Paula Cole Still Loves Singing ‘I Don’t Want to Wait’ for Fans

After Paula Cole’s unveiling last night on season 12 of The Masked Singer, she treated viewers to a rendition of her trademark song “I Don’t Want to Wait” — a tune she still hasn’t tired of after nearly 30 years.

“Those songs, they play themselves, especially ‘I Don’t Want to Wait,’” Cole, 56, exclusively told Us Weekly after the Wednesday, October 9, episode of the Fox reality competition series. “It’s like I get in the car and then the roller-coaster just goes. … And then the whole venue lights up, people in the audience are singing, there’s tears, there’s hugs. It just means a lot to people.”

“I Don’t Want to Wait” appeared on Cole’s 1996 album, This Fire, along with the Grammy-nominated smash “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” The former song grew into an even bigger phenomenon in 1998 when it was used as the theme song for Dawson’s Creek.

Cole admitted she was “annoyed early on” that those two songs defined an actually prolific career — she released her 11th studio album, Lo, earlier this year — but she now looks at things a bit differently.

“It’s an honor to have something like that that’s cross-generational and loved and touches people,” she explained. “It’s a beautiful thing, and I’m OK with it.”

Cole exited The Masked Singer on Wednesday after a stirring rendition of Patti Smith Group’s “Because the Night,” which she noted was the only one of her songs she actually chose herself (she previously performed Bastille’s “Pompeii” and Ann Wilson and Mike Reno’s “Almost Paradise”).

“I love Bruce Springsteen‘s writing and I love Patti Smith,” Cole gushed. “So that’s like an opportunity to honor the greats before me. I thank God for Patti Smith. And I thank God for Sinéad O’Connor though she’s no longer with us. But these women, I feel like they give me more oxygen and breathing room. They have pushed the ceiling, they have pushed the walls back to not just be a commodified female all the time, really allowing a voice and rebelliousness and even ugliness. I love Patti Smith for showing her age, just being brave and unrattled.”

Cole added that she wasn’t super familiar with The Masked Singer before making her debut as Ship, but she was happy to get out of her “comfort zone” during her time on the show.

“I loved being anonymous and I loved Ship,” Cole told Us. “I kind of miss her. She gave me grandeur. I couldn’t tilt my head too far ’cause it would come off, and I needed a lot of headroom walking through doorways and kind of a wide berth for my shoulders. … But I loved the anonymity. It gave me agency and some freedom that I hadn’t anticipated.”

The Masked Singer airs on Fox Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.