Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Shania Twain

Episode Date: March 8, 2020

It’s been 25 years since Shania Twain burst onto the scene with her hit album “The Woman in Me,” followed by the even more popular “Come on Over,” which set records for a female artist and established Twain as one of the iconic musicians of her generation. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist talks to the country star about her incredible journey from poverty to the top of the music world, including her latest residency in Las Vegas. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. This week I have for you as my guest, nothing short of a music icon, Shania Twain. Shanaya has one of the most extraordinary stories I can think of in all of music, all of show business, for that matter. She, of course, became one of the most successful artists, male or female, in the history of music. Her 1997 album Come On Over, which featured big hits like That Don't. Don't impress me much. Man, I feel like a woman.

You know all those jams from 97. Remains, to this day, the best-selling album of all time by a female artist. It sold more than 40 million copies. But her long road to that point started in remote Northern Ontario, a town called Timmins, Ontario, up in Canada, where she grew up in poverty. Legit, honest to goodness, washing your clothes in the river, chopping wood to keep the house warm poverty. She started singing in bars at eight years old.

She tells great stories about that. She had a talent for it. Her parents took her because an eight-year-old was only allowed in the bar after they stopped serving booze, which was at midnight. So on school nights, this third or fourth grader was taken by her parents to sing in a bar, and that's how she began to make her name and get a reputation. She eventually went to Nashville to try to make it. And then at that point, she got terrible news from back home that both of her parents had been killed in a car accident. So she leaves Nashville, just as she's trying to build a career, goes back home to Ontario to raise her four siblings.

And she talks emotionally and beautifully about that really difficult time in her life in our interview. Once she got her siblings up on their feet, she went back to Nashville, and the rest is history. Her first album underrated before Come On Over in 1985 called The Woman and Me actually sold 20 million copies. So everyone talks about Come On Over. The first one was actually her second album, but the first one that did really well sold 20 million copies. So Shani and I got together to talk about this crazy ride at a little tight music studio in Midtown Manhattan. It's called Smash Studio. Her comfort zone, obviously.

We're in there, all the instruments behind us. and she talked about not only that long road, but some more recent personal tragedy in her life, the breakup of her marriage, very painful, and the literal loss of her voice. She got Lyme disease and lost her voice. You'll hear about all that and much more right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast with Shania Twain. Shanaia, thank you for doing this. Well, thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to talking to you.

I told you I was living in Nashville right as your career was taking off. so it was fun to watch you from that first album to the second and then come on over, just take over the world, so it's great to see you. I want to talk about Vegas and the residency. You've been doing it for a couple months now, the new one, let's go. How does it feel to be back in Vegas and back on stage? I've missed Vegas in the last few years now,

and it's just really good to be back. I feel like part of the community as well as, of course, one of the privileged entertainers on those stages. You know, it's the two worlds in Las Vegas come together, the community and the performance element of it. So I'm like camping out in Las Vegas. I got my horses. I'm all set up. I'm really comfortable.

Yeah, you've really, you've established a lifestyle there, right? A lot of people would say, oh, living in Vegas, that must be sort of an odd thing. But it's not like you're hanging out on the strip every night, I suspect. So what do you like about being out there? Well, I love going to the strip. I love going to the shows. I love going to my show. It's very invigorating.

There's just activity everywhere. I meet more artists in Las Vegas than any other platform in my career. You'd think that we'd meet at the Grammys and get to chat and all that, but everybody's so busy running around. In Vegas, you have time to get with other artists, have a dinner, everything's very handy and convenient on the strip. Then I go home to my little farm, and I put my horses to bed at night, and I'm, you know, wake up with them in the morning.

And I've got a really great balance. I'm out closer to the mountains. I'm right out in the desert, open desert. It's beautiful. People are excited that you're back in Vegas, because you already had a successful two-year residency there. So what will your fans see? who are thinking about coming to Vegas to see you again,

what will they see in this show? How is it different than the other? Well, it's a completely different show than still the one. It is a less formal environment, first of all. So it's a very stand-up, you know, get out of your seat kind of room. Zappos is very much like a concert, more of a concert, like an intimate concert, like a road concert, kind of. kind of environment, arena environment, but in a closed amphitheater is kind of how I look at it.

And I'm very approachable. They're very approachable to me. It's calls for a lot of interaction. And it's a very colorful and bright show. So when I'm watching it from the audience during rehearsals on my eyes, I need sunglasses to watch this show. It's supercharged visually. Right. And a lot of high energy. I've got incredibly athletic dancers, a very dynamic band, and it's full on.

It's a full on party. You mentioned it's like a road show. You've obviously been touring your entire career. How is this different? I mean, it must be nice to sort of have the feeling of a road show, but not to hop on the bus and go to the next gig. You just stay in one place and wake up with your horse. Well, the luxury and the advantage of being in one place, especially Las Vegas, you have the best of everything.

So you have the best operators, the best technicians, the best sound quality, the show is going to be more consistent. You're not setting up and tearing down, so you have more refined equipment. Everything's just a higher standard there. If you were to travel with this equipment, it would break down. down and be too fragile. So there is a luxury in standard in Las Vegas that first of all is you have to meet that standard. And so that's a challenge. You've got to spend the money. You've got to invest. You have to make it great because it's very, you know, the audience is very discerning. They go to a lot of shows. So you up your game as well. As a resident artist in Las Vegas, you're not just passing through one night with your tour show. You after night after night put on this amazing show, but the platform of Vegas being such a high standard. It's easier to get that standard and to maintain it. Also, just vocally, it's easier to be consistent vocally. You don't get as tired. You get more rest. You have more fun. You have more time to have fun. You're not traveling.

traveling nearly as much. I'm only 30 minutes from the stage. You know, I only live 30 minutes from the stage, so it's ideal. Sounds like you- It's a dream show, dream opportunity for me for sure. You've cracked the code. This is this way to- The, what's interesting hearing you talk about the high level there is the quality of

residences that have been there for the last, I guess, 20 years with Celine Dion and yourself and Lady Gaga. I think in the old days, Vegas is where, like, the old lounge act would go to perform. But this is peak A-list, the most famous artist. So, as you say, I think the culture of entertainment in Vegas has changed to the point where people are like, oh, wow, Shania Twain is in Vegas.

The standard is high. It's privilege. I feel very privileged. And it's a reward. This is a reward. that I see it as a reward. I see it as an accomplishment. It's not everybody will get invited to do a residency.

And when you do get invited, you've got to be, you've got to live up to everybody's expectations, which to me is, I mean, I'm learning something new every day, so it's exciting, it's great for me. I'm enjoying the challenges. I also think that we're going, Las Vegas is going through, I'm saying like we, Las Vegas. You're there now. You're we. I'm weak.

You're part of it. But I feel like we really are going through a phase of, you know, when the best of the best were in Vegas all at one time, you had Tony Bennett, you had Elvis Presley, Tom Jones, Wayne Newton. They were all there. And they were also in a community spirit. I've talked to some of them now, and they'll talk about, oh, yeah, we used to jam all night after our shows and catch up with each other for dinner all the time. And they were friends. They were, they were Vegas.

And I feel that that's happening again now. Is it really? So have you built some relationships with the other performers in Vegas? Definitely. And we cycle around and see each other's shows. We support each other. It's very supportive. It's not a competitive environment in that sense at all. So it's, I see that historically repeating now. And there is a group of strong, I mean, it doesn't get any bigger as a current thing than a Lady Gaga, for example. And then you've got, you know, Diana Ross. is there, one of my favorite shows to go to. You've got David Copperfield, who is the great magician of all time. And the best of the best are there.

Yeah. No, there's no question. And there's something I imagine, too, about knowing that when you walk out on that stage, the people have come pretty far, a lot of them. To come to Vegas, yes, but to see you, they didn't just go out to your show in their hometown. They've come to Vegas in part because Shania is there. It's true. People build their whole vacations around that. And it's a special audience. They are, you see the flag, they bring their flags because, you know, they come from all over the world.

And it's more of an international community for sure in the audience. When you're on tour, it's more of a local audience and you're going to them, which is a whole other vibe and it's wonderful. I do enjoy the touring. I think that I'm just a person who loves change. The stability of Las Vegas gives me, like I said, the luxury of enjoying the consistent performances, the consistent standard, the highest standard possible. And then I get out on the road and I want to reconnect with the local crowds and have a different experience. But Vegas is a treat.

It's got to be validation in some way, I would think, as you said, to even be asked to do a residency, which means you have enough songs to carry a residency and enough fans to fill the place up every night. Yeah. Does that feel good to walk out and say, wow, here's another room full of people tonight who've been with me since 93 or whatever it was and watched me grow and think enough of me to make this trip to come see me? I really do see the residency in Las Vegas as an accomplishment because first of all I'm getting up there to do all my own music. I don't do covers. I don't need to do covers. If I ever did covers, it would be because I wanted to do the covers. So you're right about, you know, I think you've got to have the material. You have to be a conflict. in order to be there doing a residency. So this is where my reward is, and I really feel I really feel I've gotten somewhere in my career

that is, I don't know, I feel like I'm just relaxing into, I'm living my best life. And Vegas is a very big part of that. We were talking a minute ago before we started the interview about the road to getting to this moment, of your best life and how life has put a lot in front of you to get to a place where you have all these hit songs and you're the best-selling female artist of all time and everything else. And it started for you in Ontario when you were a very young girl. Yes. And there was poverty and there was sick to your stomach hunger and there was abuse and all

the things you've talked about. When you reach this point in your life and you look back at that point, what do you see in that little girl all these years later? You know, that little girl that started out in Timmons, Ontario, was dreaming big. But the innocence of a child doesn't really understand what big really is. And I think it's very special that I didn't do this for the fame. I did it for the love of music. I was dreaming about singing my songs in front of people, but I wasn't thinking thousands of people.

I wasn't thinking millions of people are going to be buying my records. I was just thinking maybe thousands, you know, in the sense of like two, three thousand would be incredible. I want to explain this well, and I, it's hard. hard to put myself back in those shoes, but I feel like I've lived these contrasts that have just made me a very appreciative person. I just can't believe where I am, basically. I really still feel like on that person, that eight-year-old girl, that was dreaming about just getting out of poverty. I was dreaming about, my big dreams were feeding myself. you know, being able to wear the right clothes for the right weather.

I mean, I would wear rubber boots all winter. And that's, like, you know, really dangerous where I'm from. It gets 40 below zero. I mean, you freeze. I've had frostbite many times throughout my childhood, just by not having the right clothes. So to me, it was just being able to wear the appropriate clothing, be able to buy shampoo when I needed,

own a washer and dryer, so I don't have to go to the laundromat. All these very basic things that to most people seem just part of everyday essentials. To me, we're luxuries. Making it meant that I could live like the average person. I used to call them roast beef families because anybody that could afford to eat roast beef, and I could always smell it in the neighborhood.

I thought that's what I want to be able to do someday. And now I'm a vegetarian. After all that. I'm completely on the other side now. But at the time, that was what I considered, you know, success. So where I'm sitting now seems like that would have been the impossible. I didn't even go there in my mind. I just wanted stability.

I wanted to be, I wanted stability through me. music. That was the only catch. I wanted to be able to do music, write my songs, sing my songs, and support myself and be comfortable. It seems to me that it would be hard to even dream that big, given where you were, right? I mean, the walls were sort of tight around you, and you had a lot of responsibility as a little girl. Who did you look up to musically, or was that even possible? Who were your heroes when you were a little girl in terms of music? When I was a child, my heroes were, the people that really moved me, there were a lot of musical heroes. But as far as heroes that really were good examples of people that I could relate to and where they had got to in their life, Dolly Parton.

Because she sang from the heart, I understood her story. She shared her story. She came from nothing. and became this international megastar. Strong woman, beautiful. There was Olivia Newton-John, same thing. I thought, she's all the way from Australia, and she's this huge American success story.

And then she was in Greece, and I thought, wow, it's just endless what this woman can do. I was inspired by a living in John. And then she went into country. There were no limits for her genre-wise because she was a pop star. Dolly Parton, same thing. They were so diverse, both of these women. Gladys Knight was my absolute favorite female voice.

I learned a lot from her vocally, just a lot of listening to Gladys Night. Stevie Wonder was another big influence in my life. just somebody who was dealing with being blind. That never got in his way. He dealt with all this discrimination through his life. That didn't get in his way. So I was inspired by people that overcame challenges and persevered. That's an amazing list, by the way.

Those are some of the greatest. Aren't they? And you're right, they all come from a place of adversity. Dolly growing up in that little cabin in the Smoky Mountains, 12 people living in it and look where she is now. And they were gracious. They all, they all, when you see these artists, they all smile and are happy to be.

Not, not, it's not about the fame. That is who they really are. They're just, they're, they're, they appreciate life. And they have a lot of very profound things to say when you hear them speak. So I've always been inspired by, by all of them, both musically, and career-wise and as people. Are the stories true that when you were eight years old, you would go sing in local bars at like midnight or something like that?

So you're in like third or fourth grade popping out and doing a set at midnight in a bar? Well, at eight years old, the only way that I could get into the bar was after midnight. Okay. Because the official bar service stopped. Of course, right. So now legally I was allowed to be in the room, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, as long as they weren't still serving the alcohol. But in Canada, at, you know, 1155, everybody's loading up their tables with last call.

So, of course, everybody's still drinking into the early morning, you know, two, three in the morning. So I would be the after midnight entertainment. Wow. And then I'd have to get up for school the next morning. Oh, these are on school nights? Yes, of course. Come on, really? Sure, especially Thursdays and Fridays.

And what did your mom and dad say about their eight-year-old going to the bar at midnight? Well, they were taking me to the bar. My mother was managing me. This was her way of getting the exposure and getting me experience. I didn't have access to a performing arts school. Right. You know, this was not, this wasn't even a possibility. Those were things that I saw on television, you know.

There weren't things that I was ever going to be able to experience. So, you know, real life in an adult entertainment world was my education. I mean, it's amazing that you had that level of focus at eight years old. This is what I want to do. Yeah. And I'm so committed to it that on a school night I'm going to go sing for people and let them hear my music. Well, I'm going to be honest with you, this is not what I thought. I think, I'm saying what I'm doing forever.

I am not going to go sing in bars forever. I am not going to get out of, you know, go in the after-hour zone. And I knew that it was a stepping stone. And I understood at that point that I had to do it. It wasn't what I loved to do. I resented in a lot. I often told my mother, I said I'm quitting music. I'm not doing this anymore.

It was a lot of pressure, so I had to go on stage even if I had a cold. Even waking me up so I would go to bed and then they wake me up around 11 to go and do the, you know, two, three hours at the bar. go back to bed again. I would argue about it in the moment. I went, I was half asleep. I didn't want, I had to get up and get dressed and whatever it is I had to do. So it was, it was difficult. I wasn't always, it's not like I was dragging my parents to the bar to go do the gig. They were dragging me to the bar to go do the gig. As much as I loved music, I, I had to accept the only means that I had to get the experience, which was that environment,

which was not suitable for a kid. What were the crowds like? When they seen an eight-year-old... They were drunk. At that point, oh, of course. They're all drunk. See what I'm saying? So this is the environment that I was walking into.

I was walking into a crowd that was already drunk. Fights would often break out at this hour. It's very common. You know, these are small northern bars. and, you know, majority men. A lot of people working shift work. So they would get off and, you know, work and, you know, drink up their paycheck, you know. What they think when they saw an eight-year-old up on the stage?

I was appreciated, I have to say. Oh, good. I was. And everybody was always like, oh, this big voice coming from, that little thing. and my guitar was practically bigger than me. They did appreciate it, and I took requests. I was very interactive with the audience. I sang original music as well.

So they, and they listened to that. I think that they were impressed that this was all coming from a little girl, and that kept their attention. And I even remember, like when I was about, 12 or 13. I remember there was another kid that started to come out, not in the bars, but just in some of these

festival stages. And everybody thought, oh, look how cute. It was a boy. Look how cute he is. He's so cute. And I thought, yeah, I'm getting past that cute stage now. Yeah, this is, so I'm thinking, Oh, gosh, at 12? Okay, yeah, now I've got out my game. I got to make sure.

Yeah, I got to make sure that, you know, I'm like serious enough as a, sorry, as a performer, that they're not focusing on this little girl, a little singer, but they're focusing on this talent. And so I took it very seriously. I was very professional. And clearly you had a big talent for it, and you got a reputation up around where you live, and in Canada.

And at what point did you say, this is what I'm doing with my life, I'm going to move to Nashville. When did you get that serious with it? Okay, that's a, That's a good question. I really did go back and forth about doing it as a real recording artist many, many times, up until my parents died.

Because I was very, very, very, very picky. I didn't want to make a record that wasn't going to sound like an international record. And I would refuse. I just, I'm like, I just can't. make a record unless I know it's going to be as good as Elevinan Johns or Dolly Parton's or Glenn Campbell or the Bee Gees. I was comparing myself to that. That's what I expected. As a teenager. As a teenager. And I just never saw that opportunity coming. And I said to my parents, I'm going to have to

think about doing something else. I can't, you know, I don't want to play bars all my life. I don't want to do covers all my life. I mean, if I'm going to do this, I've got to do. do it the right way or I'm not doing it all at all. So I got to go, I got to go take something else up. All my friends are going off to college and university. And I don't want to, I'm not going to be a bar singer all my life. I've got to do more than that. And I needed to make sure more than anything that I was going to be able to take care of myself because my parents didn't have anything. And I needed to know that I was going to be secure. So unfortunately, um, when my parents died, I, well, it was unfortunate that my parents died. I mean, that that was the shock of my life. There will never be another shock like that in my life, losing both my parents at the same time.

Suddenly, in a car accident. Suddenly like that. It was really the impossible tragedy and trauma to cope with. And that was the moment that I said, that's it, I'm not doing music, I know it now. I know I'm quitting, I know, I know that I've been hanging on to this dream for my mother because I just don't see myself getting this opportunity that I need in order to be an international artist and I'm just not going to be, you know,

half, I don't want to go halfway there. And then a friend who was also another artist, my mother's age, called me up and said, you can't quit. You know, she called and say, how are you doing? And I said, well, I mean, horribly, and I'm going to quit music. You know, I just, now I know that I just can't do it. I've got to get a real job.

I've got to get out there and educate myself. And she convinced me not to quit. She found me a singing job. It was a singing job because I was part of a big cast, and I was just one of the performers in the show. I learned how to walk. I learned how to walk in high-heel shoes. I had never done that before.

I learned how to sing in gowns and how to wear makeup and how to fix my hair. I was just not at all that kind of performer. I was really more of a folk performer, rock folk performer before that I didn't know anything about glamour. So I did that for two years. and then I started writing again very seriously. Because this job paid my bills. I had my kids, I say.

I had my younger brothers and my sister with me. I had to make sure that, you know, the bills were paid, that I had a job where I could function and, you know, do laundry, cook meals and do groceries and, you know, run them around everywhere and be the mom, basically. It's a lot of pressure at that age, though, isn't it? It was a lot of pressure. pressure, but this singing job paid well.

So I said, okay, I can do both. I can do both at the same time for now. I got serious about writing again. I was doing my demos at 3 in the morning after the show and then going home, getting back up again at 7 in the morning, get the kids ready for school, put the fire on, we only had a wood stove for heat. It was, I barely slept. It was a lot of work those two years.

Is this in your childhood home too? No, this was in another town, a little bit further south, still in the north. Yeah. Very cold. Yeah, so you need your fire. So I chopped my own wood, piled my own wood, and it took two fires a day to hate the house. And I was it. I was everything.

I was operating the house and parenting and doing, and I don't think doing any of it well. I don't think I was doing any of it very well. It was a very touching go period in my life. We would run out of water. I'd have to go down to the river and bring back coolers of water to drink and do the laundry down there by hand. I mean, it was all stuff that I was used to anyway.

I had done that in my childhood. We grew up poor. It was nothing for me to do manual. work and just to survive through things. But with two teenagers, it was a lot more difficult and no parents. It was all on me. But the singing job was a saving grace. I knew it wasn't where I was going with my career because, again, it was all about stage.

It wasn't about making great records or anything like that. But it ended up being a fantastic education in what I ended up doing, what I'm doing now on stage, more, learning more about the presentation of a show, working with dancers, all of that. So it was all a great education, and long and short of it is that I ended up creating demos that got me my record deal, an international record deal. This is what I'd been working toward

that I really wasn't sure was ever going to happen. because a small town girl way north in a mining town that that's what life is all about it's all about lumber and mining forestry and mining with no professional education in my field what was I how was I ever going to get into the international market who was going to care about this you know about me so I did I finally I did get this record deal, and I've been with the same label ever since, and great things have happened. To say the least. It's been a huge journey, a very long one.

Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Shania Twain after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Shania Twain. I was interested listening to your story of your mother's friend who called you and convinced you to keep at it. Do you ever think about what your life would be like as we sit here right now if you hadn't listened to that phone call or if you hadn't stayed with it? Where would you be? What would you be doing?

I would have gone to school to be an architect probably. I always love design and I've always had a fascination for it. I wouldn't have been able to afford to do that anyway. So that's what I would have wanted to do. What would I have done? Back up in Ontario, probably? I wouldn't have stayed in Timmons. I wouldn't have stayed so far north.

I would have probably, maybe I would have stayed in Ontario. That I don't know. But what I do know is I would have remained a songwriter. That I would never have given up. It doesn't cost anything. It's just my feel-good place, my therapy, music in general. I just wouldn't have done it for a living, probably. And, yeah, it's hard to say what I would have done, because what could I have done?

It was such a dangerous time in my life, you know. losing my parents, plus having all the responsibility, you know, dreaming about architecture and then, but knowing that I wouldn't be able to afford to do that, and already two years behind the rest of my friends, like as far as, you know, any formal education. I think it was the best thing that I stayed with me to get out of words. Well, luckily we don't have to worry about those hypotheticals. It worked out. But it worked out.

It did work out. So as you said, you did get to Nashville. You got the record deal, which you couldn't believe your luck and your fortune and your talent obviously brought you there. What were those early years in Nashville like for you before you became Shania Twain that everyone knows now? Well, I packed up my vehicle and I drove from Timmins, Ontario, all the way to Nashville all my own.

Jammed whatever I could in there. I had a very small advance. I think it was something like $20,000, which was giant to me, but I had to use that as a down payment on like a first and last month's rent on my apartment. And I moved in with just a, you know, mattress and a few little things.

And all I did was write all day, all night so that I could keep bringing my music into the label listening to a lot of music that they were giving me as well to listen to. They weren't convinced about my writing. So I was you know, I was

chipping away at it and songs like any man of mine and who's better be Bootsman Under and no one needs to know. They were all songs that were developing at the time that were not interesting my A&R department yet. They ate those words later, I bet. It's so, so it was, it was really great after to then, really my, my, the true talent discovery for me was mutt, because my, was like, whoa, like, you're writing all this stuff yourself,

and he was already really in love with my voice, and that was his, you know, he wanted to produce that voice, but, uh, we ended up writing. everything and I've up that's all I've ever done ever since but so yeah my days in Nashville the early days were just scraping by and perfecting my writing you know just writing writing writing writing like mad that's all I did I didn't socialize or or do anything like that I was very I remained very focused and then when I did start promoting in the very early days it was it was rough promoting it was I was back in the bars little small you know

know, clubs. I was, I had to do covers. I was just getting started as a recording artist, and it was like a, it was like a pill that I had to swallow. But I thought, okay, I'm going to get there, I know it. I'm going to keep working on, on, you know, recording my own music. I'm going to prove myself, this is a stepping stone. And I just didn't allow myself to get discouraged. And I got through those early promotion months. It was really only a matter of months. It went very fast after that.

I was very lucky. I spent more time preparing myself up to the time I got the recording contract that when I did get the contract, it all went very quickly after that. I was very ready. Because by the time I guess you got to Nashville, it wasn't that long since you'd been taking care of your family, washing clothes in the river, chopping wood, and all the things you just told me you had to do.

All of a sudden you've got a CD in your hand with your face and your name on it. And then not that long after, woman in me becomes this phenomenon that sells 20 million copies around the world. It's crazy. How do you process that as a young artist? I'm washing clothes in the river, and now 20 million people are buying my record.

Well, I went so far into work that I didn't even really have time to think about it. I was full on, now I'm full on promoting, I'm full on making videos every three months. I'm writing for the next album. I'm editing everything. I'm editing the visuals. I'm editing the videos. I'm directing the videos. I'm wearing all these hats and I'm learning.

I mean, I'm just new at everything. I'm learning everything as I go. I somehow convinced the label, the art department, to let me do what I wanted to do, that I had a vision. And I learned as I went, and it was all just very occupying. I was busy. I was buying all the wardrobe for my videos. I was doing my own hair.

which was not necessarily to my advantage because we didn't have the budget for, but by the time I'm into the second third single of the woman in me, now I'm like, I have a whole team. But there was an early little period where I was still, you know, going to the Walmart for the wardrobe and, you know, I had a thousand dollar budget maybe for the clothes

and no hair budget. and all that sort of stuff. So you get a number one single. It went fast. We win a Grammy. At that point, maybe at the Grammys, do you start to feel, okay? I've made it, first of all, and my life is changing a little bit. I'm in a different place now than I was even a year ago.

I felt security very early on. So it didn't take much for me to feel secure. I had a couple of hits now into the woman and me. I could tour if I wanted. You know, I could support myself. No problem there. I was already supporting myself. I wasn't, I wanted, I was very strict with this because Mutton and I had gotten married.

And I said, I don't want you paying for anything in my life. This is, I have to, I have to pay my own way. I was so adamant. I said, I've worked so hard now for what I'm getting that I'm going to live at this standard. and, you know, because he was, he was, he wanted to buy me a new car and he just wanted me to have everything. I'm like, no, no, no, no, I will, but I'm going to do it myself. And, you know, it just, I was very determined to enjoy that independence financially. So that was the first pleasure that I really got out of all the work, all the years.

since my childhood that I was sensing and feeling and living out. And I wasn't ready to go on the road touring, because like I said earlier, I was very stubborn about it. I didn't have enough material yet to do my whole show of all my own music. So I didn't tour with the woman in me at all. And that was very frustrating for my label and for everybody on my team. I was going to say they wanted you out on the road, didn't they? Of course.

Because that was such a big element. of the promotion, but I said, no. I said the promotion is in the videos. I need to do the videos. You need to support the videos. I was all pro-visual art, you know, like image. And going on the road, I said, first of all, I'm not going to get the writing done that I need to get done. I was already very mature, but you have to understand that I was already in my 30s.

So it's not like they were dealing with a 20-year-old. I was a 30-year-old. And I was, and I lived a lot already. And I think that helped them as well. They weren't dealing with a 20-year-old. They knew that I had some experience. I was speaking from experience. And I think giving me that self-art direction management role was everything.

because otherwise, of course, I would have been out on the road, and I would have been doing that. I wouldn't have had time or energy to deal with the video directors and the lighting directors and the wardrobe and all the people that need to be managed and produced. So I was able to create the whole vision and finally went on the road with Come on Over. You couldn't help it at that point.

At that point, I had enough songs. I had enough hits I could get out there. Everybody was happy. We had got to talk about Come On Over. I mentioned how successful. The woman in me was, but Come On Over, took it to another level. I think you'd agree. Crossed over into popular culture, pop music, rock music, was big around the world.

It remains today the biggest selling album of all time by a solo female artist, which is an incredible milestone. What do you think it was about that record that took off the way it did? and just became this cultural phenomenon. Well, on the woman and me, my label had called me up, Luke Lewis, and he said, so, what do you think would be your goal as far as like, you know, dream sales? What would do you think would be like the ultimate success as album sales? I said, well, I said, anyone big out there right now is selling probably about $3 million. That would be outstanding.

I'm like, if I could do that, then I'm like, you know, I've done it all. See, like my goals were I was, I was, I think I was overly realistic just because of where I came from. So this is where the contrast all comes in. He goes, well, you're already over that. And I just about, because I wasn't paying attention to that, I'm working doing other things. And then, so at that point, I'm like, wow, okay, this is really working. And then, you know, come on over. Happens.

Well, first of all, the woman in me goes diamond. It goes, that's, you know, goes over 10 million. Come on over, rapidly goes over 10 million. And now I'm like, you know, now I've lost count. You know, I don't, I was never counting anyway. I was, you know, I was always more focused on my work. And I was blown away by the support by the fans. I was exhausted at the same time.

Now I'm working like triple time. More than I'd ever worked in my life. Because now I'm touring. And now I need to write another album. I know that. I'm still, you know, so involved with all these videos. And I'm doing videos every three months, a new video, a new single. I'm like, guys, I mean, how many, like, I feel so grateful to have all these.

singles, but this has got to stop. Like, I mean, how many singles can you have of one album? I'm exhausted. I can't keep up. But they want to milk it. I mean, they want to milk it. And the fans want it. Yeah. So they keep releasing singles, and I keep making videos, and I keep doing the promotion, and I keep, and now I'm touring as well.

So when you asked me how I felt, when Kavana Over did so well, I was not really feeling much. I was working, and I wasn't even. appreciating the success. Now, all these years later, I mean, we're 25 years later. We're 25 years now on the release of the woman and me. You know what? I looked up. The anniversary is tomorrow. There you go. February 7th, 1995.

So 25 years. And the come on over would have been, what, 27 years? No, no, 23. And then 21 or 20, something like that for up. So this was a 10-year, like it was really a 10-year stretch of like nonstop. You know, let's see, you know, how much work I can cram in into my life. And I was already in my 30s. And I'm thinking, wow, I've got it.

I was so grateful to be there that I didn't want to miss out on anything. I was like a kid that didn't want to go to bed. You know, it's like, and every day I had a new success to add. There were new accolades all the time. It was very rapid. So it was like a kid that doesn't want to go to bed on Christmas Eve, you know, because, you know, tomorrow morning's Christmas. So I was driven by the excitement of it all.

Plus, you add the, just my work ethic. I'm just going to, you know, I'm not going to waste this privilege, this opportunity that I've been given. and I didn't really enjoy it in that moment. So, yeah, I wasn't celebrating yet. I hadn't celebrated any of it yet. What about the lifestyle change? Because you were already a big deal. But come on over was something else entirely,

where I imagine anywhere on earth you went, people knew who you were and wanted to get an autograph or picture or whatever and scream your name. crowds and security and all those things. Yeah. What did that feel like to a young woman from Timons, Ontario, to live that way? Well, I really loved and enjoyed the little things.

For example, not, you know, I could go into a grocery store and buy whatever I wanted and not look at the price. To me, that was, I'm like, oh, this is so awesome. You know, I can buy, you know, anything I want in here and not worry about. not having the money when I get to the gas, cash register, which has happened many times. I'm definitely that person that's had to put things back. Sorry, sorry, I won't be long.

Take that or take that out. So that was over. No more stress about that. I was able to travel first class. And I've been working so hard before I had had success. I was never traveling first class. traveling in vans and, you know, you know, sleeping in the backseat of a car to get to shows.

And now all of a sudden I'm seeing in first class and I'm getting a little bit of sleep. So it was the things that were more on a practical level, I've got to say, because I was never one to get out there. And, first of all, I didn't want to go shopping because I was so tired of shopping for work that I didn't even spend money on shopping. I was barely driving myself, so I never had a fancy car.

It's funny, you're not really living. It's not what you, well, it's certainly not what I was doing. I wasn't living the lifestyle yet. I was just enjoying the simple things that were all of a sudden better in my life. And being able to find my family, for example, for visits, stuff like that. Could never do that before. so I got to see people more often, people that I cared about. And really it's only now that I'm my lifestyle,

that I'm really enjoying my lifestyle, the fruits of my labor. And then there's the sort of the music aspect of it where you kicked down this door or this wall that existed between the silos and music. There was country and there was pop and they were separate and never the twain shall meet, if you forgive the expression. And I think people like Taylor Swift, would say, there's no me without Shania Twain.

There are a lot of people, truly, who started in country and were allowed to be something bigger because of what you did. Do you ever stop to consider that, what you did, your impact, your legacy in music? Well, it takes me back to my early intentions and my goals, which were inspired by people like Dolly Parton, who had done that as well. Sure. And Aluminant John, who had done that. Elvis had done that.

And so I was, it wasn't, I didn't have any intentions of kicking down doors. I didn't realize that those doors were there, to be honest. That was an interesting and eye-opening experience for me because the country music industry and Nashville had regressed, you know, in a sense they weren't as open anymore to the the liberated woman that I was coming there with. And I spoke too fast and I was just, I was too hyperactive, you know. I was like, they didn't really take to me very well.

And I thought, wow, well, what about Dolly Parton? You know, she's like all bubbly and she's like, she's like her own universe. But they add, it's almost like after Dolly, there was no more, they didn't allow them anymore or something. I don't know. I don't know. And then, you know, something happened. And I wasn't ready for that. I thought I could just be myself.

So that was, I ended up having to kick the doors down in order to stay true to myself. But I wasn't expecting it. It was difficult. Stick around to hear more from Shania Twain on the Sunday Sitdown podcast. including what she thinks when she looks back on some of her most famous music videos. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Shania Twain. Do you ever look back at some of the videos you were talking about,

watch yourself in the leopard print walking through the desert? And if so, what do you think when you watch them? They're classics. Well, that I didn't, you know, I think that the thing is that I never really, My only goal was always to do something original. To do something that I thought was very me and very, that was coming from somewhere that I could envision myself,

that I wasn't playing a character, that these were just all elements of who I was and what I wanted to live out. And what I thought the music looked like. Because that's the other side of it as well. When you're the songwriter, for me anyway, when I'm writing songs, I'm visualizing the songs. I'm visualizing the story, the music, the tone. It all starts there.

So fashion became more a part of it, having more fun with fashion. And then I started a great relationship with Mark Bauer, so that evolved. Earlier on, I mean, now I get people at my concerts that are wearing the anime of mine clothes, like the cutoff. little gene denim vest and the high waist pant and the these were all things that I just did myself. I didn't have a designer yet. So I'm just throwing this stuff together and I was, you know, I wore this little dress that probably cost $20 and but I and I thought, well, I'm not going to wear a bra. I think that I'm going to, I had just, I just had these visions that I needed to fulfill. And when I look back on them now, I just realized that the intentions were all very true,

and they weren't to become iconic, you know, an iconic, some sort of fashion trends that or anything like that. So I'm just flattered that it's become that, to be honest, and I think it's, it reminds me to stay true. And just follow what is, what suits me best. and not the other way around, which is very tempting. Sure. Because people can be very critical, you know. But I say set your own trends and do it suits you best, and it's done well from you. I say it's worked out pretty well.

You've stayed true to yourself. Exactly. We were talking before we started about your voice. Yeah. So you're flying high, come on over, up, all these albums are flying off the shelves. And then I remember thinking and people saying, where's Shania Twain? Where did she go? We haven't heard from her a while because you were so in our lives for a decade.

And it came out later that you had Lyme disease that affected your voice and almost took it from you completely. What was that period like when this thing that had carried you to where you were was gone? I was devastated. I was mourning the loss of this element to my life that was so important that I'd known. it was just an extension of me. I mean, your voice, you don't have to be a singer, a professional speaker or singer, to mourn the loss of your voice.

It is, we express ourselves with our voice. We cry with our voice. We smile with our voice. We, you know, we laugh, meaning we laugh with our voice. We speak to our children, our, we call our dog. You know, we live every minute. with the need to be able to voice what we feel and think and have to say. I was really robbed of that on every level.

It wasn't just singing. It was like, like, you know, saying out to my dog. I couldn't call out to my dog. I had no volume. So whenever I would go to project, it would just cut off. Like as if the windpipe would close. And I remember I, I, I remember saying to me, because I would be like, I would talk up here like that sometimes.

He'd go, why? And he would say, why are you talking like that? Because I had to like manipulate my voice in order to get around it falling out. So the only way you can get it out probably was up there. Right. So I'd have to like be down here. I was all over the place. So I was doing whatever I could.

I was basically speaking with a limp. It was sort of like I had to compensate everywhere else. And I just thought I was tired. I thought it was fatigue. But in any case, I couldn't get my voice out properly. It was terrible. It was devastating. I was very, very, very sad about it.

And to the point where I just, I just, I had no other, I felt I had no other choice, but I did just accept it. You would accept it. And that I would never sing again. No more singing. No way. I couldn't. I couldn't do it.

And I didn't. even realized that the connection was Lyme's disease at the time. I had Lyme's disease prior to that. I didn't connect the dots. I treated the Lyme's. I was still at a stage where it could be treated. I wasn't meant to have long-term symptoms. My heart was checked. You know, the vitals are all checked. Everything was fine. But nobody checks. Like these little nerves, there's one. to each vocal cord. Nobody checked that. You need a neurologist to do that. And I did have my brain was checked. Not the nerves in the voice. So it was overlooked simply. I mean, all those years, I just thought, I didn't know why. It was a big mystery.

You must have been in mourning in some way. This thing that has been my life, for all my life, is gone. I was mourning. I was mourning the expression of my voice. and I was frustrated that I didn't understand why. So there was sadness and frustration and fear that I would have to go through the rest of my life, not only not singing, but speaking like I was dancing around my words. So that was really the death. of a huge part of my expression, self-expression, my voice. So when did you turn the corner on that?

I know you had surgeries and everything, but psychologically did you say to yourself, I've got to get this thing back one way or another. I want to sing again? Was there a moment that happened? Well, my husband, Fred, he's really the one that convinced me to not give up. He would hear me around the house. I was never going to give up songwriting.

But I always felt, okay, well, I can still songwriting. And other singers can sing my music. I can still live through their voice. So I wasn't going to give up on music, but I had given up on being a singer. But I'm sitting around the house, and I'm just writing songs. And he says, you know, every once in a while, I can hear this beautiful sound. Like, it's still there. I said, yeah, but it only comes out every once in a while.

and it's, you know, intermittent, unpredictable. I can't hold it. I have no control. I can't be a singer like that. But I did think, okay, if it's there, sometimes, maybe I need to research and dive into what can be done, if anything at all. Not that I ever thought I'd understand why it happened. I thought it was just nerves and stress.

from my divorce and I didn't know. I was just guessing. So after two years of more medical investigation I finally, it was finally recommended to see a neurologist. And that was it. He's like you have nerve damage to each nerve connecting to your vocal cords. So they are just doing their own thing. They're not damaged or anything like the the cords aren't damaged. They're like wonderful. I wouldn't even know that you were a singer. But they're not cooperating. They're not lining up. They're not capable of doing what you want them to do, you know, control them. But there's an operation that you can get, you can get sort of like crutches that stabilize them and make up for the laxie

and the nerve control. And if it works, then you might be able to sing again. Do you want to try this? And I'm like, yes. What could happen? I mean, worse could happen. Because I say, can you take them out again if it doesn't work? And he's like, yeah, I can take them out again.

And he was a, Dr. Saddlew, he's a cancer surgeon for neck and head. And he had had the surgery himself as well. from his own cancer. Even though I didn't have cancer, it was going to be a very similar operation. So we went in. I had to get it done twice. I had to go in twice.

And it gave me my volume back. It gave me control. And then all of the other work that I had done prior to that, all of the physiotherapy for all the rest of it was now working. It was now being effective. Because prior to that, I had done a Vegas residency, but it took me two hours to warm up for the show. So I was relying on all of these compensary, compensatory.

Compensatory, yes. Compensatory. Compensatory. muscles and laryngeal structure to get it out and to have control over it. But I was exhausted because I had two hours of warming up, like workout basically, like a gym. Right. And then to pump everything up and get it all, you know, working. And then a 90-minute show.

So like, I'm not sure if I can sustain. that. So I go back to the doctor and I say, okay, I can't sustain this. I've done the first lot of things. I did everything you said. I physically just can't, you know, do five hours of voice every day, you know, every show day. So he said, okay, well, the next step is these implants to stabilize your, the structure of your larynx. Do you remember hearing your voice the first time you sang after the surgery and felt like I'm back I can do this again? It was little by little because the surgery is quite, it's invasive. I was, I couldn't, I mean, the sounds that were coming out at the beginning were alarming. It's sort of like

getting your tonsils out and that everything was all swollen and it took weeks before I could make some decent sounds and I was speeches for two weeks. You can't speak at all for the first two weeks. You have to be just completely silent. So, but yes, when I first, the first sounds were loud. I'm like, whoa, like that is a sound, that is volume with so little effort. Whereas before, I was putting in so much physical effort. I was, everything, everything that was, you know, from the diaphragm, everything, from the, you know, the pelvis. up was all was what was creating the voice for me. And now it was just an effortless, loud sound, projection.

And you say now when you're up on stage in Vegas, for example, you might have a little something that you didn't have before you lost your voice. Another gear, maybe. I do have other gears. I have super, like I have super, like I have super, high, I have a lot of higher sounds that I never had before with a different tone. It's hard, at different placements. So what's happened is I now have different placements to a lot of my notations. And I'm not going to get scientific about it, but it has, it's given me more room to play, to be honest. I have gravel. You can hear it when I'm speaking all the time, that there's more gravel when I'm speaking.

But when I'm singing softly, it's there as well, the gravel. It's kind of, you like it? I think it's kind of sexy. I don't, I mean, it's there. I have to go with it. And I don't mind it. I'm never going to have my old voice again. And that's just the way it is.

I'm okay with that. I've found a new voice, and I like it, and I've earned it, and I own it. So I'm having fun with it. I enjoy being in the studio. do. I love being on the microphone again. I dreaded being on the microphone. When I was invited by Lionel Richie to do endless love, I mean, I was petrified. It was such a horrible experience. He was so wonderful. He actually got me through it and I was able to deliver. But it took everything

I had. And I'd refused to do it for a long time. I'm like, no, no, just tell him I can't do it. tell him, I just can't do it. I physically can't do it. And he eventually convinced me to try. And I'm pulling up to that, you know, to the recording session. And I'm blaming it all on my husband. I'm like, you talk me into this. I can't do it.

I don't know what I'm doing here. I'm going to go embarrass myself. You know, it was like I was about to deliver a baby and I was in labor and I was blaming it all on him. But it was painful for me emotionally as well to be facing what I thought could very well be a failure and humiliation. But I had worked really hard on the physiotherapy, not yet the operation. I go in there and, oh my gosh, I sound terrible at first. I am embarrassed, but I was there.

It was too late to turn back and I forged through. And that was all my experience in years of like doing that in other situations. Once I was there, no turning back. All right, I've got my climbing gear on. I'm ready to start this mountain. And he helped me through it. And I did a great performance. I was very happy with it in the end.

But it was just the effort. There was no way I would able to have toured that way or made a record that way. So the operation was the only answer. and did you hear those questions from your fans and from the media what's up with Shania where's Shania she's giving us all this great music what's the deal what's going on in her life was that something that you were aware of no I was sort of hiding away and I was I had delved into parenting my child was still very young so when I got the Lyme's disease it was it was I was a new mom now and I was

That was a great, it was a great timing to be a new mom, and I was just doing that. And as he started to get a little bit older, more independent, needing me less, not that I was paying attention to what the fans were saying, I was, I never thought that I would sing again, so I didn't even want to know, I was afraid. I just wanted it all to go away, really, to be honest. And I never listened to my music anymore. I didn't even sing to myself. Unless I was writing a song,

I wasn't singing anything ever. And normally I'm humming around the house. I'm always singing. But I just couldn't stand to hear myself sing. You say you wanted it all go away. The career, the music, everything? Everything. It's like I had to pretend it never existed

in order to not grieve it so much. So, no, I wasn't aware of anybody saying, where's Shania? And I just felt like that. person couldn't exist anymore, you know. And that time, as you said, was the confluence of you losing your voice, as you mentioned, the end of your marriage. Do you feel like that childhood that you survived in many ways and then becoming the head of

the family and losing your parents and all those obstacles you overcame prepared you in some strange way for these next two unexpected obstacles that were thrown at you? I mean, you can never be prepared for, you know, a sad divorce or, you know, I mean, I say a sad divorce if it's under, you know, strained and destructive circumstances. So emotionally that was, it was so devastating. I had a very, very hard time recovering from that. But I guess you would say that, and then losing my voice, and that was sort of simultaneous, absolutely, I think my childhood prepared me to carry on. Forge on, just march on regardless.

And, I mean, everybody has to do that. It's not like, you know, I mean, so many people have been divorced. They get through it. They carry on with their lives. They start over. I think for me it was more the accumulation, and then with my voice going at the same time, and I kind of blamed it on the stress of my divorce as well,

which made it, you know, I'm like, look, see what's happening to me? Because there was no other reason. I didn't understand why it was happening. I thought it was fatigue from, you know, working so hard over that decade. But then I'm like, well, no, I can't just be that. how, you know, a year later, I still have no voice.

And so I just figured it was stress. But surviving is something I'm good at. And persevering. I think perseverance is a better word even, really, to be, you know, because you can't give up. You must go on. And you have to find. You have to maintain purpose in life.

When you're living a life, a joint life for so long, that's part of your purpose. That purpose drops away. Singing was a purpose that drops away. Being a new mother, that was a genuine purpose that really kept me strong. And now I had to find individual self-inner purpose. and that inner strength to carry on and to persevere to find out what was wrong with my voice, to deal with the emotional loss and devastation in my divorce.

And that's what I did. And you found a partner in that that you never could have imagined in your wildest dreams. Exactly. The last thing I wanted was love. At that point in my life, I didn't want love. I just needed to heal myself. So, you know, there was a stage where I just went on,

I went back to Canada for a little while and just nested with family. And there was no love in sight, there was no music in sight. None of that was going to be part of my life in that healing process. Prince called me right at that same time. I was in my cottage in Canada and he said I want to produce your next album let's get together

come to Paisley Park and we'll write and we'll make the next rumors that's what he said and when Mutt and I were making records he said we need to make

the next rumors oh my gosh I'm like, I don't think this Prince thing is right. I mean, this is too weird. You know, the second person to say that to me as a producer. And I can swear quite a bit. Like, I curse. No, I won't wait now.

There's a time and place for everything. But when I'm being creative, I swear. And I listen back to my writing tapes and I'll, I didn't even know that I, if I don't get the court right or whatever, it's like I just slam that word in there. So I'm with Prince and on the phone and we're just talking creatively and I and I just, you know, just being myself, I swear. And he goes, well, he said, you know, I, I don't, I don't allow anybody to swear. Okay, so now he wants to make the next rumors out, which I think is a great idea.

But it was just too weird after mutts saying that being a goal and it's a noble goal because, I mean, rumors is one of the greatest albums ever. And then he says, swearing's not allowed. I'm thinking, oh, boy, you know what, I just need to be very independent right now. This is, I need to just do it on my own right now. I need to be strong and not rely, even if it's Prince. I need to do this on my own. I need to find my own way.

And I just can't have anybody holding my hand through this. This is my journey. And only when I really took that independence, was I able to fall in love again. And Fred was there, and he was already a good friend. So we understood each other. And he allowed me to just be myself. I mean, I regret not working with Prince. Of course, now he's gone.

But I've made the right decision for myself. but we were fans of each other's as well. I think that, you know, I was such a big fan of his. I think that if I would have done it at that time, I would have done it for the wrong reasons. I would have done it to depend on him. And I don't know. What would have been the other?

I don't know, but no regrets. I still love him. I'm still a fan, and he was a big fan of mine. And I just keep that with me. On your list of all those accolades you can add said no to Prince. Perhaps the first person in music history. I mean, who...

You're not even allowed to say no to Prince. Really, I think that. I do believe that. I was just in a really weird place. I couldn't sing yet. I knew I had to find my voice. I knew he... I just didn't feel that... I knew that I had to find him myself. And boy, when I look at the journey that it took, I never would have been able to make a record with him at that time.

I did make the right call. My gut told me that. But of course, I'm saying. that I never worked with him. But we met and stayed in touch over the years till he died. We remained friends anyway, even though we never made music together. I've taken way too much your time. I have one more question,

I want to ask about the film I still believe that you're in, which is a biopic. It's based on a true story. For people who don't know the story, what is the sort of the top line and your role as mother? Well, I still believe is a story that blew me away, moved me to the core. Jeremy Camp, first of all, as a talented artist. And, you know, very successful. But the film is not about the star.

It's about the person and the heart and the courage to love, knowing that you're only going to get hurt in the end. facing the devastation of losing his wife and making that commitment knowing that just broke my heart and inspired me at the same time. I mean, so I was drawn in right away to the story. I'm the mother of this wonderful person and I'm Jeremy's mom and I was, I saw, I was out of myself in the sense that I was playing a mother type that I'm not in real life. I was a different mother type.

So I was definitely playing a role. But it was such a pleasure to be in the company that I was in. Gary Sinise. Gary Sinise. He was such an angel to me, such a gentleman and so patient and he would guide me through the scenes and just a lovely, lovely person. So I had a wonderful time and I said yes right away. I was excited about being a part of such a beautiful story, about telling such a beautiful story. It feels like just listening to you. You're doing movies. You've got the residency. You've got a great

husband sitting over there that you're doing pretty well right now. Does it feel that way? I'm living my best life. I really am. I'm thrilled to be where I am. I'm grateful. I do every day look back at where I came from and where I am and can't believe it. I'll never believe it. And then I look at all the hurdles and then that's a whole other level of belief or disbelief that I've made it through them and over them and to enter where I am now. So I feel very, very, I'm very. I'm very. just feel very, I'm in a place of gratitude and enjoying, enjoying it. And I have no regrets. Everything that I've experienced has brought me to where I am and it's a good place. It's so much fun to talk to you. Thank you for being so generous with your time. My big thanks again to Shania Twain for a great conversation. You can catch her now at her Let's Go Las Vegas residency at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. And in the new film, I still believe, which is in theaters on March 13th.

I'm joined now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast by the producer of this fine podcast, Maggie Law. Hello, Maggie. Hi, Willie. A lot to get through there with Shania Twain. You think you know Shania Twain? She's so famous. Her music's so iconic and so a part of our lives through the 90s. But man, when I sat down to research for this interview, I didn't fully appreciate what her life has been like from the moment she was born in poverty.

in Canada. I was going to say, I'm a huge Shanaya Twain fan, and I honestly had no idea about her story. And I mean, clearly there's so much to get through. That was quite a long conversation. But she has, like, such a history. And it is, I mean, she seems so grateful for where she is because she's really had to come through so much that I was not aware of. Yeah. And it started at a young age. I mean, the story, I mean, her parents dying. She finally gets out of, she talked about music as her escape. So how am I going to get out of this place? Music was the escape. So music gets her to Nashville. And then after just two short years, she gets the terrible news that her parents have died in a car accident. So she moves back to Timmons, Ontario to raise her four siblings. As we said, chop in wood, washing clothes in the river. Right. But then still working, going to her singing jobs to like put food on the table. I mean, it's just astounding. Yeah. And she had a friend who encouraged her to keep singing. She said, I'm done singing. You got to raise these kids. Her friend said, no, go to this resort and take the job. And she did. And then even when she gets through, she's sitting on top of the music world, she loses her voice for God's sakes.

And then the breakup of her marriage in a very public and, let's be honest, bizarre way. Check Google for that if you're interested in the gory details of it. I will say the voice thing, just talking to her because as you said, that was a long conversation. I worried, like, am I straining her voice too much? I almost felt bad asking more questions because you could see, she does have to train it a little bit. She paused a couple times, and she has, there's this little spray called entertainer secret that some people who work in media also use once in a while. I am very familiar with it.

And she'd spray that in the back of her throat. But as she said, my voice is different. I'm grateful I even have it. Right. And I can sing some notes now that I couldn't sing before, actually. I mean, it's crazy that she's able to, I mean, she was almost out of the spotlight for almost 10 years, I think you said. And now she's back and she's putting on a show every single night in Las Vegas.

I know. For 90 minutes or two hours for these fans who come from all over the world. And just just think that, you know, a few years ago, she couldn't speak. Like there was no volume coming out, which is amazing. Exactly, let alone sing. And I like to actually talk about the residency, too, as a reward. You can't get a residency in Vegas if you don't have a massive catalog of hits that people want to come. You have to be able to have a lot to perform.

Right. And I have to have a fan base that's willing to come to Vegas to hear you perform. So I was I was grateful for her going into detail. I mean, that's a lot of pain through her life. that she was willing to talk about. So I was super grateful to that for all that and for the time she gave us. Maggie, thank you very much. Thank you to all of you for tuning in this week and listening along.

As always, if you want to hear more of our full-length conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And, of course, don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sitdown podcast. Thank you.