Sheena Easton: For Her Eyes Only

Lisa Ferguson

Friday, May 1, 1998 | 10:13 a.m.

Sheena Easton doesn't miss the '80s one bit.

Though the decade was very good to the songstress -- that's when the bulk of her hit tunes, including "For Your Eyes Only," "You Could Have Been With Me" and "Morning Train" topped the pop charts -- Easton, who performs at the Desert Inn tonight through Sunday, says she's glad those days are behind her.

"As I got older and wanted more of a life, I started to think, 'Hey, I don't want to do this the rest of my life. I don't want to be wearing thigh-high boots and short skirts ... until I die,' " Easton say.

Not that she has many regrets about her 17-year career, which has garnered her a pair of Grammy awards and also allowed her to put her acting training to use. She starred in five episodes of the hit series "Miami Vice," and on Broadway, opposite the late Raul Julia in "Man of La Mancha," and as bad girl Rizzo in "Grease," among other roles.

"I'm glad that I did it when I did it ... that I was as busy as I was when I was as young as I was," 39-year-old Easton says. "I think I spent 10 years (living) in hotel rooms and I've traveled the world billions of times over."

But these days, the wife of documentary producer Tim Delarm and mother of two adopted children -- 2-year-old daughter Skylar, and 3-year-old son Jake -- has her priorities in a different place, namely tending to her little ones, who travel with her to performances.

While she continues to record (her latest CD, "Freedom," was recently released in Japan) and perform regularly, Easton in recent years has also lent her vocal chords to several animated projects, and can be heard weekly as the voice of Sasha on the Saturday morning cartoon series "All Dogs Go To Heaven."

"I wouldn't trade the life I have now for a million dollars," she says. "Now, I can ... look at my day-runner and say, 'Monday, I'll do a cartoon voice; Tuesday, drop Jakey off at preschool,' ... and the next two days will be a (music) writing session or I'll be in the (recording studio). My life is really balanced.

"There was a time, in the '80s, when it wouldn't have entered my head to say no to work. Now, it's different," Easton says. "If somebody said to me, 'You get a No. 1, worldwide-selling album ... but it means you have to live that life (that accompanies it),' I'd say, 'No thanks,' because I've had that life. It would mean that I couldn't be a mom.

"I'm not saying that I no longer enjoy performing, that I no longer enjoy my work," she explains. "I still do it a lot, obviously, but I don't take a job that means I can't be a parent."

Tickets for Easton's performances, which begin at 9 p.m. in the Crystal Showroom, are $35, plus tax and gratuity. Reservations can be made by calling the box office at 733-4566.