birthday there a few years ago when I was performing and went to the Jorvik Viking Centre and we went on the train ride.

"I’m really looking forward to coming back next year. I travel around the world a lot but I love touring the UK. They are my home crowd after all."

Next year’s solo UK shows will include all the classic songs that helped her become the most successful female singer of the 1980s.

“It will be a lots of songs that people know. The greatest hits. But not exclusively that, a few singles from the recent albums too."

An astonishingly youthful looking 65, Wilde laughs a lot as she chats animatedly about her life, and says she has never been happier or busier.

“I spent most of my 20s and 30s feeling very anxious so doing music later in my life is so liberating. Not to be chasing chart positions and high expectations from record companies and the media. It’s so wonderful just to be celebrated by audiences.”

Wilde is currently writing her next album which will be released “at some point” in 2027.

“I’m really excited about it. Beyond that, there are other song writing and live projects, there is a lot going on.”

After taking a decade out to raise her family - her musician son Harry, 28, and daughter Rose, 26, who is studying to be a nurse - she admits she loves being on the road.

But in 2023, she thought her career might be finished as she was floored by a slipped disc doing some acoustic shows in Switzerland.

“It was one of the most terrifying things to ever happen to me,” she says.

So she took charge of her body.

“I was so horrified that I came at it from lots of different angles, working with a personal trainer, stretching, strength work, cold water dipping, and lot of walking to keep everything moving.

“I didn’t need to have surgery and within six months I was almost back to normal. But I still have a personal trainer come to my home twice a week to keep my back really strong.

"I need to be in shape for all the travelling I do around the world and this kind of lifestyle. Fitness is one of my biggest priorities at 65. I don’t take anything for granted. I’m always a step ahead.”

She grins when she says she loves her form fitting tour wardrobe that shows off the results of her hard work and brings out her “inner glam queen”,

“That whole look, the corsets and cat suits, is so empowering. Those costumes just work on stage for me.”

Always private, in 2022, it came as a surprise when Wilde revealed in a joint statement on her social media platforms that she had separated from her actor husband Hal Fowler the previous year and the couple were divorced after 25 years of marriage.

Fowler, who was eight years her junior, was her co-star in the West End musical Tommy, and they wed in 1996.

“This decade has been very rewarding but also challenging as I’ve faced a new reality but the challenges have made me stronger,” she observes in a nod to her split. These days she is single and happily so.

“There really isn’t anyone special in my life and I’m enjoying my own company,” she says.

“I spend a lot of time growing seeds, writing songs, walking dogs and keeping house, making plans for more albums. I appreciate it more now than I have ever done.”

Her home is in Hertfordshire where she has lived since since she was 30.

“My kids still have a base here so I do see them more than a lot of parents my age which I really appreciate. They make my life great.

"And I know I’m just going to love being a grandparent. I just can’t wait to be a grandma.”

In 1998 she began an alternative career as a landscape gardener, hosting shows for the BBC and Channel 4.

She won a gold award for her courtyard garden at the world famous Chelsea Flower Show in 2005 which she designed with her friend Richard Lucas and describes the achievement as “magical”.

She gets great mental health benefits from having her hands in the earth.

“It’s my therapy. My garden is my church where I spiritually calm myself. It’s a big part of my life. I’m always in the garden growing seeds, bringing on plants, flowers, vegetables. I love being in nature.”

She has no plans to quit music again anytime soon and says: "I come even more alive when I’m stage. It’s one of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.

“Now I understand why Mick Jagger keeps performing at his age.

"When you’re standing in front of an audience who are just so excited to see you and singing your songs? It really doesn't get any better than that.”

For more on Kim Wilde’s Singles Tour Yorkshire dates in 2027 visit www.kimwilde.com/tour-dates

She will also be at the Let’s Rock Festival at Huddersfield’s Accu Stadium on May 30 letsrockfestival.co.uk