I was unaware of just how much I adore Cher. But then Cher told the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to go you-know-what themselves, and we learned from Paul Giamatti how she’s been running a long con yearly prank phone call on him for years. What’s not to love?! Well, we have a new incident to add to the archives: the time when Cher “traumatized” David Letterman (his word, not mine) by finally agreeing to go on The Late Show in 1986 after he’d asked her four separate times, but only once the show agreed to pay her $28,000 which she says was the amount of a NY hotel bill she owed. Oh, and she admitted on air that she’d been hesitant to accept the invite because they weren’t gonna pay her fee she thought Dave could be an “assh***” (her word, not mine) to guests he didn’t like or respect. Again, what’s not to love?!

In a recently resurfaced clip, 78-year-old icon Cher opened up about the time she insulted David Letterman on his show… and how the interaction apparently left the late night host “traumatized” for years to come.

While performing onstage in a long red wig and headdress, the singer revealed what happened when she was asked by producers to appear on the Late Show With David Letterman in 1986.

“I said ‘I’d love to, for $28,000,’” she said (apparently, Cher had a $28k hotel bill she wanted to pay off at the time). “And he said ‘We don’t do that,’ and I said ‘Neither do I,’” she continued, adding that 20 minutes later she got a call back saying they would pay the fee after all. When the producer asked why she never wanted to appear on the show before, her answer was characteristically blunt.

“Because I think Dave is really funny, and he’s really smart, but sometimes, when he has a guest on that he doesn’t like or he doesn’t respect, he can be kind of an assh***,” Cher said.

During her actual live interview on the show — which was “funny” and “flirty,” according to Cher — Letterman asked her the same question: Why had she never agreed to appear on the show before? As Cher struggled to come up with an answer, “out of my mouth, in script, comes, ‘Because I thought you were an assh***,’” she recalled.

“Dave told me he was traumatized for five years,” Cher continued. “But we became friends, and he was wonderful, except last year, he wrote me a birthday card — in script — and said, at the end, ‘p.s. my mom always liked Sonny more.’ And I was thinking, ‘Oh he’s still harboring it.’”

A video of the unforgettable TV moment reveals that Letterman was indeed caught off guard by the remark, though he was quick to respond with a joke.

“For you folks at home who may have missed that, she said she thought I was an awfully nice guy,” the comedian quipped. Later in the interview, he admitted, “You know, with that assh*** remark, you kinda threw me off.”

“You’re the first person to call me that in person though,” Letterman added. “I’m sure they mutter that on the way out sometimes.”

[From Parade]

There are two videos in this story, and each one deserves a watch. First there’s the original 1986 clip, which crackles with tension of the non-sexual variety. Cher walks out in a black-and-white outfit that’s incredibly sedate, by Cher standards. And even though she says exactly what she thinks, there is a somewhat reserved quality to her. Dare I say, demure&tm;. Dave first asks about her perfume, Cher answers, there’s a beat, and then Cher says, “Is this as good as it gets?” From there Dave presses her on why she’s resisted coming on the show, and Cher goes into the hotel bill story. Dave sort-of denies that the show paid her hotel bill and asks her the real reason she hasn’t been on the show before. Cher blurts out “because I thought you were an assh***.” Dave acts very taken aback. Then the rest of his interview includes “friendly” questions like does she regret her tattoos, why does she need to have her wigs combed out in London (because she’s CHER, that’s why! My words, not hers), and did she have any psychological problems turning 40 recently. If it acts like an assh***, and talks like an assh***… But then you must watch the follow up video, taken by a fan at a concert decades later. Cher is dressed like she’s about to perform a mash-up of “Welcome to Burlesque” and “Ride of the Valkyries,” and she tells her version of that interview. Let’s just say, it has a lot more nuance and color.

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