Cyndi Lauper Recalls Getting ‘Asked to Leave’ Catholic School Twice: ‘We Had a Lot of Political Differences’

Catholic school and Cyndi Lauper weren’t a great match.

The “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” icon, 72, spoke to Gracie Abrams for the latest Rolling Stone Musicians on Musicians feature, and she opened up in the story about getting kicked out of Catholic school not once, but twice.

“Listen, I can’t even read a regular book without a piece of white paper underneath every line,” Lauper told Abrams, 26, as they discussed the difficulties of songwriting. “I don’t know if that’s because I got hit in the head with a lot of erasers. I have no idea.”

“I went to Catholic school, but we had a lot of political differences, so I was asked to leave,” she added.

The Grammy winner clarified the request came “twice, once in third grade, and then again in fourth grade.”

Abrams asked if she was expelled for “talking,” and Lauper quipped, “Oh, no, no, no. For talking back.”

In a 1984 interview with PEOPLE, the “True Colors” singer (a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 2025 inductee class) spoke about her tumultuous childhood and teenage years, which aso included running away from home at 17 and ultimately getting a high school equivalency diploma.

“I spent years not accepting who I was,” said Lauper at the time. “In high school I felt out of step. Everything became unreal for me. I felt there just wasn’t any room for me in this world. But you can’t escape yourself. ‘Why was I alive,’ I’d ask. I didn’t fit in, didn’t have nobody to do things with that I liked. I did them by myself.”

Elsewhere in Lauper’s latest Rolling Stone interview, she expressed feeling like she’s “still learning” as a songwriter after more than 40 years in the business.

Lauper explained, “Sometimes you write something, you’re like, ‘Wow, look at what we did! Genius!’ Then the next day you listen and go, ‘What the heck were you thinking?’ It’s always like that, but ain’t that what we do?”