I 'met' my '80s idol, and it wasn't what I expected

As an eight-year-old, I didn't even know what these Taylor Dayne lyrics meant but that didn't stop me belting them out, night after night, in front of my mirror, most likely into a hairbrush.

I probably recorded the song off Barry Bissell's Top 40 Australia before my mother would eventually cough up the $3.99 for the cassingle.

It was 1988, the era of big hair, crimped hair and leather biker jackets. And this summer, the '80s - including Dane - are coming back.

Fashions are getting bold and directional, and stars like Dayne are finding a new audience that wasn't even alive when her breakthrough hit was released.

If I'd told my eight-year-old self that one day I'd be interviewing Taylor Dayne, I'd never have believed it.

So when this week I received the chance to talk to my '80s idol, I jumped at the chance.

The journalist in me wanted to ask about feminism and being a single mother and her experience with cosmetic surgery. The eight-year-old in me just wanted to giggle uncontrollably.

Through the years, writers have often cautioned against meeting one's idol.

It's a bit like walking in on your parents having sex. Once the mystique is removed, the reality is all that remains. You cannot unsee what you have seen.

The singer Morrissey said in 2011 of the disappointment of meeting his idol, Patti Smith, in 1978: "She was brusque and she was rude, and it was horrific. But that's who she was," he later told the Telegraph.

Thankfully, he said in the same interview, he had got to know her better since that first meeting. "She's a very different person now. Much more approachable and gentle. But initially she was quite hostile," Morrissey said.

With his words hanging over my head, I was connected to Taylor Dayne, who is taking time out of her Australian tour to perform at the Sensis Digital marquee on Melbourne Cup Day (hence the reason for our chat).

We talked about the superficial stuff - her love of the races, the kind of hat she plans to wear - like we were girlfriends. I had to keep reminding myself I was talking to Taylor Dayne. Taylor effing Dayne.

And it was in between talking about empowerment and honesty and independence - I loved hearing her talk about the strength her 16-year-old twins have given her - that I realised what an anticlimax meeting or interviewing your childhood heroes can be.

Not to say the interview with Dayne was a disappointment. She was forthright and strong and friendly.

"I can say what I think and feel. I am standing up for women, as a mother, as a spirited and independent woman who does things on her own terms," she told me.

"I encourage people and women to know what it's like to be hurt but also to repair yourself."

These are words the eight-year-old me wouldn't have fully understood but resonate loudly with the 37-year-old me.

I also learned not to place unrealistic expectations on events but to still indulge in silly little fantasies - sometimes they even come true.

So while "meeting" my childhood idol wasn't the earth-moving experience I had hoped it to be, I took something away that I can apply to my own life. And that's more powerful than any autograph.

Taylor Dayne is touring with 80s Mania at venues across Australia during November.