After 10 Years, Cher FINALLY Breaks Silence on Leon Russell

After ten long years of silence, Cher has finally opened up about her connection with the late, great Leon Russell.

In a recent and rare interview, the legendary singer shared heartfelt memories and reflections on a man she calls one of the most enigmatic and gifted artists she ever encountered.

“Leon was a special soul,” Cher began, her voice carrying the weight of years gone by.

“He didn’t need to try to be extraordinary — he just was.”

She recalled first meeting Leon in the early 1970s, during a time when both were riding waves of success in their careers, yet still searching for something deeper in the chaos of fame.

“He had this energy — quiet, mysterious, but powerful,” she said.

“There was always something about him that felt ancient, like he’d been through lifetimes before this one.”

Although their musical styles were different on the surface, Cher felt an unspoken connection to Russell’s fearless creativity and genre-defying approach.

“He never cared about fitting in,” she said.

“And that gave me the courage to explore more, to step out of what people expected from me.”

Leon Russell, known for blending rock, gospel, blues, and country with a unique and almost mystical flair, was a respected figure behind the scenes, even when he wasn’t dominating the charts.

Cher described him as “a true original” — someone whose genius was so effortless that many didn’t even realize how far ahead of his time he really was.

“He taught me — without teaching,” she said with a faint smile.

“Just being around him was like being in the presence of something… untamed but deeply wise.”

When Leon passed away in 2016, Cher chose not to make a public statement.

At the time, fans wondered why someone who had clearly shared a bond with him remained silent.

Now, nearly a decade later, she explains why.

“I couldn’t,” she admitted.

“I sat down so many times to write something, to say something, and the words just wouldn’t come.”

“It felt like trying to capture a ghost in a jar.”

Cher says the loss hit her harder than she expected, perhaps because Leon had always seemed eternal — like the kind of soul that never truly leaves.

In the years since his passing, she has mourned him in private, allowing his memory to live on through the music, through the quiet, and through the moments when his spirit feels close.

When asked if their relationship was ever romantic, Cher only smiled.

“It was what it was,” she said simply.

“Labels don’t fit people like Leon.”

What’s clear now, however, is how deeply she cared for him — and how profoundly he influenced her as both an artist and a human being.

“There’s not a day I don’t think of him when I’m near a piano, or when I hear gospel music,” she said.

“He’s in those notes, in the silence between them.”

As Cher, now 78, finally breaks her silence, fans are offered a glimpse into a chapter of her life that she has kept closely guarded — a chapter filled with respect, inspiration, and a love that transcends explanation.

And though Leon Russell may be gone, his presence remains — not only in the music he left behind, but in the quiet space he still holds in Cher’s heart.