In 1988 she was hired as editor and journalist by the Heinrich Bauer publishing company and due to her English language skills that
were above the skills of her peers, she conducted interviews with foreign celebrities such as Paul McCartney, Helen Schneider, Sean Connery (just to name a few).
Teenage years: Sonja at age 19
That was the time she turned her back on singing: "I had to
choose between music and writing, because I had not enough
energy for both, especially at the beginning stages of my
journalistic career, when I had still so much to learn. And
as a mezzo soprano it was anyway unlikely that I would ever
have been able to make good money in the opera field. Like
Liliana Aabye-Hecker said to me: 'You will always have a
job, playing mothers or witches, but your voice is not high
enough to sing the main parts.'
"Besides: I had always a weight problem, and making it in
the music business as a chunky short woman is near to
impossible, regardless in which field. But that was not my
only problem: Even though I was good during practise, I
always had so much stage fright, that I needed to be
considerably drunk, plus take off either my glasses or take
out my contact lenses (I am extremely shortsighted!) before
going on stage, so the audience would just be a blur to me.
Only in this haze and daze was I able to be relaxed enough
to give my best in front of a larger audience. Not ideal
conditions for trying to become a professional singer, and
so I decided, that I had realistically a better chance to
become a professional writer."
Sonja during her singing years in her early 20's
Less than a year after her first steps into journalism,
she met Johnny Paris®
and they fell in love with each other.
"I think I always felt drawn to people in the music field.
I was never able to play an instrument correctly, and I
admire people that play an instrument well. I have a strong
love for music and I had a good voice, but playing an
instrument, now that is something totally different. John
on the other hand absolutely hated journalists, but he said
he was drawn to me right from the start and he could not
help it but to fall in love with me."
"I loved John's courage, confidence and calm knowing
demeanor. He told me he never knew stage fright. Whether it
was on stage or later on, after we were already married, in
the dogshow ring, when John handled our Bullmastiffs in
competitions: He was always very confident. He was most of
the time a calm and introverted person, very stoic and in
control of the situation, while I was more wound up,
talking up a storm and easily flustered. Nobody could calm
me down and comfort me like he could, and I know that my
uplifting spirit and bubbly personality sparked him up and
brought him out of his shell that he wore like an armor
around himself all too often- I think we simply found our
matching opposite in each other in so many ways..."
John and Sonja spring of 1990 during the break of
one of his concerts
"The first time I got together with his German formation of
Johnny and the Hurricanes® was actually a half year after
our first meeting, and he told me: 'Do not tell the guys
you're a journalist. Musicians do not like journalists.'
But the very same day I met his band, he confessed who he
brought along: 'Sonja is a journalist. Funny, huh? But a
really nice one.' He shook his head in disbelief about his
own words and then started a roaring laughter."
"A few years after our first meeting, we were not married
yet, John started an outline for his autobiography and
wanted me to help him work on it. At that time I refused,
because John was impossible to work for, and most probably
many of his musicians can relate. It was either that we
would remain lovers or be co-authors doing this project
together - not both! I decided to preserve our love and let
John do his writing on his own at the time. So John wrote
an autobiographic outline and just stuffed it into his desk
drawer."
Sonja shortly before her marriage to Johnny
Paris
It was years later, after his death, that Sonja stumbled
over this outline again and something she did not see
before: His diaries and letters to (as carbon copies) and
from women all over the world, revealing that the man she
was married to, the man she thought she knew, was actually
a totally different person.
"I was upset and shocked that I was basically married to
someone I never fully knew, even though we were together
for over 17 years. The notes I found handwritten by my
husband depicted a man that was so very different from the
man I loved for almost half of my life, so very different
from the husband I thought I knew through and through. John
was able to read me like a book. I was never able to keep
any secrets from him, and I honestly thought that this
applied to him, too. But little did I know.
If nothing else, I learnt that it really doesn't matter how
long you know somebody, you can not see into a person's
head and people just let you see what they want you to see.
It was quite a bitter pill to swallow."
"First I wanted to burn all the diaries and notes. I
planned already a BBQ with friends, where I intended to
shred everything into bits and pieces and let it go up in
flames, but some inner voice told me 'Hang onto it for
now.'
Wedding day: Sonja and John 1996 at the Graceland
Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas
"It was actually a friend in the widows bereavement group,
that gave me the push to write John's biography after
watching the movie
'Walk the Line' together, about the life of Johnny Cash.
She looked at me and said: 'This movie is lame compared to
the stories of your husband. You should really consider
writing a book.'
I knew it was a great idea, but I also knew I could not do
it all by myself, as John was hiding too much about his
life from me, things, that would hardly be revealed to a
widow of a deceased Rock Star, no matter how great my
research. I needed someone with me on that project: a man,
a musician - someone who knew John fairly well. And right
away Duane Thomas popped into my mind. We were in contact
after John's death, but never met before John's passing."
Sonja sitting in with the band "Second Service" in
the year 2000
"I knew this project would only be good, if we both worked
on it, covering different aspects of my husband's turbulent
life.
Sometimes while writing I felt like washing dirty laundry.
But then I reminded myself that it was John's life, John's
choices, John who actually soiled the sheets so to speak,
and if he didn't want me to find out the truth about him,
he shouldn't have left the artifacts laying around for me
to find.
And nobody knew better than John that he was married to a
woman who couldn't be silenced.
So yes, I washed the dirty laundry and I washed it hard,
with sadness, rage and love in my heart. Sometimes these
emotions are parked right next to each other. I finally
knew that there was a reason why I had to find his diaries
and the truth about his life and lifestyle. And the truth
shall set you free..."
In 2007 Sonja Paris became certified master of hynosis
therapy and a certified reiki master (hands-on healing).
"Sometimes a great loss such as losing a spouse makes us
stronger as a person, also spiritually."
Horst Fascher (former Star-Club manager and book
author) with Johnny Paris'
widow in his office in Hamburg, Germany on February 13th,
2008.