Page 7 - Pop History: Shania Twain

Episode Date: November 12, 2019

This week, Holden and Jackie dive deep into the inspirational story of the Queen of Country Pop, Shania Twain.    Want even more Page 7 content? Let's go girls. Join our Patreon page for weekly bonus episodes and more!    Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

And I feel like some information on Shania Twain. Let's go, girls. She has a sad life. Oh, my God. It's, man, this was, you see, the thing is that, like, I kind of knew what I was getting into with the nanny. Right. I did not know what I was getting into with Shania Twain. All I knew, as much as I enjoy Shania Twain, I knew that I loved her music, and I knew that she was Canadian, and I knew that she had got.

like a big public divorce. That was it. That's all I knew. I didn't even know about the divorce. At a glance, if I'm looking at Shania Twain going into this, if you were to have asked me, I'd have been like, I bet she had like a life akin to like T. Swift, like grew up with a lot of money and

and or at least like doing well. Yeah. And their parents, you know, supported her career and, you know, went through the system and, you know, in Nashville. and whatever and then became this big crossover artist. Nah, man. And I guess they're all going to be like this apparently,

but trigger warning for today, there is abuse, there is just all sorts of tragedy and stuff that is just the stuff of nightmares, just absolutely mortifying her childhood. And then, you know, spoiler alert, her parents' death later on. Oh, we're going to get into so much of it. And this fucking guy and this fucking marriage. And we will get into that shit, man.

And of course his name is mutt. Of course. Can I just say, of course, his name is mutt? I can't believe this fucking guy. Except for in Schitt's Creek. That's a good mutt. That's a good mutt. Outside of that, I've never met a mutt I've liked.

Have you ever met a mutt before? Not a non-dog mutt. I am from Florida, and I think this is when it shows. is times like the fact that I have met three mutts in my life. And all three of them were trash people. Right. And I'm sorry if y'all's nickname out there is mutt. I hope you are not a trash person,

but the ones that I have come across have been. So, Jackie, why don't you start us off here with the gush? What's your experience with Shinawain? You got to see her live not too long ago. I can't even. Her performance is amazing. Like, like, what, do you remember, like, were you really into her as a young girl? Very much so.

Well, especially living in Florida, you know, country music and pop country music, it kind of just absorbs into your system, whether you want it to or not. North Carolina here, same. Yeah, so you know, and of course, I was of the 90s children of like, fuck country, I don't give a shit about country. But Chenaya Twain was what got me started into living. listening to country music. I know that there's a lot of, like, a lot of people out there that say, she's not country music. She, it's like, I get what you're saying.

But you know, you also get what I'm saying. Yeah, you know, that was my first foray. Yeah, she's not country music. She rose above and past, surpassed country music. Well, she surpassed, she surpassed the idea of putting her into a genre, because when you make that much money and you are that popular, what does it fucking matter what, genre of music that you are under.

She also completely broke the mold, became, there would be no Taylor Swift without Shania Twain. She is the first massive, like, country music, very weird. The country music, like, politics, you know what I mean? Yes. They're very, like, they're very insular, and it makes it very difficult to do as an artist, as a woman, as all these things, to break past that mold. and be music that is not just country,

and that's, you know, she was the first big crossover person. Also, for how many people that know her, she has done five studio albums. Yes. Five. That's it. That's it. For how, not that I'm saying that that's nothing to snuff at,

but you know what I mean, the word. When it comes to someone that is this well-known, that when I went to the Shania Twain concert, I'd always loved her because, of course, she wore leopard print. She was sexy. but also not sexy in a way of like, of being normal sexy.

You know what I mean? Like, I thought that our music videos were weird. I loved everything about her. And then when I went to that concert, I remember my ex, my ex's brother gave, they got 14 free tickets at work because no one wanted to go to the

Janaya Twain concert at Madison Square Garden. And I was like, I'll go to the Janaya Twain concert. And I went, and not only did she put on a great concert, but also I went with seven other people, and we knew every single word to every single song she performed

because whether you fucking want to or not, people know Shania Twain. You know at least some of it. It's nuts. Who's better to have your boots been under? I listen to so much Shania Twain while doing this research. I'm in a fucking, I'm in an asshole, bitch.

Come on over, and we will talk more about it in detail, but come on over is an incredible country podcast. album. It has so many fucking hits on it. It is completely insane. And I love the way she talked about her process, the way that she approached making that album and all of her albums is very fascinating. I think anybody who's a young artist or an old artist or whatever you are, if you're at all creative and work on projects, I think you're going to get some real gyms out of this week's episode. Also, and I will talk, and for me, you know, it's kind of funny. I feel like I experienced Shania Twain. I feel like

so many of us young men, young boys even, shall I say, especially before, let's say, internet pornography and sort of easy access to stuff. I know so many people that fucking touched on the girls.

Boys and girls, myself included. I was complete. I wanted to have so much sex. You know, I don't know why I wanted. I want to have sex with Shania. We experienced. We experienced, So, I've experienced so much media that we wouldn't normally experience through sheer horniness. I can't tell you how many episodes of VIP I watched starring Pamela Anderson.

But on the good note, Shania Twain was so fucking hot. I mean, I still get a little riled watching that don't impress me much. And her vibe. Not as you should, but as you should. As like that vibe that she throws. It's not just about her body and her looks and everything. The vibe she throws out. It's so sexy.

It's so confident. It's so fucking like I don't need you. You know what I mean? It's so, I was so turned on by her as a kid. And, you know, because I wasn't a big country person necessarily. I still, I like enjoyed those songs, but I wouldn't throw on Schneider Twain or anything like that. But I, she was in my fucking mind back then. She was a smoke show.

Machi. But you couldn't get away. I mean, I just thought about like how many times I walked into like a Walgreens. and the Shania Twain song was playing in the background. Like, I just, like, listening to Come On Over, I'm like, dude, this music was just everywhere. Everywhere. When it was out and still is everywhere with these ballads and, you know, and all that stuff. Obviously, obviously, from this moment on and.

Oh, Darmine Greg, baby. And you're still the one. I guess that's probably where I really first truly folded in was because from this moment was the opening theme song to Dharma and Greg. And I loved Dharma and Greg. I don't think I knew that. Oh, yeah. All right.

So let's get into it. Let's talk about the life and legacy of Shania Twain, who is still fucking cracking away. And by the way, I would be, maybe if I end up in L.A. around the right time, we could run down to Vegas and go see her fucking residency, because I bet it's going to be amazing. Yes, please. Because that was what I was said is that so when I went to go see her, she said it was her goodbye tour.

So I was a part of one of the people that had been hoodwings. Ah, very interesting. Yeah. So Shania Twain, notorious liar. She was actually born under a different name. Eileen Regina Edwards. And this is in... But there's nothing wrong with that name, though.

There's nothing wrong with that name. I like Eileen. Come on, Eileen. In Windsor, in Windsor, in Windsor, in Windsor, Windsor, Ontario. in August of 1965. She has two sisters. Her parents divorced when she was just two years old, and her mother moved her and her three daughters to Timmons, Ontario.

Her mother fell in love with this guy named Jerry Twain. He is an Ojibwa from the nearby Matagami First Nation. Essentially, the Ojibwe is the second largest population of First Nation folk in Canada. Yes. He adopts the girls. He legally changes their surname to Twain, and that has led to a lot of confusion. Shania Twain is not actually Native American in blood. But her stepfather was, and the person who essentially raised her was.

So she has a status card and is on the official banned membership list of the Timagami First Nation. She actually became... Which I don't really even know what that. I don't exactly know what that means. It's, it's again... Is it like how I have a federal order of police card because my dad was in the NYPD? Yeah, exactly.

The weird part about this is that she's legally registered as having 50% Native American blood because of her adoptive father. This guy, I've been on such a roller coaster ride with this guy. At first I thought he was like this amazing man. Especially as you first start reading through it, I was like, good for him, man. Because not only did he...

So not only did he invite adopt Shania and her sisters Jill and Carrie Ann, but, Also, they had a half-brother, which her stepfather and the mother had, his name is Mark, but then he also adopted, like, he adopted his own nephew, Daryl, when the mother died. Oh, my God. So, like, on paper, this dude is a good dude. She said about him, my father went out of his way to raise three daughters that weren't even his.

For me to acknowledge another man as my father, a man who is never there for me as a father, who hasn't the one who struggled every day to put food on our table would have hurt him terribly. We were a family. Stepfather, stepbrothers, we never used that vocabulary in our home to have referred to him as my stepfather would have been the worst slap across the face to him. But maybe this guy deserved a fucking slap across the face.

Deserved a slap across the face. He's a nightmare person. His parents would fight. He's brutally physically and sexually abusive. Her parents would fight all the time. So she has an autobiography, by the way. If this inspires you to pick it up, I hope it does because

I have not read the full thing, but I got to read some excerpts. It's fantastic. It's called From This Moment On, I believe. It is really good, and she really gets into the dirty details. There was an instance where her mother was beaten unconscious, and her father was still continuing to shove her head into a toilet. Shania said, I thought he'd killed her. I really thought she was drowned or dead,

or that he had just smashed her head, and she was never going to wake up. She looked dead. She was unconscious. She was limp, hanging from his. You know, he had her hair in his hands. She said, I ran up behind my dad with a chair in both hands and smashed it across his back. Before I could get away, he punched me in the jaw. Adrenaline pumping, I punched him back.

This is just horrific. And also what I, the one good thing that she definitely states is that in her autobiography, it's not a lot about the abuse. It's just these little snippets into. her life because she didn't want the story to just be about her abuse because she has forgiven him. So she wanted to make it known of what they went through, of what she and her siblings had to go through, and also what her mother, essentially how her mother not allowed herself to be treated, but to show that like her mother pushed her on and did support her very much,

but she wasn't taking care of herself. Yes. Which is hard because also what does she do? She's got these kids and she's married to this dude. I mean, it's a horrible situation. And it's a more complex situation. I think this also sheds light on how complex a loving slash abusive relationship can be.

Because she refers him as a Jekyll and Hyde type character in her life. It was the Jekyllyn Hyde in him that was the greatest torture. I loved him and I respected so much what he did for us being the hard worker. He said a great example, so I'm still left confused. I'm baffled by all of that. I really am. at she and Shania Twain

And by the way, this is all happening in a background of poverty, super duper poverty. They can barely put food on the table They can barely pay the bills. She ends up singing at bars at the age of eight To help her family pay the bills Getting $20 performing for customers After they stop serving drinks between midnight and 1 a.m.

And that's what made so much sense. It was like, oh, of course. So she could go in and sing to all these hammered people When they couldn't get any more booze, which is also the time as someone that was a bit of a booze hound myself for a long time, that's usually around the time of night when you start getting angry because what you want is more booze. Right. Tough crowd, to say the least.

And her mother really pushed her to sing. She actually talked about it in an interview that I read that, you know, she has a hard time remembering almost like a chicken and the egg thing. Like, did I love singing and then my mother supported it? Or did my mother really push me really hard? She said she felt, and still can. feel really uncomfortable on stage. It's scary. It's terrifying.

As a performer... It seems that she missed out in her chance of a normal childhood because she was also kind of pushed to be on local radio and television stations. She went to community center gatherings and sung, senior centers,

talent contest, fairs, but she thinks that a lot of this had to do with her mother's mental illness. Her mother was truly and severely depressed. And actually at the age of 10, she wrote her first song, which was titled of Mama, Won't You Come Out to Play. Oh, my God. And what she says about this was my mother was always very isolating of herself.

I don't still really understand why. She's not alive anymore for me to ask her. I wish I could. But she was always that person that was watching life happen from inside through a window. She was sad a lot of the time and really just didn't have the courage to get out and face life. And so that's why I wrote that song, inviting my own mother to come out and play. She said that's gut-wringy. Also at 10, she started writing your own music?

Yeah, it's just to let it out. She said, my deepest passion was music and it helped. There were moments when I thought, I hate this. I hated going into bars and being with drunks, but I love the music, and so I survived. Another one of her first songs was called Is Love a Rose and also just like the storybooks. But that's crazy. I couldn't imagine writing songs at 10 years old. At 13 years old, she is invited to perform on CBC's Tommy Hunter Show,

who was known as Canada's country gentlemen. Other performers on the show, it's weird because Canada, you know, it's so far up north, but there's, because it's so outdoorsy and so woodsy and so rural, rural, rural, it, I think there's a lot, there's a big country scene up there, for sure. Oh, for sure. Other performance on the show early in their careers include Garth Brooks and Atlantis Mora set because she started out as a country.

And I didn't know she started out as a country singer. I bet there's going to be an Alanis Morset in our true Hollywood. I'm sure there will be one in our future. While at high school, she sang for a local band called Long Shot, which covered top 40 tunes. For a time in the early 80s, she worked at her father's reforestation business as well in northern Ontario. Again, so confusing. You would think she would be screaming to get out of the house. But also, if you think about it, she also had this quote that was like, I did feel sorry for myself a lot as a kid, but it was either go to children's aid and get saved now, or I waited up and thought, if I go to children's aid, we'll all get separated. And I just couldn't bear that. So we all stayed together for better or for worse.

Right, right. It's, man, just so difficult and so real. All of this stuff just hurt my stump. All of the research on tonight Way made me so sad. About working at the reforestation business, she said I loved the feeling of being stranded. I'm not afraid of being in my own environment being physical, working hard. I was very strong. I walked miles and miles

every day and carried heavy loads of trees. You can't shampoo, use soap or deodorant or makeup. Nothing with that any scent. You have to bathe and rinse your clothes in the lake. It was a very rugged existence, but I was very creative and I was sit alone in the forest with my dog and a guitar and just write

song. She actually said she loves the process of songwriting in a lot of ways is because that that is her alone time and her time to be by herself, which she greatly, greatly cherishes. And I think that this experience, because Shania Twain, at a glance, beautiful, this gorgeous, you think, you know, maybe she's like just kind of this beautiful, lilting thing or whatever. I don't know the right word for it, but she's hard as nails. Yes, and I love that about her. fucking awesome. It just makes me love her even more. Reminds me.

She worked her fucking ass off for all of it. Reminds me of Fran Dresher, you know, really. And why I think we, you specifically, but I as well, gravitated towards these women from a young age because I think you, I kind of have that toughness about you. You know what I mean? And it's seeing someone that's successful where it is just, just keep going.

Right. Just keep trying. Oh, my God. Yeah, because she did not get. Which is exactly what was happening right now because then she finally gets out. Yes. But it's still, and by the way, there is more, a lot more tragedy before we get to the big success. So gear up for this.

She graduates in 1983 from high school. She joins a cover band led by country music artist Diane Chase called Flirt. Which I'm, where do I find it? I want to listen to it. Because you can listen to if you look up Eileen Twain. Oh, my God. Which, after she had taken her stepfather's last name, if you listen to, oh, we didn't even talk about how she chose her name. If you look up, Eileen Twain, you can listen to her.

And you know, I'm against children singing, but fuck, man. At 1213, that was not a child singing. I mean, honestly, for everything she had gone through, are you a kid anymore at that age? After, like, under, like, with sexual and physical abuse and being forced to go to, Mars every night and sing. You know, she sounds like someone that is, because she is, she sounded like a child that had been through the fucking ringer. A hundred percent.

A hundred percent. She, she's with flirt now. She's taking singing lessons from a coach name Ian Garrett. And in 1984, she catches the eye of Toronto DJ Stan Campbell, who had her come in and do backing vocals on an album by Canadian musician Tim Dennis on a song called Heavy Out Sunshine. Hear me on the sunshine. I haven't heard it, but I just imagine it sounds like, here me all sunshine, I'm all to make you my.

Spreeklie, it would do. Is that what you're singing? Yeah, be on sunshine, make a lady to mine. I mean, I would listen to that. I'm not above it. I committed crimes. Yeah, and on my sunshine. Yeah, son of my sunshine.

Steal my sunshine. I thought of. Oh, my God. Is it Len? Is it Len? Oh, my God. We're definitely going to do it. an episode on the one hit wonder Lynn.

We are not doing an episode on Glenn. So it was very difficult for her to do this financially, but she ends up going with Campbell to Nashville to record some demos where she became acquainted with country singer Mary Bailey, who had previously seen her at a gig in Ontario. Bailey said, I saw this little girl up on stage with the guitar, it absolutely blew me away. She performed Willie Nelson's Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, which I love that song. I want to listen to her and sing that fucking song. I bet she killed as a little girl, too.

And Hank Williams, I'm so lonesome, I could cry. Her voice reminded me of Tanya Tucker. It had strength and character, a lot of feeling. She's a star. She deserves an opportunity. She also said that she sang a few songs that she had written, and I thought to myself, this kid is like 19 years old. Where did she get this?

This is from a person who's lived 60 years. It's because she's had the trauma of someone that lived for 60 fucking years. Absolutely. Especially when they used to eat, what was it called? Did you read about that when they would eat something called, Like the Power Man sandwich, which was just mustard in between two slices of bread. Oh, no. I have done that with mayonnaise before, but that was a choice.

But as a fun game. Yeah, yeah, because I like mayonnaise. The poverty food makes me so depressed, like cereal with water instead of milk. Yeah. Oh, brutal. We've all been there, though. I didn't have an entire childhood of it, for sure. I kind of did it for funsies as this dumb college kid.

No, I was just shitty for a long time. Yeah, yeah, just lazy. So Bailey takes Twain under her wing and into her home, and Shai Twain is at this woman's house practicing for hours every single day. They later moved to Canada where she would form a new band. Bailey also hooked John Kim Bell up with Twain, a half-mohawk. Yeah, he's Canada's first indigenous symphony orchestra conductor. Very interesting.

And he established the Canadian Native Arts Foundation to educate and promote indigenous artists. So actually this hookup was also her trying to find her quote unquote ancestry, even though technically she is not an indigenous First Nations person. Right. Yes, he's he's half Moabawk, half American. So yeah, tapping into that a little bit. She originally wanted to be a rock star, uh, so that made, which makes a lot of sense. And Bell is the one who convinced her to turn back to country. And also her parents knew that they were shup in each other. And her parents disapproved so heavily. And that was when Shania Twain had moved in with John Kimbell, who was many years her senior, and she moved in with him in Toronto, and they

referred to him as an apple, which is a person whose native appearance conceals a white core. Whoa. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, real bad. Real bad. Well, the parents couldn't disapprove any longer because in 1987, they died. in a car accident. By the way, this was apparently foretold to Shania by a palm reader, and she had these dreams about it. But her parents dying at the same time in a car accident, and this was just as she was starting.

She was just getting an edge in in Nashville. She was just starting. And most artists would not do this. I don't think I would have done this. I think I would have been a selfish piece of shit if something like this happened to me, but I don't know because it didn't. But instead of her focusing on herself and her career, she moves back home and she takes care of her younger siblings by performing at the nearby Deerhurst Resort for pay, which I'm sure.

I would have done that in a heartbeat. This is, but like I get that. She is someone that was, and also her siblings were her everything. What are you just going to do? Let them be ripped up her because they were all teenagers still. Right. So scary. So she said at that point in my life, I would have rather gone with them.

it was like this way is way too much to handle. Gone with them meaning her parents. Yes, with her parents. She also said when my parents died, that started a lifelong anxiety in me about dying prematurely, which at least gave her probably also a zest for life and living every single day at its fullest. Can she have her big break yet, please? Because this is so sad. We're inching there, but it doesn't mean that the trauma is.

This is so depressing. I can't believe how sad her fucking life is. I know. And how happy she maintains, like, by the way. She's so, I just, she seems like such a, any person that I've known, I've known two people that have worked with her and said she's goddamn delightful. And every time she, in these interviews and everything, I was reading this one where the lady was just like, I was nervous and I wanted to try to break the ice and make her feel comfortable. And she just plop down right next to me and just opened up to me immediately. And I just, all these things, just her warmth and her spirit.

And this is like today, Shania, by the. way, like not even in the middle of her, like, big fame or success or whatever. This is just her as an older person, just fucking... I love her. I love her. At 28 years old, with her siblings now out of the house, she's able to put together a demo tape of songs and get her manager to set up a showcase for some record execs. Mercury Nashville record signs her just a few months later. She changes her name from Eileen to Shania, which is an OG boa word, meaning on my way. Which apparently is not true. That's been. refuted, but then there's other people who say it actually is a very, like, it sounds kind of

like a word that would mean she's on her way or something like that. And also, that is she was under the assumption that that's what it meant. So it's like, she was told, I think it was by a hairdresser she had at some point. Her name was also Shania. She told her this information. And she's like, oh, I would like my name to be Shania. Ah, and you know, who doesn't have an Asian phrase on their arm that maybe means I like eating dukeye or something like that? You know?

I mean, I'd love to get an English phrase that said, I love eating duke. You know, don't fucking judge my life and my life choices. Or Shania Twain, who is special. I love her. So, she, her self-titled debut was released in 1993 in the U.S. but it only reaches number 67 on the U.S. country album chart with two minor hit singles, what made you say that and dance with the one that brought you? Also, though, she would go on to say she had very little creative control on this album. She wasn't able to showcase her song

writing talents. And that's what she needed. And that's what is going, spoiler alert, to be such a big part of why she becomes a success later on, because she had finally gotten that control and got to make the albums she wanted to make. Right. Which is also part of the reason why I think that she fell in love with bitch Mutt Lang, which is what I'm going to refer to him for the rest of this fucking episode. Well, what's funny is this whole part of the story, though, he's like this amazing thing that happened to her. I know, and that's why she just fell into his arms.

Because essentially she made a music video for what made you say that off of her first album and Mutt saw her in the video and got her phone number. And the two developed a long distance over the phone friendship slash bonded over his love of American country music and her love of rock music and would talk for hours and hours. So he's in fucking Switzerland. She's in Canada and they just create this phone friendship. Oh, by the way, this is a guy that produced albums like ACDC's Highway to Hell and Backer Black. He did albums for Deaf Leopard. He did albums for foreigner and the cars. This is no slouch.

Like, this guy is a big fucking deal. He's a huge music producer, and they didn't meet for the first time until the CMA Music Festival in 1993. And I believe, what is it, six weeks later they got married? Uh, is something, it was a whirlwind for sure. It was a war. I just, it's just not I mean, I am someone that can be rash, especially when it comes to relationships. No. I know. Nets. Nets.

But I think that, like, girl, I understand this is a big time movie, a big time music producer, and then he can fucking help you out. And then he also listens to your ideas and wants your input. I understand the seduction. Totally. I mean, songwriting, just like anything else creative like that. They wrote most of the album together, and they wrote almost all of it before they even became romantically involved. It's so intimate, you know, the process, and especially her

songwriting, which is just really from the soul. She said, creatively, romantically, it's a wonderful, wonderful marriage. My husband, Mutt, is the producer of my dreams and the love of my life. They are two separate entities, but at the same time, what more could any girl ask for? She wanted to be happy. It was the first time in her life that she was happy. So we're not even, I guess we should say this album that we're describing that we're talking about that they wrote together is the album, The Woman and Me. We've been talking a lot. I love that song. We've been talking a lot about Come On Over, but the woman and me, before she made her big amazing pop crossover album, the woman and me is this incredible feat of a country album.

It is just a phenomenal. It's a great album. It's pure country. And she actually wanted whose bed of your boots been under to be the first single, but the single and the hit ended up being any man of mine, which is also a great song. And it did hit number one on the country top 10, and it was followed by three other number one hits on the chart, including No One Needs to Know, which ended up on the soundtrack for Twister. Twister! In 1996!

Damn fucking straight, you mean one of my two favorite things combined? Helen Hunt and stuff. Oh, we should do an episode on Twister for sure. I love Twister. I can't wait for all the ridiculous shit I'm going to learn about doing these episodes. I'm excited about it. It is a great. This, I have never had this before where it's like, I start talking about these things.

And my roommates are like, wait, what happened with Shania Twain? I'm like, dude, you don't even understand. And then I just sit and like, talk about it. And I'm like, I love knowing this information. Yeah. No wonder you do Wizard and the Bruiser. Oh, I love it. Yeah, I love it.

I almost love the stuff that I wasn't. a super fan of more than the stuff that I'm super into because it opens this whole world to me. And like now, I mean, the songs on her album now mean have a whole different context for me. Yes. You know? But also now the woman in me is where she started doing this, which I find very interesting. I think that she did it on all of the rest of her albums, that there were separate country and pop rock mixes derived from the original masters of the entire album. I've never heard of this.

Dude, it's insane because she wanted more of a pop rock mix and he wanted more of a country mix. So they wanted, so Twain and Mutt wanted to release both mixes to the release formats of the album. Now, but then the pop rock mixes, which is what she wanted, were shelved in favor of the country mixes during the album's release.

Shocker, fucking shocker, girl. This is the beginning of it. You should have paid attention. And they would, up making like different versions for the international version they would like have different mixes for people outside of the country because she was trying to reach so many different audiences to be like hey it's not that like i'm a country musician is that i am a nerd for different kinds of music i think that like including different because you're right it's the same master of every

song but with different instruments attached to it that's such an interesting concept but also why aren't we talking about this with shirai twight yeah i i i I don't, come on, sheeple. Open your corner eyes. We're the sheeple. We are the sheeple. Twain said about the hit any man of mine. To me, that was the perfect female country song.

It was everything I wanted to say. It had all the attitude that I love about a great country song. And I just wasn't sure I was going to be able to capture some of that in this next album. As of 2007, that album has sold over 12 million copies. She also made her major television debut after that album dropped with two performances on Letterman and the Billboard Music Awards, among others. She won the Grammy for Best Country Album and the Academy of Country Music.

Of the experience, Twain said, I felt more grounded, and I made a lot of discoveries than what I wanted to do and try out. And I just felt freer to experiment, and the chains were off, and she finally got to, but at the same time, you know, you can see in her quote about any man of mine, I feel like she felt like she had taken country

as far as she could take it, and it was time to start. spread those fucking pop legs. She wanted to do something else. She was listening to them. She's like, okay, I'll do country for a while. All right, right, right, all right, yeah, yeah, I'll do it. And then she just got go to chungg, glug, glug, glug, glug, yeah.

Put into the prison of the music system. And it's a lot more normal today. Again, Taylor Swift, all these other acts that started country and moved over. But it was not normal back then, and it was a big fucking risk. She said, image-wise, I paid no attention to Boundary. that was my goal for sure. I was going to just ignore whatever the boundaries were or whatever the expectations were. They weren't relevant to me.

I was very defiant that way. And thankfully, I had a record label head that said, okay, if you want, you just go ahead and take whatever risks you want to take and I'll do my best to stand with you. And so that is when come on over is made. So good. I mean, love gets me every time. You're still the one. man I feel like a woman.

That don't impress me much. From this moment on, among many others, giant hit singles. It just unbelievable. She spent over 50 weeks at number one on the country albums chart with just the whole entire album. Sold 40 million copies worldwide.

One four Grammys. I mean, it is still the biggest selling studio album by a female artist of all time. And the best-selling country music album ever, the biggest selling album by a Canadian country artist, and one of the best-selling albums in music history. Isn't that crazy? Massive, massive, dude. And she said, all right, so this is what I love. This is one of the quotes I really appreciate, especially in a world where it's about churning out and churning out and churning out content, whether it be on Spotify with mixtapes

or even podcasting or, you know, anything, right? She really believed in, and this is what what, you know, this goes back to the whole, she only did five albums thing. She believes in really taking the time to make something special. She said one thing I learned from the gap between the first two LPs was that you can't rush writing good songs. You've got to take your time. You can be distracted doing other things. I can only speak for myself, but I was looking around me and noticing a lot of other artists

were putting out a lot more records. They were putting out a record once a year or once every two years, and they were getting one song hit one hit song off the album and then that was pretty much it and it just felt like it was a trend for me in the way i was working and the way mutt was also working that it just takes longer to make a truly great album if you want it to be that great i love that quote and yet still even though all of this stuff with everything country it was less of a hit with country music purists who questioned why twain was even categorized as country and steve earl famously described her as the highest paid lap dancer in Nashville.

I mean, come on. And we saw this with Lil Nas X recently. There's such a shitty. Go fuck yourself. So shitty politically. I have to say, throwing, it's the first track on the album, but listening to man,

I feel like a woman and a more analytical way. And opening up an album with it too, like good fucking job. But that, like, kind of listening to it with a more analytical ear as I'm doing research for this project, that is a perfect pop song from beginning to end. Every movement in that song is just fucking spot on.

She said about, man, it feel like a woman. It never gets old. The audience entertains me more than I entertain them. I think on that song, there's a lot of gay men out there that just sing that song from the bottom of their heart and they take it on as an anthem. It's got such a beautiful spirit in that sense. I just love it.

Everybody gets into it in their own way, and it's got an anthemic quality to it that is so beyond what I ever could have imagined it would develop into. For men, for women, for women, it's their party song. It comes to life every night, and I don't think I'll ever get bored of it.

You know what? That makes me delighted to hear because you hear so often of artists that are like, oh, they want me to play the song that they like. You know what? That's a part of it, man. That's fucking part of it.

If you want the recognition and you want the Grammys and you want everything, then you have to play that song for the rest of your fucking life. Sure. Suck it up. And I love that she enjoys the enjoyment of the audience.

Because isn't that part of the reason why you should be doing it? Why do you think that I miss performing live so much? I miss being able to hear the interaction of people. I miss here whether they like it or whether they don't. I miss the community and the electricity of being in front of someone. And that's part of the reason why she did it. Yeah. It's so great, but what a fun fucking jam to get to do every night at the same time.

I mean, that is just, there's just, it's just such a fucking happy song. Like, it's just so, it's just so like, it's such a powerful, great song. But then, oh, oh, all of her balloons? Are they bursting? Are they about to burst? Maybe. Because, oh, just enjoy it. I would say happy for a second.

I want to say happy for a second. Enjoy it, Shania. Oh, you're staying happy? As much as you have these big energetic songs, you also have these ballads that are so, like, how many times have you heard that just looks like we made it? Look how far we've got my baby? Like, how many times have you heard that like on a front porch?

And I, and how many times have silent fucking tears come down my cheeks? A million. And also from this moment on, she said about from this moment on that it was a real departure that I never anticipated singing myself. I wrote that song without an instrument. I just wrote it in my head. I was writing that song, to be honest,

thinking about Celine Dion. I give my hand to you with all my heart. And dreaming. Can't wait. I'm sorry. No, no, you're fine. I just want to listen to more Shania. I've been listening to Shania.

Should I do not stop? And dreaming in my wildest dreams that she would record that song, Celine Dion, not Jackie. And it was... I will do it, Janaya. I will do... Thank you. Thank you for asking me.

I will do it. it. And it was mutt at that time that re-thought... But, please. That felt really, really strongly about it being on the album and that I had to be the one to record it. And I did argue about it. I thought, this really isn't a song for me. I'm not

that type of singer. I didn't write it for myself. I was writing it more as a power ballad thing and thinking of it more as a balladeer singing it. But my voice is very adaptable. I have a versatile voice. I'm not complimenting myself in that sense, just that I'd spent so many years singing, so

many different styles of music genres, singing every top 40 hit under the sun, singing classics. So I've adapted every single singing style, every single style since I was a child, and that's been my singing job until I got my record contract, which is why she was trying to do such a cool thing of trying to do different versions of her own music. I think that's very cool. She also had not toured yet, because as much as the woman of me was this big success, she knew she needed to put out her come on over because she wanted a live show that was big, huge, over the top, and she didn't have the songs for it until then.

So off of this album, she ends up... Because it is true. Like, we were talking about this with Billy Eilish, who has, I know that she's got some singles out. She does have a very good live show, though. But yeah, I want to see the live show so badly, but still, it's like, the Hutzpah, it's not that she has a live show,

it's that they're charging $3 to $400 fucking dollars a ticket for her live show and 10. Technically, she has one album. That's why I said to you, I was like, I need more songs from her before I spend $400. Yeah. Because I like Billy Eilish. But Shania Twain, it was two and a half hours of amazing fucking music. Just hit after hit.

Did she do some of the, like, a woman and me quieter stuff too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was awesome. Damn, it was two and a half hours? Yes. Wow. That's awesome.

Amazing. I remember you were like. a different person after that show. Like I remember that. I talked about it all time because I had no idea that the show was going to be that great. So, Shania goes back into the studio in the early 2000s with her follow-up to come on over with Up, which it's pretty good. I threw it on. It was pretty good. She wrote it all over the world in Berlin, Rome, Vienna, wrote and recorded all over the world, I should say, Paris, Avignon, Province, Milan, Dublin, and the Bahamas. Now, this is also after she had moved to

Switzerland. So at this point, she had moved to Switzerland because she essentially she was starting to get a little overheated when it came to the paparazzi and the press and the fans because she just was always a loner in a lot of ways and she said in Switzerland she said I don't feel like a star I needed to leave behind the whole Shania thing and just find myself and be myself again just for a little while she had a very hard time with fame this is not the kind of person that that wanted this yeah she's not like a Kardashian type but that's also why like when

she said that she only, like, she made the albums she made because she wanted to put a lot of time into each one. It's also because she wasn't looking for like muchobucos and like, and touring and the fame. She didn't want to be in sync. She just wanted to make great music and to provide for herself and for her family. Yeah, more of a backstreet boys. Yes. Well, I don't, how dare you? I would say more of a 98 degrees. In 2001, she also has her son, Asia, which is actually spelled E.J.A. But it's pronounced Asia, which I do think is a beautiful name. With mutt. With mutt.

The gloves are about to come off. Let me just say a couple more things. Yes, she has different sets of different versions of up, depending. There's an international version. If you go on her Spotify, you'll see like, oh, this is the red disc green disc version or this is the red disc blue disc version. And you can get a taste of those different mixes. They're all on there.

And that's an interesting thing is that she, they, but like the green version was made for North America. And the red pop disc was more of like for the international audiences, but that was more of the blue. And then the blue disc, which I also don't really understand why it was green, red, blue. I guess it's just the way that they, just the way that they. No, it's not even primary colors.

But then the blue disc has described as more of a, it's more rhythmical with an Eastern influence. Ooh, okay. I need to go listen that stuff. I was listening to like the, I think the North American version. She ends up doing a lot of promotion for the album, including the Super Bowl halftime show. I don't remember that. I don't remember that performance very well.

Oh, I remember that. It was really good. I should have looked it up before doing this. It was, yes, and all of the music awards, it debuts at number one in the U.S. It eventually goes 11 times platinum. It makes her the only female artists to have three consecutive diamond albums released in the U.S. Insane. She wants to release like a greatest hits album.

She wants to work on a lot of things, but. All right, Jackie, the gloves are off. See, this is why you don't. You don't have a house manager. You don't have a nanny. You don't have any of that shit. Because your husband or wife or partner will leave you for them. And they don't even have to look good, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Yeah, and that's the thing. It wasn't even like, it wasn't even like, oh, this is just a nanny. This was a woman that was her best friend. It was her interpret. her in Switzerland, worked with Shania and the family for like 10 years. And what was this fucking bitch's name? Time she was fucking her husband. Marianne Thibowed.

Maybe is how you say her last name. She even has an evil name with Marianne Thibout. Thibowed. Leng had been having an affair with this woman, not just like once or whatever, like, for years. No, it was just, it was a. another relationship, but also, bitch was married too.

And it fully pulled the rug. Well, we'll get into that. We're going to get into that. Pulled, the rug is completely pulled out from under Shania Twain. Hasn't she been through enough? Hasn't she been through enough? Also, mutt, keep it in your fucking pants and asshat.

Do you not realize that you guys had something fucking special? Just jerk off or whatever. Do you, and I know, oh, I'm sorry. busy being an international fucking superstar. Sorry, why you raise your kid? Oh!

She would literally, Schneidtuan would wake up, dress, act happy for Asia while getting him ready for school, send him off, then get back into her jammies and get back into bed for the rest of the day. I just,

she's been through so fucking much. She said it was like I was kicked out of my own, off my own bus while it was moving full speed ahead, and I landed in the dirt and everything I had was thrown out after me. And after Tom

and getting a mouthful of dirt, I had to try to stand up and then figure out where I was and start walking. So it took me eight months before I realized that yes, I'm still me and yes, I'm a mother and yes,

I'm a singer and a songwriter, and I can love again. Yes, you can, girl. And I have friends, and yes, I'm alive. Fuck, yeah, you are. And she fucking roasted this bitch. She's included in her emails from... Except no, but then she also emailed her

and was just like, please can I have my life back? please can I have my husband back and like this did you read that email? No. It was devastating. Wait wait, wait. I'm sorry.

Shania Twain included emails from Mary Ann in her autobiography saying things like, I'm at the spa now. I'm really enjoy it when she was actually away with mutt. And, but what is this email? What was the email you're talking about? It was like in a really low point in

all of this. And Shania Twain essentially sent her a letter that was begging her for her life back. Like, I will deal, she's like, we will, like, we'll figure it out. But also went to her, which I think is interesting, didn't go to him. Went to her to be like,

you have, you must have, like, you are my best friend. I understand how amazing you are. Can you please give me my husband back? Can I please have my life back? And she, like, she included just to show, like, even when you are a very strong human being

and when you have, you know, you've been through so much, you hit time, at point that she's like that was one of the lowest things I had ever done of even just like she's like of thinking so little of myself to beg the woman that was my best friend who was sleeping with my husband for my husband back like what like she's like have more value in yourself a hundred and twenty million fucking and makes me sick and by the way you just talked about like how she's begging for her life back I just want the listeners to know like she literally could not sing any anymore because of what happened. Oh my God. What is it dysphonia? Yeah, she said, Twain said of this time,

she literally couldn't sing. She said it's a constriction that's both psychological and emotional, and it literally does choke the muscles around the voice box. It's called dysphonia. When my marriage broke down, I got so physically constricted

that I couldn't get any volume out at all. I couldn't even call for my dog. I realized I couldn't live without singing and had to do something about it. This is why I was like, just get it all out right now, clean the pipes. And so, yeah,

Yeah, that was her inspiration to write a memoir So she could get it all out But also now she says She's like, I am aware of the fact that it Because she has Lyme's disease That it was part of it like part of the trauma And when you're going through something That it's like difficult in your life

And you have a lot of stress It could cause dysphonia But at the time she was convinced That it's because her life was fucking falling apart Do you have the skinning on the Lyme disease stuff Because I've fucked up on that I didn't catch up got, but she got bit by a dick.

So scary. That also happened to It could just happen. That happened to the lead singer of La Tigray and Daryl Hannah. Not Daryl Hannah. Whoa, no, but it's a very, it's a very obviously upsetting disease. Kathleen Hannah. Kathleen Hannah. She, it ruined

her life. It's a nightmare. It's, you feel horrible pain. Because I've heard some people like, oh, what, you get sleepy. It's so much fucking more than that. It's debilitating. It's completely debilitating. But, fortunately Marianne was also cheating on her

fucking husband at the time and his name is Fred and he and Shania found great comfort in each other through this whole fucking bullshit. They end up actually getting married in 2011. And he's another Swiss dude that had he had a daughter

her name was Johanna who was a year older than Asia and so and also not in the music industry he's a Nestle business executive. So Also, not that she needed it, but also, Guffa ha, go for her, you fucking get that nice fucking man with all of his fucking money.

And also, you know what? Hatter than fucking much. Way hotter. Way hotter than a month. Both of them leveled up in the looks department with this marriage. By the way, fucking Shania Twain looks goddamn gorgeous as an older woman. She is beautiful. She is beautiful.

Beautifully. And maybe she had worked on, I don't know, but it doesn't look like it to me. It's tasteable if she did. And also the way, when people, of course, criticized her about immediately getting married to someone else and the ex-husband of the woman. She can do whatever she wants. She can do whatever she wants, number one. But also she said, I describe what happened to Fred and me this way. We were two people who had been jettisoned from our lives as if we'd been shoved off the edge of a high cliff.

Thankfully, we managed to grab onto each other on the way down in midair and break each other's fall. And I think that that's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful. She said of Fred. Fred is incredible. He's attentive. Brighter than God should ever allow any one man to be. Funny, romantic.

I know. Oh, my God. She fucking deserves it. And cute as heck. Yeah, he fucking is. Most of all, he shows what he feels, and that's a quality that could come in any shape or size and be admired. It just so happens that Fred has a very gorgeous shape.

He's too good to be true. Only he's real. Good for me is all I can say, and I'm loving every minute of it. So good. I love her. I love her. I love her. Now she essentially went back to Switzerland,

avoided the public eye through the entire divorce time, and her hiatus ended in 2011 when she starred in the reality television series. Why not with Shania Twain and published the autobiography from this moment on? I don't know this reality television show, but I would like to find it. Definitely check it out. It looks great. I was reading about it.

It's called Today Is Your Day. but it only, oh, I'm sorry, the single is called Today is Your Day. What's the name of the show? Why not with Shania Twain? Why not with Shania Twain? It only aired for like six episodes on the Oprah channel. So you can watch all of it, I'm sure, in like one sitting. But in the same year, she was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and received

a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You fucking get a girl! And the whole show, too, I really want to go check it out as well because it's all about her really trying to rebuild her life after getting crushed by the affair and everything. And it's about her like finding her voice again and going around. You know what I mean? It's very inspirational in that way. So I don't, I want to check it out too. The first single she released after six years is called Today's Your Day, as I just mentioned. And from this moment on, it all kind of came out around the same time. And that's when she got the residency show titled

Chenaya, still the one. Still the one at Caesar's Palace in 2013 and 2014. She did a song with Michael Boubley. She did White Christmas on his Christmas album. It was just a very big time for her for sure. She did a big tour in 2015. Was that the tour you saw? And released her fifth studio album now in 2016. That was the only one I didn't really get to.

Did you, have you heard now? No, I haven't. But I will say that as many times as I listened to the other albums while doing this research, I need to just get, but the problems I wanted to listen to what I wanted to listen to, now I need to go explore now. excited, but also I want to throw out a mazel to Shania because talk about someone that not only has been through so much, but is like, as finally doing what she wants to do in her career that the fact that she is acting now. And she wanted, she really, that was something that she'd always wanted to do. And I haven't seen it yet, but I want to see trading paint with John Travolta, who is a racing legend who is seduced back into the need for speed after a Sunday.

joins a rival racing team. She also did a cameo on Broad City on an episode called Twainting Day. Yes, which that's great. And, you know, they said about that, Alana Glazer and Abby said about that episode about her that she had such

a great sense of humor. She was really funny about her own career and her own fame and all that stuff. She was just naturally just a hilarious person, and I saw some like clips and outtakes and it just looks great. She said about now, every song in the album reflects at least one of those three parts, self-discovery, self-healing, and recovery. I'm not sure I'll

ever write an album like this again. It was a very unique period of my life. The verses couldn't be darker, but there's also this contrast. When I was in that place, I was grasping onto any glimmer of optimism, clinging to that. And when I got to the other side, I was still reflecting on the shitty moments. It's almost as if they couldn't live without each other, which I think is just so, such a great way to put it. Also, she created Shania Kids' Kidd's can in 2010 to address the needs of young school children typically overlooked by social assistance programs, much like she was overlooked back when she was a child. She was over fucking looked.

Her entire, oh my God. Fucking love Shedaya Twain. We love Shedana Twain. Also, I'm excited because next year, or soon, she comes out, she's going to be married to Gary Sinise and KJAPA's new Christian movie, I still believe. Must watch. Must watch, ladies and gentlemen. I think that's about all about all.

got our, Jackie, I think this is it. Our episode on Chenai Twain, I loved it. This was so good. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And now I'm so excited. I was so excited to record it. I was like, I can't wait to talk about Shania Twain.

I'm just sad. We recorded it because now we can't like do it again. You know what I mean? I know. But that's the best part that was like every year, every week. I've just been like, we get to talk about this. Yes. Yeah.

So I'm so excited to. I think, I mean, we're doing. Euphoria next, right? You want to do Euphoria next. I am so excited to learn everything about that show and even probably rewatch it. Yeah. All right. Well, until then, thank you so much for listening.

We need a sign off, Jackie. You got a good sign off. A sign off? Page 7, True Hollywood Story, like some kind of. Oh, yeah. True Hollywood Stories is done. Case? Oh, yeah.

How that? Case? Close. Why? Was it her game? Open? I don't know. All right, have a going, everybody. Bye.

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