Lindsay Marie Morris

Even 47 years after his death, jazz entertainer, songwriter, and Grammy Award winner Louis Prima remains a legend. Born in New Orleans to immigrants from Salaparuta, Sicily, and the island of Ustica (north of Palermo), he proudly embraced his Italian roots. Something remarkable in the 1940s, when Italian Americans faced hostility as Italy and the United States were at war, and 600,000 Italian immigrants were branded "enemy aliens."

Against the odds, he transformed Italian folk melodies into unforgettable hits, composed jazz standards, brought a beloved Disney Jungle Book character to life, and inspired Americans of every background to swing, sing, and celebrate the joy of music.

His youngest daughter, Lena Prima, remembers his later years, the times he brought her onstage with her mother, Gia Maione, and the quieter moments when they sat together in the living room. One memorable night, he sang "Pennies from Heaven" to accompany her treasured piggy bank that played the same tune.

 

"I really idolized my dad," she says. "I thought he was just magical and amazing. And the band and the excitement of the show, and just going to different places… as a kid, it was exciting, glamorous, and cool. It was just a magical life."

All of that changed in 1975, when Louis underwent surgery to remove a benign brain stem tumor. Afterward, he fell into a coma. Lena was 11 when it happened; her father remained in a vegetative state for three years before passing away on August 24, 1978.

"It was very traumatizing," she reflects. "It made me feel like I dreamed that life that was so magical."

Lena left home early to forge her own path as a rock singer, despite her mother's objections. During that period, she balanced multiple day jobs, ultimately forming a band called Rough Angel and recording an album with Geoff Workman, producer for Queen, Journey, The Cars, and numerous other rock icons. But the music scene dramatically changed in the 1990s, and Lena shifted to the lounge circuit.

She performed as a vocalist with various bands, including Spiral Starecase (known for their 1969 single, "More Today Than Yesterday"). It was during a performance with that group that she made a career-changing decision: to put on a show in honor of her father. That tribute quickly took on a life of its own, leading to her move to New Orleans in 201, a 14-year residency at the world-famous Carousel Bar & Lounge at the Hotel Monteleone, and to her 2019 top-10 Billboard Jazz Album, Prima La Famiglia.

 

Lena carries not only her father's legacy but also her own hard-earned artistic identity. During our conversation, she reflected on the places and people that shaped her, the grief that changed her, and the music that ultimately led her home.

 

YOU GREW UP BETWEEN LAS VEGAS AND NEW ORLEANS. HOW DID THAT EXPERIENCE SHAPE YOU?

I was born in Vegas, and my dad kept a place in Louisiana. I was in the fifth or sixth grade when we lived in New Orleans, and then eighth, ninth, and tenth grade across the lake in Covington on Highway 190. He had a golf course there and a home.

 

I started high school there at Covington High, and then after my dad passed away, we moved back to Vegas. I finished high school in Las Vegas and stayed living there off and on.

 

It was a great experience because it allowed me to just up and say goodbye to friends and school and start over somewhere else. It teaches you to have that kind of lifestyle, where you're always excited to go places, meet people, and travel.

 

I like that I had that experience. It makes me not afraid to get up and go, and I have done that. Just selling everything and moving to New Orleans, and also seeing different places, different cities, different cultures, and different accents of people. I have been grateful for having that experience as a kid.

 

YOUR PARENTS WERE IN SHOW BUSINESS. HOW DID THEY SHARE THAT EXPERIENCE WITH YOU?

My dad always brought me on stage. My first singing experience, which has stayed with me, was at 5 years old at The Sands in Las Vegas. And I remember being embarrassed because it wasn't Christmas, and the only song I knew was "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." So I sang that, but I will never forget the spotlight in my eyes and the people all smiling at me. I remember what I was wearing, and then someone sent me photographs from that night many years later. And sure enough, I was wearing what I remembered wearing. So it's amazing how that particular moment just went, "Bam!" for me.

YOU WERE VERY YOUNG WHEN YOUR FATHER DEVELOPED A BRAIN TUMOR. CAN YOU SHARE THAT EXPERIENCE?

It was scary, and I was confused. I hid around corners and under the stairs, so I could watch him when no one was around. My dad would cry a lot, and I didn't know why he was so sad. I just didn't really understand the whole thing; I just knew he was sick.

 

I remember the day he left, and I sat cross-legged by the window for hours. I just didn't move after he left.

 

Then it was just very traumatic. He was in a coma, and he wouldn't wake up, and I didn't understand it, and I was afraid of it. And it was just sad.

 

The only thing I knew to do as a kid was pray, go to church, and light candles. Every night, I would do the rosary beads and just think, "God will make him well, and he'll wake up and come back home." I didn't really understand all that.

 

When he passed, I felt like it was my fault that I didn't say enough rosary beads or that I didn't pray enough. Kids take that kind of stuff on. They think anything traumatic in the family is their fault. So I did feel that feeling like I should have done something more.

 

It was very traumatizing and just made me feel like I had dreamed that life. 

 

HOW DID THAT CHANGE YOU?

I went through a period when I started working as a professional rock singer. My mom was not supportive; I had basically been forbidden from being a singer or in show business. So I kind of felt like I was doing something I wasn't supposed to.

 

I didn't want anyone to know my name, so I was in bands just as a side singer. I never really went out on my own using my name.

I kind of pushed the pain of everything that happened to the side.

 

I've worked really hard on myself with therapy and self-work. I just feel like this is a journey, and I try to be the best version of myself I can be and heal from everything.

 

Lena Prima with her Rough Angel bandmates

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR ROCK MUSIC EXPERIENCE AND WHAT IT TAUGHT YOU.

It was a great experience, because when you're working in rock clubs, you have to have a big, big personality and voice to get over the crowd and get everybody's attention. Also, I trained really hard to develop that voice, which strengthened it a lot. And having to be prepared in any situation in the rock clubs really helped me be better on stage. That was a great lesson.

 

There was also the feeling of being part of a team, because in the bands I was in, we were all kind of a family. We wrote songs together, collaborated, created music, and rehearsed constantly.

There was a work ethic, especially in my original band. We rehearsed every single day, and we did an album project with Geoff Workman. It didn't turn into anything because the band broke up, but it was a great experience working with a real platinum-album producer who had produced all my heroes: Journey, the Cars, Foreigner, and Queen.

 

I learned a lot about being in the studio, and I love to record because of that. I have had many great experiences that have carried me through. I like having a band that feels like a team and a family, where we're all in it together, we're up there to have fun, and we all enjoy each other and what music we're making. People enjoy it when you're enjoying it.

 

Lena Prima in 1991

WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER THE BAND BROKE UP?

I went from the rock bands to the lounge circuit, so there was no break. What was great about that was when I was playing rock, I had to work day jobs to make a living—no money in that. We would just split whatever we earned. At one point, I was working three jobs at one time and singing at night. It was a lot.

 

My good friend from high school was working in the lounges, and she said, "You should do it." And I just didn't want to; I thought, "Cover songs and Top 40? I'm not that person," but she talked me into it because it was a way for me to make a living, singing, without having to work day jobs. And it was good money.  I went right from rock to that, and I worked on it until 2000, when I put the tribute to my dad together.

Lena recreates an iconic photo of her father at Hotel Monteleone, where she's performed a residency for 14 years.

TELL US ABOUT THAT TRIBUTE SHOW AND WHAT IT TAUGHT YOU.

I worked with an arranger and wrote the show with the songs, stories, and video. It was tough to get that going, but it was a great experience because I got to see who my dad was through the audience. They would line up to tell me stories about my dad, and grown men would cry, telling me what a wonderful man he was. I learned a lot about my dad and who he was, and it was great for me because the guy I thought he was as a kid was really that guy. So it was just a super joyful experience, and I also learned about the Sicilians in New Orleans and all the history and culture.

I was able to connect with those vibes, and I got more than I could ever have expected or thought. So I learned more about it and embraced it more as I went on that journey of doing a daughter's loving tribute to her dad, doing the music and singing the songs, and then moving to New Orleans and actually experiencing how the musicians play here and how it's different. And I kind of thought, "Oh my God, this is where that sound came from for my dad! This is where those rhythms came from, those horn players, and just the way that the music is here."

 

It really pulled it all together for me. 

HAS THERE BEEN A MOMENT OR EXPERIENCE THAT MADE YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR FATHER WAS RIGHT THERE WITH YOU?

When I made Prima La Famiglia with my good friend John Viola, I mentioned that I wanted to make a big-band album and feature all those Italian songs my dad had heard growing up, along with their stories. There was one particular song that made me feel really, really close to him, and it's called "Pensate, Amore" on the album.

The reason that's on there is that, as a small child, I had been watching The Man Called Flintstone. It was a Flintstones full-length feature in which the Flintstones and their friends are going to Europe. They went to Italy, and there was a scene where Fred's in a tower singing to Wilma, and the singer was my dad.

I remember screaming, "Mommy, Daddy's on The Flintstones!" And she wasn't aware that he had done that.

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT YOUR DAD TO SEE IN HOW YOU'VE CARRIED HIS LEGACY FORWARD?

I feel like he would be really proud, honestly. I always hoped he would be, but I now feel really confident about it. He'd be proud of the band I put together and the way that I learned how to get out of myself when I'm on stage.

 

Over the years, I'd been in my head, trying to be perfect —trying to sing perfectly, say the perfect things, and make sure my show had the perfect songs in the perfect order—everything planned.

It's become more, "Get out of your head! Just go with how you feel that people feel in the audience."

 

That's what he did. Of course, I want to be good and have excellent arrangements and excellent quality music. I'd learned that from my dad. But now I'm also trying to help people have a great time just like he did.

 

He'd be proud of that part. And when I sit out, and my band does the first set, I listen and think, "Oh, my dad would love that band."

 

I think he'd be proud of what I've put together, my journey, and how far I've come to where I am now.

 

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Los Angeles-based Italian American Lauren LoGrasso has quite the juggling act as a singer, songwriter, podcaster, producer, public speaker, and creative coach. Her key to keeping all the balls in the air? Scheduling.

"It's easy to let our creativity pass us by if we just treat it like a thing that will show up whenever we want it to," Lauren says. "We have to prioritize it the same way we prioritize our relationships—especially when nobody's asking you for it—when it's all self-driven."

Driven is the keyword for this "multi-passionate" creative. In the past year alone, she won not one but two Webby Awards for her podcast, Unleash Your Inner Creative, released a single, and helped others realize their creative potential through coaching. 2025 also promises to be a big year, with several exciting projects on the horizon.

We recently had a chance to sit down and discuss our shared Sicilian heritage, where she gets her creative inspiration, what it means to have an award-winning podcast, her favorite interview moment, future plans, and her overall goal.

Tell us about your connection to Sicily.

I am 75% Sicilian. My mom is half Sicilian and half northern Italian, and my dad is 100% Sicilian. I grew up feeling very connected to it. We were over at my grandparents' house for Sunday dinners. They had a huge part in raising me because my parents worked, so they took care of me a lot. 

I had a pretty classic Italian-American upbringing. I was very close to my cousins. I'm an only child, so my cousins were more like my siblings. My heritage is something I have always been really proud of, but as so often happens with our culture, in particular, it gets watered down.

Our people really wanted to assimilate and threw a lot of their customs away. And so I feel like my role in my twenties and thirties has been about reclaiming and retracing some of the steps and figuring out some of the things we lost or gave away because we wanted to fit in.

 

Part of that was being the first person in my family to go back to the towns where my family was from. Two weeks before I was going to Sicily for the first time, my dad handed me a letter that his first cousin Nicola had written to him back in 2009. He just never answered it for some reason but held onto it. I asked, "Do you want me to do anything?" He's like, "Just go to this address." So my boyfriend at the time, now my fiancé, and I went to Marsala.

We were like, "We have to go to this address just in case they're somehow still living there from 2009." It was back in 2022 that we went, and we took this little cab, and we showed up at their apartment door, and it still said LoGrasso on it. So I was freaking out. I started violently pressing the buzzer, and I was panicking in that split second because we didn't have a phone number for them.

 

All of a sudden, these two guys come out on the balcony on the second floor. They look down at me, and I say, "Hello, my name is Lauren LoGrasso. I think I'm your cousin." And they look at each other, they look at me, and they go, "One moment," and they rush down the stairs.

I pulled up the picture of the letter I had on my phone. It was from them. We were hugging and crying. They let us up to their apartment. They had this thing that said "Foto America" on it, and it wasn't like it was buried in a bin. It had pictures of all of us—their American cousins.  It was right next to their kitchen table. And through that, I ended up getting to meet them: Nicola, my dad's first cousin; his wife, Maria; their son, Alessandro; another cousin of ours, Salvatore; and his wife, Rosa. And it was just one of the most beautiful experiences of my life, and they had been waiting for us all of that time.

 

It still brings me to tears now, but Salvatore wrote in Google Translate, "This moment has been awaited for 70 years."

 

I've always been very connected to my Sicilian heritage, especially over the past two years, as I've gotten to know them and built our relationship. I was able to bring my parents back to meet them for the first time. I feel very connected now. I'm learning Italian, and it's been like a reclaiming. It felt like a puzzle piece that had always been missing in me was put back into place. 

 

Lauren has been singing since she was a little girl. 

 

What inspired you to pursue such a range of creative outlets?

I always loved singing. That was probably one of the first things I did from the time I was little. My mom got me a karaoke machine when I was two and a half. When I was three, I started doing musical theater, and then at the end of high school, I was like, "Well, I should probably do something more practical. So I'm going to go into broadcast journalism because I want to be a talk show host."

 

I had no desire to actually be a real journalist following a story, so I ended up dropping the journalism thing. It really wasn't for me. And I got a BFA in acting and a BA in communication. 

I originally came to Los Angeles just to act, and I discovered music kind of accidentally. I had always done musical theater, but I didn't write music until I came here.

When acting started really breaking my heart because of all the rejection, I discovered this ability and passion for songwriting. I linked up with this guy I knew from Michigan State, and we started playing all around town. 

When I was on my way to these gigs, I would listen to SiriusXM radio. I'd done radio in college, but just DJing. But that's when I really fell in love with the medium of talk radio.

So I just got this obsession with it, and I was like, "I'm going to work at SiriusXM someday." I didn't know anyone who worked there. I really only had this college experience of radio. But, long story short, I ended up working there. That got me into hosting and producing, and then I transitioned into podcasting.

Public speaking is something that I have wanted to do since I was in middle school or high school. But this whole time, I've kind of felt like I need to wait until I actually have something to publicly speak on. So, I knew that I needed to build experience. Being in L.A. and pursuing the arts in any way definitely gives you the chops, pain, and resilience to speak from. So now I speak about the topics that I've kind of discovered through my journey here and on my podcast, which are related to creativity and self-development. 

Coaching was a natural thing that I started doing because people were asking me for my advice all the time, and I found myself getting burnt out by doing it constantly for free. So finally, I was just like, "I guess I should just make this part of my job. People seem to want it, and I do love giving people advice." So it's really nice when they solicit it because I'm trying to work on not giving unsolicited advice!

 

Unleash Your Inner Creative airs on podcast platforms.

 

Tell us what motivated you to launch your podcast, Unleash Your Inner Creative.

There were a couple of things. Number one, I really believe, and now I have proof via a NASA study that we are all born creative, but that life knocks it out of us. And so I wanted to help people remember, reclaim, and unleash it. Because I saw a lot of people, whether it was people in L.A. who came out here with a big dream and, just as things got disappointing, pushed it further and further down, or people in my family who I could tell just never even let themselves turn that creativity on.

 

I started to notice a level of depression or even numbing out in them. I really believe that repressed creativity causes a lot of personal suffering, and I don't want to see that happen anymore. 

I was also producing a podcast, and this guy on it said, "In 50 years, 85% of all jobs will require creativity; it's the one thing AI can't do on its own. It can replicate human creativity, but it cannot be creative."

So there was this more spiritual self-development reason that I believe repressed creativity causes suffering and a practical reason that being creative is the one thing in the world that will always make you financially viable. There is nothing more powerful than a good idea. 

The show aims to give people tools to love, trust, and know themselves enough to claim their right to creativity and pursue whatever it is that's on their heart. It sits at the intersection of self-development, mental health, spirituality, and creativity/the creative process. 

 

Lauren proudly holds one of two Webby Awards she won in 2024.

You've won Webby Awards. What does that mean to you personally and professionally?

It was wild because I had applied for the web awards several times before I was even nominated, and I was nominated and won for the first time last year. The year before that, I was an honoree. But what it meant to me was that almost six years ago, I was right to take a chance on myself. 

There was a company I was supposed to work with at the time who was going to produce my show. They ended up pulling out at the last minute, and I decided to still go forward and produce it independently. And it was just a signal to me that, "Wow, I was right to take a chance on myself. This is resonating." 

Also, it meant a lot to me personally because of how my community supported me. Unfortunately, many times in life, we have to wait for something bad to happen to find out how much people support us and love us.  My community, listeners, friends, and family showed up for me so beautifully, and because of that, I was able to see how much people wanted to see me shine and felt like they were part of my success. 

I wish that for every person because I think we should all have that opportunity and privilege to get to know how much people want to see us succeed. 

I think it's easy to feel like the underdog and feel like, "Oh, nobody sees me." But when something like this comes up, and people actually show up for you, that, to me, was the greatest win. 

Once we got to the awards, I looked at the program, and there were all these huge companies like Vox Media, PBS, MSNBC, and then Lauren LoGrasso Productions. It was like, "Hell yeah!"

 

Lauren poses on the red carpet at the Webby Awards.

You've interviewed multiple notable personalities. Can you share a memorable moment from one of those interviews?

They've all been memorable in different ways. There's this one that really stands out to me: Julia Cameron. I've gotten to interview her every year for the past four years. The first time I got to interview her was mind-blowing because there would be no Unleash Your Inner Creative without Julia Cameron. She was the first person in our general time period who actually said, "Everyone's an artist. There are ways to unleash these qualities within us. Here are some tools."

Her book and the "Morning Pages" changed my life so dramatically. So, the whole first time interviewing her was really beautiful, but at the end, she sang, and it felt like I got to see her younger self come out. 

It's interesting because when you're in a supportive role, whether you're a coach, a teacher, or even a self-development writer, I think people often don't see you as your own creative being and artist. They just see you as the teacher.

When she sang the song at the end, I got to see her younger self and true artist come out. And that was really special. 

 

"...your worth doesn't hang on whether or not the ambition ever comes to fruition."

What advice do you have for someone who's just starting out?

The thing I wish I had, looking back on it when I was starting, and even now, I need to work on it every day, is taking my worth out of outcomes. It's really easy to confuse creativity with how something is received, and your creativity and artistry have nothing to do with how far your work goes.

 

You are an artist, or you are a creative, regardless of whether or not you ever become mainstream or anything close to it. And I think starting out, knowing that you are worthy, the chances of you being born are literally—this isn't a random statistic— one in 40 billion.

So, just the fact that any of us are here is a miracle. And as much as we can, taking our worth out of outcomes and knowing that the pursuit of doing it, just doing it, just putting it out is the whole exercise.

You can still be ambitious, but know that your worth doesn't hang on whether or not the ambition ever comes to fruition. That and self-knowledge, I really do believe, are the keys to pretty much everything in life. But you definitely deserve to unleash your creativity and share it with the world. It's much more holistic than we give it credit for. The inner work is really important, and you should also enjoy life.

When I first moved to L.A., I was so obsessed with making my dreams come true that I didn't let myself be a person. And if you don't let yourself just be out in the world and enjoy human things, you have nothing to create from. So I would say make time for joy, make time for rest, and make time to remember who you are outside of what you do.

 

Lauren has spoken publicly at events, including the Girlboss Rally.

What future projects or goals do you have in mind for your career, and what can we look forward to?

I've been doing more and more public speaking over the last year, but I'm going to be going really hard with that in 2025. For public speaking, I just finished my reel and my speaker's deck. I'm launching a new website, so you can expect to see me out in the world speaking a lot more. And I'm incorporating music into my speaking, which is really cool. I've been trying to find a way to bring all my creative children under one roof for a while. So that will be coming.

I've got a few new singles. One is about the personal shadow and integrating it so you're a whole person. Another is about my struggles with codependency and healing from that. And I've got some other ones about family generational trauma and stuff.

I've been working on a children's YouTube show with a friend for a long time, so I'm hoping that will come out. We're very close to the end, but just a few more things to tie up and hopefully work with great new creatives and people doing podcasts.

I love helping people find their voice and bring that into the world. That's definitely one of my passions. And so yeah, hopefully, meeting new people to work with and support them in their creative journeys, too.

 

Lauren says the key is being yourself. 

 

What is your goal with all of your creative pursuits?

The first thing that came to mind was just to be myself. I think a lot of us have a dream to make our living being ourselves in some way, whatever that means to us. And yeah, I want to use my voice to help other people feel empowered to find and use their voice or whatever their creative outlet is. So, the goal with all of it is to be able to feel fully expressed and not feel like I left anything on the table when I leave this world. 

 

 

 

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