Is it true that Frank Sinatra hated his signature song My Way? Or that the Hollywood bombshell Ava Gardner was the love of his life? And what about the rumours that he counted Mafia mobsters among his closest friends? If there’s one person who can address all these intimate family secrets it’s A J Lambert, the granddaughter of Ol’ Blue Eyes and the daughter of ol’ kohl eyes, Nancy Sinatra.
Slender, crop-haired and, yes, blue-eyed, Angela Jennifer Lambert is talking in the bar of a central London hotel. She’s in the UK to promote her debut album, Careful You, but first I ask her to run through the Sinatra family myths and secrets, starting with the shocking admission that the man she called Pop-Pop couldn’t bear to hear My Way.
Frank Sinatra recording at Capitol Records in 1954 at the height of his iconic fame. His granddaughter AJ Lambert speaks to Event about following in the footsteps of Ol’ Blue Eyes
‘He didn’t like anything he didn’t have a say in – and he didn’t have a say in whether My Way was going to be his theme song. He was being defined against his will…’ the 44-year-old reveals, before blurting out another shocking admission: ‘And my mum hates These Boots Are Made For Walkin’, too!’
Lambert came of musical age in Los Angeles in the mid-Nineties grunge years, performing in bands while studying screenwriting at college. Being a fan of alternative rock, presumably Sid Vicious’s punk version of My Way connected with her more?
‘I played it for my grandfather once but he was not a fan,’ she smiles. ‘I didn’t show him the video [in which Vicious shoots his audience]. That might have been too much for his old ticker! But I like that version way better – it takes My Way to the extreme. It’s a f***-you song, and that’s what it should sound like.’
Lambert’s grandmother, also called Nancy, was married to Sinatra from 1939 to 1951, but was his second wife, screen siren Ava Gardner, really the love of Frank’s life?
‘I think so,’ she says. ‘My theory is she’s like my grandmother 2.0. Ava’s the upgrade, sexed-up. She looks like her, but she’s the Hollywood version.’
Nancy Sinatra with her daughter, AJ Lambert, in 2004. Did Lambert fear stepping into a family business in which both her mother and grandfather are legends? ‘Sure!’ she shoots back
Then there’s another, more current rumour, concerning Ronan Farrow, the son of Woody Allen and Mia Farrow (to whom Sinatra was married from 1966 to 1968). Whispers persist that Sinatra is his true biological father. What does Lambert make of that?
‘I like [Ronan’s] answer: “We’re all Frank Sinatra’s sons, aren’t we?” ’ she smiles. ‘I do see the family resemblance, but mathematically I don’t see how it could possibly be true. Their ages don’t work, so it seems ridiculous.’
I played him the Sid Vicious version of My Way once. He was not a fan!
Lambert was Sinatra’s first grandchild. Her father, the dancer Hugh Lambert, died of cancer when she was 11. Later today she will play a small gig showcasing her captivating voice, not to mention some killer dance moves, but in her teens she admits that she was ‘a moody goth with blue hair and black clothes. I went to Beverly Hills High School!’ she admits, ‘and Beverly Hills 90210 came out when I was there – it was just as crazy as the TV show. There were celebrities’ children there and they were getting a Mercedes for their first car.’
In her teens she started playing in alternative rock bands, with the ‘wild’ hair and ‘crazy’ dresses to match. What did mum Nancy make of that? ‘She was nothing but supportive. No one in my family could care less what I dressed like or what music I played,’ although she admits that Sinatra never heard any of his granddaughter’s own music. ‘I was 24 when he died and when I last saw him, a couple of months earlier, he was bedbound and had trouble remembering who people were. He was old and not quite there so it just didn’t seem right to make him listen to the kind of music I was playing,’ she says.
He might have enjoyed Careful You, though, a brilliant collection of inventive covers: two Sinatra classics (Sleep Warm and I’ll Be Seeing You) and songs by indie artists. It also includes Glad I’m Not A Kennedy, an obscure track about America’s great political dynasty.
‘It speaks to me in a personal way,’ she beams between sips of tea, which is as strong a tipple as Lambert takes, having gone sober four years ago after a long battle with alcoholism. ‘My grandfather was enamoured with JFK as a president and what he was trying to do for the country. It wasn’t the way they painted it with this stupid Mafia connection.’
Lambert insists that Sinatra was not in bed with the Mob, despite decades of stories to the contrary. She dismisses it as ‘the easy thing of ‘he’s Italian, and he played in Mob-owned casinos’.
Frank at home with AJ Lambert (on right) and her sister Amanda in 1986. Lambert was Sinatra’s first grandchild
‘Well, he’s going to know these Mob people,’ she rails. ‘And if you became friends with them, you could work more. It’s not complicated, or sinister, it’s common sense. What’s he going to do, annoy them? No! Play right along!’ she exclaims. ‘If that were true, do you think I’d be sitting here without a bodyguard or piles of money? I’d have people watching out for me and making sure I didn’t get kidnapped.’
Well her uncle, Frank Sinatra Jr, was kidnapped. ‘But that was by a couple of stupid morons thinking they were being tough guys.’
When Kennedy shut him out, it broke his heart. My grandfather adored him
Whatever the truth of rumours of Mafia affiliations, the Sinatra/JFK bromance didn’t last. ‘When the presidential election campaign was over, the Kennedys shut him out. That broke his heart,’ she shrugs. ‘But he adored Kennedy and was devastated when he was murdered. He took that really hard.’
Did she fear stepping into a family business in which both her mother and grandfather are legends? ‘Sure!’ she shoots back. ‘Anybody wading into that same business has to be crazy! But it’s the same with my uncle Frank Jr [who died in 2016] – we love music, and it’s all we know how to do.’
She is a staunch defender of her grandfather, a lifelong opponent of discrimination, and regularly writes on social media sites to correct a different kind of fake news. ‘There’s a weird crossover of racist, Right-wing white men who love Frank Sinatra and who love Donald Trump,’ she sighs. ‘I keep saying: that’s not what he believed in at all. People think they know everything about him, and it’s really annoying. Yes, he campaigned for Ronald Reagan, but that’s because he was his friend. He did not share Reagan’s vision. He was a Democrat! He voted for Bill Clinton.’
Nancy Sinatra and her father, Frank, in 1965. Lambert insists that Sinatra was not in bed with the Mob, despite decades of stories to the contrary
Lambert and her sister Amanda both reportedly received $1 million from Sinatra’s will, but Frank’s friendly, self-effacing eldest grandchild admits that she has never relied on it. ‘I’m not going to touch it,’ she says. ‘I’ve always worked. That’s a lifeline for my kid.’
She says it’s important to respect her grandfather and the family’s legacy, which is why she’s resisted overtures to cash in on her heritage by taking anything like a ‘Sinatra Sings Sinatra’ show on the road.
‘Can you imagine me in a suit and fedora?’ Lambert says wryly. ‘They’d love it. Yeah, I’ve got blue eyes, but they’re not blue like his.’
A J Lambert’s album ‘Careful You’ is out now on Alpha Pup Records