Success to them / was living without fear, / was living in a free country. // And then in 2005, / I read an article / that changed my life. // It was an interview that was / with Oprah Winfrey. / And the reporter was asking Oprah, / "I don't understand it, Oprah, / how do you do all the things that you do? // You have a TV show, / you write books, / you do speeches, / you act in movies, / you produce movies and TV series. // How do you do it?" // And she said, / "Well, / I know what it is that I want. // And when it... / you know what it is that you want, // you can take the steps to make that happen. // Most people don't know what it is that they want." // What do I want? // That was a terrifying question to me. // How could I even want anything? // Like, I felt that / that's a question you can't ask / yourself. // That is something / other people can ask, / but not me. // Why? // I had everything. // In 2005, / I had the greatest parents. // I had an amazing husband, / children. // We had our health. // We were living the life. // To ask a question like / "What do I want?” // felt selfish. // It felt greedy. // It felt that I couldn't. // And so I didn't ask the question. // I tried to ask it, / but I kept getting shut down. // I wouldn't even allow myself the fantasy / of asking that question. // But as an actor, / we have an actors' game / and that's called / "What if?" // So I started thinking, / "What if / I could want something, / what would it be?" // What if? // And so I'd go jogging, / and I'd go walking, / and I'd go hiking, / and I'd be asking myself that question. // What if I could want something, / what would it be? // And one day, / the answer came to me. // Music. / Music was the thing / that gave me joy. // When I look back on / what gave me joy as a child, / it was music. // I would sing / "Ode to Billy Joe" at the drop of a hat. // And by the way, / what the heck is going on in that song? // My mom and I would drive in the radio; / I would hear music on the radio, / and she would say things to me in her Greek accent like / "That song / going to be a hit." // And we would sing along. // I / took a job / as a ticket-taker at a concert venue called the Universal Amphitheatre / because all summer long / I could take the tickets, / but we were allowed to watch the concerts. // And I would sit on those steps, / and I would watch the artists / come through all summer - all the greats. // And I thought to myself, / "How? / How do they do it? // How do they get up there? // How do they get in a band? // How do you write music? // How long does it take to learn an instrument?" // I didn't know how to make that happen. // There wasn't YouTube at the time. // My dad was a bartender; / my mom was a housemaker / - nobody in the business that I knew / - but I wanted it so badly. // So back to 2005, / I get this epiphany of music, / and shortly thereafter, / I'm having a meeting with my agency. // And I walked into the office, / and they asked me the typical question when you're having a meeting with your agent: / "So, Rita, / tell us what it is / that you want. // What do you want to do?" // And I said the words, / "Music. / I wouldn't mind doing a musical." //