Blondie: 'Madonna halted my comeback'
Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry has blamed Madonna for keeping her from topping the charts, insisting she is "not very happy" with the pop star's reign.
The singer quit touring at the height of her solo career in the mid-1980s to nurse bandmate and then-boyfriend Chris Stein through a potentially fatal skin disease.
But by the time she had reunited with Blondie to return to the spotlight in 1997, Madonna had catapulted to fame and become the world's most successful female artist.
The 63-year-old admits she was "kind of shocked and not very happy" the pop star had such a triumphant hold on the music scene.
She says: "I had been performing all along, with one or two solo albums. But we could not get back with Blondie because of legal problems. We had publishing issue, messy record company deals, management problems.
"But I think that is one of the things that Madonna was very smart about. That is something she can be commended for."
The 'Heart Of Glass' singer insists, however, that she bears no hard feelings towards Madonna, adding: "She says that she listens to me for inspiration and I have to take that as a compliment. But we are vastly different."
