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Shania Twain is reflecting on her years-long journey from a child performing in local bars to a global megastar selling out massive venues.
Twain, 60, will deliver her highly-anticipated seventh studio record, Little Miss Twain, at the end of this week. Now, the world knows her as the top-selling female country-pop artist of all time; however, the trailblazing artist had to overcome stage fright and perform covers in smoky bars before anyone knew her name. The Canadian singer-songwriter caught up with CBS in an interview that aired on Sunday (July 19), sharing how her soon-to-debut album is reminiscent of her years-long journey to become the “Shania Twain” fans know today.
“The amount of people is not necessarily what affected me over the years with stage fright,” Twain said during the interview. “It was starting so young in bars that were, you know, I was eight years old, and the bars were smoky, and everyone was intoxicated. I don't know what I'm actually singing about, because I'm singing about divorce, and I'm eight. …This was just an uncomfortable place to be as a child, and I carried that with me. And only in my 50s, I finally just said, Whoa. I've got my voice. I have an audience. I have everything to just celebrate. And the fear just dropped away.
“Little Miss Twain is me, now, looking back at my child's self and the journey that child went through, from starting out in those bars at eight years old, right up to when I got my recording contract in Nashville,” Twain continued during her conversation with CBS. “I didn't get a contract until I was in my late 20s. My first Top 10 record, I was 30 already. So, there's all of these years that were me making a living with singing in bars as a cover singer, collecting all of the songwriting that would end up becoming the Shania Twain records.”
Twain went on to share how she went from Eileen Twain to Shania Twain, and more throughout the interview.
So far, the country superstar has released “Dirty Rosie,” the title track featuring Tanya Tucker (Twain said her mother predicted she would be “the next Tanya Tucker”), and “Faded Blue Jeans” with Joshua Homme.
1. Stranger Things
2. Right Time
3. Little Miss Twain (ft. Tanya Tucker)
4. Dirty Rosie
5. Quit My Life
6. Problematic
7. Scary Thing
8. I’d Be Loving Me
9. Faded Blue Jeans (ft. Josh Homme)
10. Northern Town
11. That’s The Money
12. Down The Middle
13. Take It To The River (ft. The War and Treaty)
14. New Love
15. Rockstars
Little Miss Twain is hailed the iconic artist’s “most personal work.” She said in a previous statement, “a lot of Little Miss Twain is reflective of my teens, my roots as well as the energy of the rock and R&B I loved so much, but still with that Western twang. Where I’m from you don’t go anywhere on a horse — you go on a snowmobile. I was dreaming about the Western lifestyle and I was living in a very different world than where I ended up.”
Twain’s newest studio record will arrive on Friday (July 24).