Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware - S14 Ep 1: Shania Twain

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

Summer is over, school is no longer out, and it’s time to get back to our important job of eating and being nosey. We are thrilled to be back!! It’s been a while but what a series we have lined up for you... kicking off with none other than the Queen of Country, an international icon, the only one we run to, the one, the only Shania Twain. Shania popped over to Clapham on her way back to Switzerland after a week of promoting her brand new record ‘Waking Up Dreaming’ We tucked into mum's delicious aubergine parmigiana pie (an Ottolenghi Guardian spesh, thanks Yotam) and chatted about horse riding in Hyde Park, her signature lentil soup, eating Raclette in Switzerland & performing in Vegas. We talk about that moment with Harry Styles at Coachella & how she almost quit singing. Season 14 has begun….LET'S GO GIRLS!!!! X Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome to Table Manners. We're back and we're back with a bang. I'm so excited about this guest today because, well, she's an international superstar. I think she's the only artist to have three diamond-selling albums. She has hit after hit. She may even rival you in leopard print, Mum. Really, darling? Yeah. Have you not seen the video? No, I haven't. I'll show you.

We have Shania Twain on Table Manners today. Wow. That does impress me much. It impresses me too. We have been long gone for a while. We've had our summer holidays. We've eaten a lot. We've thought about the menus.

We are thrilled to be back. It's going to be a great season. We've got some great guests mum. Are you still thrilled to be in the chair with the mic cooking? Thrilled to be in the chair, thrilled to be in the kitchen darling, concocting new recipes to excite people. How are you mum? I'm okay darling. How are you, Mum? I'm okay, darling. How are you finding the dietary requirements this season? You know, I like a challenge, let's say. Especially, I'm really looking forward to have some more vegan guests on, darling. Are you? Yeah.

So I'm making up new recipes all the time. You know what? Just to open it up to our gorgeous listeners. Any vegan, you know what? Lenny's kind of softened in her ways over the series towards veganism and vegetarianism and she's decided to go with the flow and embrace it because it's really quite delicious um vegan vegetarian listeners please send us your recipes on our podcast um email it's hello at table manners podcast.com we'd love to why don't we've never done a recipe

from a listener oh no that would be good yeah because you can you can see whether it's going to be good or not really yeah that would be nice yeah that would be great so look i i'm putting it out there for vegan and vegetarian dishes because i feel like lenny's got meat covered but um yeah send them in but we want showstoppers and we don't want a load of faff not too easy but not too much of a faff but very open all ears for new recipes um are you gonna wear that cowboy hat when she comes in no i'm not actually you can though you're not even wearing leopard print darling i didn't know to wear leopard mom have you not seen her outfit and you don't impress me darling to be, you're lucky I'm dressed.

It's been a faff this morning doing that recipe. Yeah, so what have you cooked? I mean, you have made, you've pulled out of the stock. She's done an Ottolenghi fish and I, haven't you? Well, because she said she liked aubergine parmigiana, I saw this recipe from Ottolenghi's new book, which is an aubergine parmigiana pie. So I've made that. And then we've got some baby gem lettuce with figs, walnuts and feta.

This is in homage to homage. Is it homage or homage? Homage. Homage to Honey & Co, where we went for Alex's graduation. Yeah. The most incredible spread. And there was this one particular delicious fig salad we loved yeah i think it had pistachios and goat's cheese but we're doing walnuts and feta because

that's what i've got that's what she's got um so there's the crunch and the sweetness and then you've got this really delicious aubergine parmigiana pie yeah with this um what's the caftali pastry on top which is what it looks a bit like shredded wheat yeah and it's what you make baklava out of so I've made that with salad with bread Alice has got some dusty knuckle bread fabulous and then I've made panna cotta with sour cherry on top and that is inspired by my lovely lovely friend, Rhody Lefteris, who makes it in my favourite Greek restaurant.

In Skopelos? In Skopelos. But also... And I bought the sour cherries back from Skopelos. They also do it on Limnanari Beach there. With the sour cherry? Yeah. Everyone likes the sour cherry. Mum, you know what to say.

Let's go, girls. Can I just say, your hair is fabulous. Oh, thank you. Oh, my goodness. The height on that one, you're jealous. The width, that's what I go for. The height and the width, yeah. The width is the thing for me, not so much the height.

And you look gorgeous. Shania, how has your trip been in London so far? You've been busy. I've been busy. This is a working trip. Yeah. You know, so I'm really, I've got a really full schedule. But I love to come to London just to be in London.

Have you got to see any London, really really or have you just been in studios? Not this time, yeah I've just been in studios My favourite thing to do is to ride you know, a horse in Hyde Park that's my favourite thing to do Have you done it? I have done it

I've never done that Wow, Jessie they have fantastic stables there Yeah And you go right round I mean what I really want to do, I keep telling everybody this. Ever since I've been here, I'm like dreaming about, if I could just have something, a little apartment or something that neighboured the stables, I would definitely move into that.

If you're rich, you could afford that. I don't even know if they have. They do. Well, there's a a will there's a way all the oligarchs are going now yeah but there's a little something like that would be my dream when did you learn to ride I learned to ride when I was a kid you know probably around 10 years old mostly just because I was willing to clean people's stables, and then they'd let me get on their horse. But I couldn't own a horse until I was in my late 20s, because it's expensive.

What was your first horse called? My very first horse was called Dancer. That's a good name for a horse. The first horse that I owned. Now tell me, when you were growing up, what was a really memorable dish from your childhood that your parents would serve you? Okay so we grew up pretty hungry. Where did you start? Where were you born? I'm Canadian and I grew up in the Canadian north. Fairly remote area. It's a

little mining town called Timmins. Gold mining, copper, silver. And a food for us, we have a lot of cold months. So soup's a very big thing in Canada if you can make a good soup. Bannock. It's an Indian bread. This is one of my favorite things. Bannock. Bannock. It's very

very simple. It's kind of it's a poor man's bread it's just flour salt and shortening not shortening it's like and baking soda oh okay right and you have to get it to a certain consistency and it's just the best bread i still love it i still make it i make it for my son we're not love it. I still make it. I make it for my son. We're not poor anymore, but I still make it. So that was what, did your mom or your dad make that? We all made it. Oh, okay. And then had it with soup.

And then you eat it with soup. So that's how you fill up on the bread. Because whatever the soup is, it's not necessarily going to be very nutritious or filling, but the bannock was always very filling and very easy. So I watched your documentary which I loved and you know you I the the image of your mum kind of taking you out in the evening to go and sing and kind of clubs and you were quite young and it would be like when you were going like the others were asleep and did you enjoy that was that was it was it thrilling and did you kind of was it

no I hated going into the bars to sing because I was just intimidated by the environment. It was an all obviously adult environment. Lots of heavy smoking at the time. Everybody was smoking. So it was just a very, very dingy atmosphere. atmosphere, and normally this is just a logistic, but I couldn't go into the bars until midnight at last call because kids are not allowed in the bars while the bar is actually physically serving.

So you were really staying up late. Well, that's why my mom would get me out of bed, and then I'd go to bed, she'd get me up, and then we would go to the bar. And then I would sing, because I don't know what it's like here, but you can load your table up at last call. You can order three, four, five drinks, as long as you get it in before midnight. So people would sit there for hours after last call, and then I would sing. Now, by the time I was 11, though, I had what was called a liquor license.

How old were you when you started doing that? Eight. Eight? And would it be on school night, or was it always the weekend? Oh, often on school nights. And your mum's waking you up in the middle of the night. I know. Did you get paid?

Crikey. No, no, no. Unless people just wanted to give me. Okay, right. This was just to get me exposure, to get me... I don't know what she's pushier than you mom she's pushier than me definitely I know she was just trying to get me exposure or did she when did she recognize you had a beautiful voice one what from the time of

three years old I remember very clearly my mother focusing on my voice yeah and what were you singing what sorts of songs I would I would sing harmony to whatever was on the radio I would always go to the harmony that's amazing because my my six-year-old I'm trying to get her into harmonizing because it's just delicious isn't it and she's just like yeah whatever mom um so that's amazing that you were already harmonizing that's at three that's where I wanted to go I wanted to just just create other notes with the singer. So you'd go and do this singing. And what was memorable?

Did they feed you in these bars? No. I mean, just going in the pajamas virtually. Practically. Oh, no. I mean, it was kind of a dingy existence, to be honest. But it got me a lot of experience. Yeah.

And what did you learn from it? Do you feel like you've taken that with you along the way? One of the things I think... Well, first of all, I learned a lot of discipline. In those bars at the time when I was a kid, it was very much audience requests. Audience would throw... Sing whatever song. What sort of song? Well, at that age, audience would throw, you know, sing,

you know, whatever song. What sort of song? Well, at that age, as a kid, the bars were hiring all the top 40 country bands. It was all country music. When I got into my teens, all of a sudden they were hiring rock bands. So then I switched my repertoire to rock and so on. But it was country when I was a kid.

It's country big in Canada. Very big, yeah. I would have thought it was country when I was a kid country music in Canada very big yeah I would have thought it was just like Texas or the south of America no I'm not it's huge in Canada though I understand in the United States she's the biggest selling artist I know you are but you're not wrong you're not wrong I'm not wrong no okay sorry you not wrong. I'm going to back you up on this. Because country music in Canada, when I was growing up, included a lot of what we maybe would now consider folk music. I mean, the Eagles were considered country, even, in Canada. You know, they would be played on country radio. You would hear Dolly Parton, and then you would hear the Eagles,

and then you might hear Jim Crochet or, they would, you would hear Dolly Parton and then you would hear, um, the Eagles. And then you might hear Jim Crochet or, you know, other artists that were not, that really crossed the easy listening, more pop, um, music. So I, I was a little confused when I went to the States, as to what their more limited version of country music was. So, you know, I would sing Brad, you know, and part of my 100-song repertoire, when I would sing, I would sing songs from Brad. I would sing Bee Gees songs, Beatles, you know, more of the softer stuff like that. But, of course, you know, a lot of Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell

and all the classic Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, all that stuff. But it was also, you know, I Fall to Pieces or even Tom Jones. Is country big in Canada now? Does Justin Trudeau listen to country music, do you think? I wonder. I don't know if he does. I know, you know, Canada doesn't have the same country western culture, for sure, as America. Because in the States, there's, it is very much, there's a lot of farming. There's a lot of horse culture, cow culture, rodeo culture.

There's a lot of horse culture, cow culture, rodeo culture. In Canada, we have a pocket of that, which is in the west in Alberta area. But outside of that, where I'm from, there are no cowboys. I'm from, we have snowmobiles. We have snowmobiles and lumberjacks and miners and that sort of thing. And do you live there now in Canada? I don't, no. I still have my family in Canada.

I live in Switzerland now. And of course, you know, I'm traveling the world most of the time. Which bit of Switzerland? I live on Lake Geneva. Oh, wow. So the French-speaking part of Switzerland. So Lausanne. It's near Lausanne, yes. And that is a definite food area to enjoy.

Yeah, come on then, tell us about it. So many foods that I had never experienced in Canada. And don't forget i mean in canada we i grew up a lot on wild meat what's wild meat like which ones like moose meats how does that how's that taste like i'm presuming like a deer like venison no venison is more gamey venison tastes more evergreen okay if i could put that in there somehow more evergreen a little frowsy most better i don't know but i prefer oh really okay it is a little musky mousse uh it's a dark very dark you're not selling it no wonder she's a vegetarian i am a vegetarian yes i am so you

know i don't need any of these things anymore but i grew up eating these things um and but anyway so going to switzerland uh it's really more about um they love their mushrooms for example so it's easier to be vegetarian there now you know in switzerland um they have their they really pride themselves in in their mushroom picking and they're very uh strict about where you can walk in the forest so you don't destroy the mushrooms swiss is strict about everything they're they're very very specific they like rules don't they they love rules well it's so small that it needs organization you know where the cows grazeze is crucial because it changes the taste of the butter from that region

or the cheese from that region. And the regions are little. So you might only get a very small production of a certain cheese. And the cows only eat that flora. And that's what gives that flavor. And that's why Shania can live there because she'll respect that where you'd be like, fuck off.

I'm fucking walking. I don't want to fucking walk. It is hard to have the rules. My sister-in-law has a house in Wengen which is also gorgeous but it's the German side. So it's near Interlaken. Yeah.

Oh no, it's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, Switzerland's beautiful everywhere. It's very picturesque. Why did you choose Switzerland? Well, the French language, well, the French side is where I live and I already had a's beautiful everywhere. It's very picturesque. Why did you choose Switzerland? Well, the French language. Well, the French side is where I live, and I already had a base of French.

Oh, of course, French-Canadian. It helped to have a base of French coming from Canada. And I love snow. I mean, I love the winter season. Do you ski? I do ski when I'm not under contract for live performing. Because those legs are important that body is important and so what you just go in a snowmobile you know i do cross-country

skiing i love that i just like walking in the snow i like being in the snow you know i just i love the winter i find it quite an effort going skiing yes carrying sk, walking the birds. It is an effort. But you like horse riding and you like living in the snow. So I feel like we're maybe not the best holiday companions. You don't like riding horses? For apres ski we could do. I don't mind. I used to like riding a horse called Fury in Wales. That was nice.

And I kind of imagined that I was in Robin Hood. Did I doze off? Yeah, you dozed off on the horse. It was relaxing. Yeah, I did. Can I ask you something very personal? Yes. Is Shania your real name?

Because it sounds very country and western to me. I mean, I think if I hear Shania Twain, I think country and western, don't you? Well, maybe that's... Or is it just because... Maybe it's because she's been doing this for... Yeah, but I just think Shania just sounds... Is it your name?

No. So my real name is Eileen. Eileen Regina. We say it in Canada. That's a good name. Well, it's very... Well, Elizabeth, you know. Eileen Regina Twain.

Twain. So how did we get to Shania? Right. So I got signed by my record label and they said, you know, we'd like to change your last name. And I'm thinking, well, I'm kind of sentimental about my last name because my parents are no longer with me. And I just feel like I need that something that I carry on in life and not abandoned just for my profession. It just felt weird. Didn't feel right.

So I start searching for a first name that might flow well with Twain. And one of the dressers in Wardrobe Mistresses in a show that I was doing, her name was Shania. And I'd never heard the name before. Yeah, I've never heard it since. Yeah. And she also came from a mixed race family, And she also came from a mixed race family, Ojibwe and white and Ojibwe Indian, just like mine, Ojibwe and white. And I thought, wow, we have this in common. Shania is such a beautiful name. Shania Twain actually flows really well. Well, it just is perfect.

Yeah. So I threw that at the label and they liked it. Did you ask her? I did. And was she really up for it? She was. She was flattered. I bet she was.

So do people always call you Shania or people call you Eileen or Gina or? Everyone in my personal life calls me Eileen or E. I see. You know? Yeah. But of course, I'm more, you know, better known as Shania. But yeah, it doesn't really matter to me. I mean, I just feel like the same person either way. You know, I'm just, I never really feel different.

You've got one boy. I've got one son. Yeah. And I've got a stepdaughter. My son is 21 now. Oh, congratulations. I love him to pieces. What does he, is he into, yeah, is he into music?

Yes. Do you want him to avoid it at all costs or? I, if I'm being really honest, I wish he had chosen something other than music just because it's such a tough road. It's so unpredictable. But he loves it. And I want him to do what he loves. So he loves it. I know how you feel.

And I want him to do what he loves. So he's doing it professionally? Yeah, this is what he does. He's a producer, though. He's not... Okay. He doesn't want to be a performing artist. And that's a relief.

Yeah, yeah. He's definitely a back, you know, behind the scenes music nerd. Does he live in Switzerland? Yes, he was born in Switzerland, raised there. But he now just recently... he left the nest quite early. He left the nest at 19, off to LA, and just lives by himself and does music. And it's going well for him? I mean, he's not, you know, making it yet.

He's finding his way. He's got his way yeah oh yeah yeah he's finding his way and finding his you know getting to know his tools his instrument his studio he's um very technical he's rewiring and wiring and um all the things that i'm not really that interested in uh in the studio i just like to make music write songs you're pretty bloody good at it. When did you start writing your own material? Ten years old.

When you were ten, you were ten. Oh my goodness. I love to write. It's what I love to do the most, really. What are you doing, Jess? Are you hungry? Anytime. Sometime I'd love to feed you our traditional Swiss family dish that we do often.

Which one? Tell us about it. It's called raclette. Yes. Oh, my aunt, my sister-in-law does it all the time. So you choose raclette over poutine? No, I wouldn't choose it over poutine. Do you love poutine?

I love. Love, love, love. And sometimes what I do with the raclette is I'll make a mushroom gravy. So we have a nice brown gravy and I Canadianize our raclette. And people love it. That's genius. So they put the gravy over the raclette, potato and the cheese. I mean, poutine is just french fries and cheese that then the gravy melts. What and the cheese because that's all i mean poutine is just potato you know french fries and and cheese that then the gravy melts what is the cheese it's kind of a sponge it's a

squidgy cheese isn't it but what is it it kind of keeps it no no we're talking about poutine now yeah you know poutine mom it's it's poutine shanai you explain to my mom what it is it's a type okay so the cheese is a type of cheddar curd. Uh-huh, yeah, right. They're curds and they put the curds over hot french fries and then hot gravy

that then melts the cheese into the hot fries. You can get it in McDonald's in Canada, can't you? I think they've made it

a fast food thing now, but this was like a staple, you know, Canadian thing. It's sort of like a staple, you know, Canadian thing. Sort of like Americans order pizza and we order poutine.

Yeah. It's very, it's a real winter, hearty, home food that you can, we would often get them at the corner store.

Yeah, right. Okay, fine. Affordable. Like the way you guys go, you guys get fish and chips at the pub. Yeah. Well, we would get poutine at the corner store. Yeah. You know?

You lost your parents when you were young and you brought up your siblings whilst also trying to make a career in music. So you kind of put that on hold for a while and you cared for your sibling. Or did you put it on hold? for a while and you cared for your sibling or did you put it on hold i mean because you were having to look at how many siblings do you have well there's five of us yeah right um three of the siblings uh moved in with me i had an older sister who already had children of her own um she might have made an aubergine parmigiana pie we heard you liked aubergine parmigiana.

That looks gorgeous. I'm going to love it. And then this is just a baby gem, fig, walnut and feta salad. This is going to be just right up my alley. Great. Love, love, love. So tell us about that time when you had this complete tragedy and then you were then looking after all your siblings.

Well, when my parents died, I decided that, okay, well, it's obviously time to quit singing because that is not where I'm at with singing is never going to feed the kids. It's never going to pay the bills. It's never going to cover the mortgage. How can I, what am I going to feed the kids. It's never going to pay the bills. It's never going to cover the mortgage. How can I, what am I going to do? And none of my relatives were able to take both the boys. And they were only, you know, my brothers are nine months apart. So couldn't, I didn't want them to be separated. The last thing they needed was to be separated.

So the only way to keep them together was to keep them myself. How old were you? I was 21. So I really didn't know what to do. But a friend of mine said, listen, whatever you do, don't quit singing. There's a job that is nothing like anything you've ever done before. It's a kind of Vegas-style, Broadway-esque show in another town. And why don't you go audition?

It pays very well. Can I give you some salad? Would you like some? Oh, that's plenty. I'll give you one more fig, and then you'll... Would you like some? A little bit of salad, if they want. Okay. Oh, that's plenty. Yeah, okay. I'll give you one more fig, and then you'll... So you had this kind of evening Vegas-esque show. Yeah. The photos are quite fabulous from that time.

You're in like a trio, and then also do it. Because that's in the documentary, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, a little bit of it. But then, so you'd be performing, so then you'd be kind of sorting out, feeding. I mean, what were you... Typical day. Okay, so I would freeze, I would make food and freeze a lot of it ahead in advance.

Yeah. I had to buy a house because the kids needed somewhere to live. So I took out a mortgage. My income for that show was high enough that I could afford, that the bank gave me a mortgage. I couldn't believe it. No, thank you. So, you know, my first mortgage, and we can all stay together in this little house.

So every morning, so I heat the house with a wood stove, and I'm chopping all the wood. I'm feeding the stove. I get up in the morning, you know, around five 36, warm up the house, get the kids out of bed, pack their lunch, send them off on the bus. They go to school now, you know, time to clean the house, do the laundry, do all the da da da da, make some food for dinner, put it in the freezer. Now I go off to rehearsals and then, and, you know,

do the show. The show, I'm there till one in the morning every night. So I wasn't much of a parent to the kids a lot of the time.

So who helped? My, my sister was younger, two years younger, but she also moved in with me. So she was, she was home. She had a regular

nine to five job, so that worked. It sounds really stressful. It was. And then in the summers, I had the boys bussing in the bar that I was singing in, so that helped, so they were close by. Yeah. Have any of them gone into music? No, no.

My sister can sing very well, but it's not what she does and it's not what she wants to do. Do you, I hear you're a good cook, like a great cook. In fact, I hear whenever your management come around for meetings, you cook them all a big meal. I love to cook. What would be your kind of showstopper to cook somebody? Or maybe we need to get your husband in on this and then he can tell you what's the best thing that you cook. Everyone seems to love my gravies, my brown gravies.

Is that the mushroom gravy that you're talking about? Yeah, they're always mushroom-based. With like a porcini or? Well, I think the one that goes over best with raclette, for example, is Morel mushroom gravy. It's so dark and foresty you know rich but a portobello mushroom and button mixed is really good too um that's what i normally do with a white wine i'll do a white wine butter garlic onion um and then the button and the and the uh the shiitake mushrooms. But it's always seasonal kind of herbs.

So do you eat quite seasonally? Very much so, yes. That's quite easy in Switzerland? Oh, definitely. But then I love soups. I make great soups. Everyone seems to love my soups. I make every kind of soup.

Which soup have you done recently? Well, my son loves my lentil soup. That is his favorite soup, the lentil soup. And that one's really good. What makes that one really good is the nutritional yeast. That's a really good substitute. Right, okay. substitute right okay and um and you know always um white wine onion garlic saute herbs all of that but definitely the trick to that one is making it really meaty is the uh is the nutritional yeast

but another a really great soup in the winter when you just want something heavier in your soup great soup in the winter when you just want something heavier in your soup is at whatever soup that you make whether it's a curry soup you know a curry pumpkin or whether it's a tomato mozzarella soup is you take baby potatoes and you cook the baby potatoes in the soup then you've got potatoes to then smash into your into your bowl. So you can eat it a little bit like a stew. Or you just take one potato and the soup is more of the sauce mashed

into the potato. It's so yummy. You have been doing this for a fair good while now like you are a force of nature and it's it's it's amazing to be with you today because i just i have such strong memories of being at school and man i feel like a woman coming on and like and everyone doing the let's go girls which i know you know it's become like a meme now hasn't't it? I mean, the memes are amazing for the Let's Go Girls. They're amazing. But you must have had some incredibly memorable 90s dinners. Well, I did have, I think one of my most memorable dinners was...

Yes, delicious. With Oprah Winfrey. Oh, yeah. Who cooked? Or did you eat out? We ate out. Is she just as wonderful as we all think she is?

Oh, she is. I mean, she's such a smart lady. And, you know, it was just great to just sit and have real talks, you know. But as soon as we started talking about religion,

it all went sour. Why? Oh, let's stop talking about religion. Is she religious? She is quite religious, okay you um not religious in the sense that i'm dedicated to a religion you know i'm i'm very i'm much more of a spiritual person i'm much more of an inner i'm a seeker i would say i'm a seeker but at least you knew to just stop it right there. Right.

So that was like, okay, yes, I've entered into... You know how everyone always says never talk about politics or religion? Yeah, absolutely. Mum loves to talk about both, don't you, Mum? Yeah. And that was what... It just wasn't debatable. There was no room for debate.

And I like to debate. Canadians like to debate about it. You know, debate everything. So I'm like, oh, okay, it's time to change subject. We ask all of our guests what their last supper would be. Now, this isn't a morose question. You're going off to a desert island, or you're about to go on tour to somewhere

that isn't very kind to vegetarians, maybe. You're having the last supper. Start a main dessert and drink of choice. I feel like I can't say let's go with you now because it's just like your thing, isn't it? Well, I would say that's a good question. I wouldn't go fancy. French fries are my favorite, like, love food. Would poutine play a part in this last supper i see french fries i mean yeah okay

i'd go right for that is that going to be a starter or is that the main event that would be the main course so what's the what i would start with i would probably start with tomato mozzarella i love a good tomato mozzarella with beautiful olive oil Yeah, okay. Drink of choice. Champagne. Yeah. Are you kidding? Poutine and champagne? I love that.

That could be like a poutine and champagne party. I do love champagne, don't you? It feels good for you, doesn't it? Me too. It never makes you feel... It doesn't always feel a bit happy when you've had it. I know. It's light and it's like this light, happy thing.

Have you got a sweet tooth no I don't so would you go for cheese after I feel like you like cheese I do the stinkier the better have you got an interesting cheese in your area of Switzerland that you kind of live for well we you know Switzerland makes really great dry, strong goat cheeses. And so my favorite salad there is always a goat cheese salad, like a warm goat cheese salad. Salade de chevre chaud, we call it. And it's my favorite thing.

You should try a cheese here called Stinking Bishop. And it's the smelliest cheese I've ever... Is it a hard cheese or a soft cheese? Slightly hard. Okay. I mean, I love... There is a French cheese called Epoisse. Oh, my God.

There you go. It's so good. And it's got to be warm and runny. Well, not warm, but runny. Warm and runny, and it smells... Right. Yeah. And it looks like it's going to walk out the door.

Unanimous. Because it moves on its own, yeah. Oh, I love it. What was Vegas like for you, doing that stint there? Did you enjoy it? Mm-hmm. It's very different to, you know, late Geneva. Gosh, how did you manage with the food?

It's all fried stuff. Mm-mm. No? Is it really good there? Vegas has fabulous food. You can get anything. stuff no is it really good though vegas has fabulous food you can get anything so if you you can eat as as as much fried food as you want or you can eat as much gourmet food as you want beautiful they really have it all covered where were you performing i my last um residency was at

um planet hollywood was it fun it was was it as fun as you imagine a Vegas stint to be? Absolutely. I really love it there. I mean, you've got a white horse on stage, haven't you? And you rode in on a motorbike. And this horse was doing tricks. Dreams come true.

Did the horse ever not do the kneeling thing? No, but sometime, I mean, one time, this horse had the biggest poo on stage on stage i'm talking a giant steamy huge pile of poop so i'm and i'm thinking and this is a very formal room you know velvet plush velvet seating and very formal, um, theater, right? The horse shits on stage. Yeah. So all I could say was shit happens. Ah, that's great. I just thought, okay, now can we be done with that? Other than the odor, let's just move on

with the song. What song was it with? It wasn't like you're still that's why i had to like okay i have to like end i have to do i need a page turning moment here so that anyway but how could you prevent that do they take the horse for to go to the loo before when you gotta go you gotta go and the horse doesn't give a shit that he's pooing in the air. Okay, so I'm about to support Harry Styles on tour. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm doing the Chicago stint, which is enough for me. I mean, it gets me, you know, six nights closer to Harry. So you duetted with him at Coachella.

Yes. How good does he smell? He smells so good. I bet. He's so huggable. Oh, and some. Did you have a lovely time? I did. He's such a nice person.

Yes, he is. He's just a really genuine, nice person. And I think that's really... I mean, obviously he's very talented. Yes. But people love him. He's likable. And he earns that likability.

Which song did you sing with him? Well, I wanted to do his songs, but he wanted to do my songs. And I figured, okay, well, you're inviting me, so I'll do whatever songs you want me to do. So we did Men I Feel Like a Woman and You're Still the One. Gorgeous. Yeah. But it was a beautiful moment. It really was.

I enjoyed it a lot. It was very genuine. Was it this Coachella? It was just this past one, yeah. And you know, that was the third. So that was the, they had missed two years of no Coachella. And that was a big cultural blow to the concert goers that come from all over the world to go to that.

It's a challenge Coachella though, isn't I mean it's very it's a very dusty gets where you don't even know sun could go yeah it's a tough one element wise for sure you you talked about in the documentary getting Lyme's disease and I wondered whether you had to change your diet with that I mean it sounded horrendous how it's affected you and but have you how many years have you had lyme's disease now well i got lyme's disease it would have been 22 22 or 23 years ago how did you get it swimming in horse riding oh i'm i was horse riding and you know when you're so a tick bit you or something got I was horse riding, and, you know, when you're... So a tick bit you or something. A tick got on me and bit me, and I found the tick.

Thank God. That's how I even knew that, you know, I mean, it fell off. Yeah, oh, right, okay. Onto the floor, and I'm thinking... And then I just... It had fallen off my back. I'd scratched it off my back. And, you know, you can get the tick tested and it was positive. So, and I got

quite sick, like everyone would and does. I was practically falling off stage. I just was losing my whole equilibrium. And it, I mean, it can affect many different, it really does attack primarily organs and things like that, but it can also attack them, you know, it can be a real neurological issue as well. So they tested everything, because I'm on tour, you know, for the insurance, and they test the heart and all, the brain, everything like that. Everything checks out okay,

but nobody thought of um the nerve damage um to the vocal cords that had taken place so i lost my voice and i had no idea why nobody connected it to the lyme's disease and um so it was another another neurologist many years later, I didn't sing for seven years, that discovered that it was... That's terrible. Yeah, these two nerves were partially both atrophied. So you need symmetry for any kind of controlled phonation. Has your voice changed? Yes, it has changed. So how has it changed? So I just had to embrace it. Like you can hear the gravel. I have a

lot more gravel. My chest voice is in a different place now than it was before. My falsettos are very, very, I can almost not do a quiet falsetto. Oh, because you need to make them kind of vibrate. I need the pressure. Yeah, yeah. So my falsetto, I have a falsetto, but it's a powerful one. So I gained a lot of power. Yeah, yeah. I gained a lot of output and projection. of output and projection, but I lost control of certain areas in my voice. But I just sing the songs differently now. I've learned to, and I write songs differently for my new voice

too. So I can get way up there. I didn't lose any range, which is interesting. I think I even gained bottom range. But it was a journey. And there's that beautiful moment in the documentary with you and Lionel Richie, and he kind of was like your champion, wasn't he? And he was like, come on, we're going to do this. And you were nervous about getting back in the studio.

And he just was like, nope, we're going to do it, and you're going to do it. And it sounded about getting back in the studio and he just was like nope we're going to do it and you're going to do it and it sounded amazing and this was before the operation oh so now i was in order to sing before i got operate because before the operation the the surgeon was saying listen i know that it takes a lot of patience, but I want you to take a year and just try therapy before we do any cutting. I'm like, okay. And to put pressure on myself, this is when I decided that I would do the first residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. I gave myself a target date. date. So I go into therapy. I give myself this year and I was able to get up there and do this live 90 minute show in Las Vegas. I was very proud of myself, but the effort, I needed an hour and a half to warm up. Wow. Literally had to do like gymnastic kind of aerobic exercises to get the larynx to drop and

sit and to get the musculature supporting the whole apparatus. And then I had to do an hour and a half show. I was exhausted. I couldn't sustain that. So I was able to sustain it for a while. I was able to do a tour after that, but then I'm like, guys, this will be the end of me physically. I can't sustain it. I don't have the physical capacity to basically do a physical workout cardio

for three, four hours every show day when you include the warm-up and the show. So I go back to the surgeon and said, this is the only way I can do it, and it's not manageable. So I think I've got to try the operation. And it did help. And it did help. operation and it did help and it did help so i've got two cortex crutches implants in my on either side of my larynx wow that stabilize the musculature and allow the vocal folds is that

quite is that quite unusual for a singer at your level to have that kind of operate because i don't you know we know about adele and sam smith and and people losing their voices and going to this amazing voice doctor and i don't know if it's the same one that you? Because, you know, we know about Adele and Sam Smith and people losing their voices and going to this amazing voice doctor, and I don't know if it's the same one that you went to, but, you know, and having procedures on their voice. But having that kind of procedure, I mean, it shows what kind of focus and ambition and hard work you probably had to do to...

Those are very different procedures. Right. So the very typical, which i'm sure you know very well as a singer the very typical and classic injury to the voice is to the vocal cords the thickening of the cords or polyps or getting nodules yeah or or just sheer thickening like they just get really rigid why do they get inflamed? it's almost like getting they get calloused

and so they have to shave them down and they have to get them flexible again which takes a lot of therapy so yours is a very different kind of operation I have zero damage to my vocal cords this is the irony and almost the sad part of it. I've never abused my voice. I've always had very clean and functional vocal cords. But each vocal cord has one nerve

that connects it to the larynx. If you have any atrophy there at all, any asymmetry, it's like if you try whistling with a straw in your lips, that's exactly the effect. That's exactly what was happening to my voice. There was no sound coming out. The air was just escaping. So I might have like an attack on the note or like a guttural sound, but then it would just air. So mean i just couldn't i could barely speak so what they do is they you are it's it's an open throat surgery and they literally cut your adam's apple through they have to cut through all the layers and they hold it open through your neck

through your neck oh my god was it kehoe no no no no they have to they they have to put you know when you go to the dentist yeah and they have to put that rubber dam thing that whole big metal brace in your mouth that was basically your neck with the rubber thing that's exactly what they do they open it up and they insert a thing that keeps everything open. And then they go in there through everything to get to the larynx. And then they insert the Gore-Tex supports. But they have to position them

exactly right to compensate for where the weaknesses are. I bet he was frightened to death. And you have to be awake. He's got a crazy ocean eye train cutting her throat. But you have to be awake during it. You have to be awake so that you can sing and speak.

You were awake during the operation. Yeah, because they asked you. Oh, that must have been terrifying. It was, but it was my only option. And it worked. And it worked for now. It may not hold. It could not.

It might give. And it's not making your voice more damaged with it. No. That's amazing. No, I know. I'm so lucky. Honest to God, I'm not. It might give. And it's not making your voice more damaged with it. No. That's amazing. No, I know. I'm so lucky. Honest to God, I'm not. I think you are lucky, actually.

I'm so lucky. I'm so grateful. There's so much that could have gone wrong. Well, that's amazing. You sound wonderful. You sound wonderful. Well, thank you. Have you finished?

I am. Right. Delicious. I am now. It was my cock up. Basically, my mum's made a panna cotta. Do you eat panna cotta? Okay, fine.

Love panna cotta. Great, fine. Okay, phew. Great. I just wondered whether vegetarians eat it or not, so that's fine. Oh, yeah. Great, amazing. Oh, yes, look at that wobble on that.

Oh, mum, the wobble is beautiful on that. We've got a few more questions here. Do you think you've got good table manners, Shania Twain? Not today. Why? What have you done today? Yes, I do. No, I do.

I can be very, very formal at a dinner table. I know how to be formal at a dinner table. Do you think that's... Yeah, I mean... Yeah, but it's not that fun, is it? I do think it matters because I think while in Rome,

I believe in that. Okay. Like, I believe into each his own, but when you join someone else's own, then I think you need to be integrated into that. So I've always thought

that was important to be able to do it. Uh-huh. And what's your worst thing in somebody else, what they do, and you're just like you know what get out of my house or get out of the restaurant i don't like what you're doing phones at the table okay no way our kids are not allowed don't well i've got any three young kids and they're all

gonna be buggered because i'm what jesse is accepted no my kids are not allowed they're not allowed to have phone at the table since day one ever that is delicious mom that is very good and no chewing with your mouth open right yeah no absolutely am i am i like no i agree am i crossing a boundary no i agree i can't handle that and my mother was the worst like chewing she had two sets of fault she had two sets of false teeth. My poor mother. My mother had a terrible life. But anyway, she had two sets of false teeth. And she chewed like a cow.

She just couldn't chew with her lips closed. And it drove me crazy. Anyway. But kids are just not kind, are they? No. I'd be like, Mom. Mine isn't. What?

Me? What are you talking about? I'm being really well behaved today. I've been told, Mum. Mine isn't. What? Me? What are you talking about? I'm being really well behaved today. I've only told you to shush one. This is bloody ruddy good panna cotta, Mum. It is good, Mum. It's good, right? Yeah.

And the sour cherries. Did you bring them back? Yeah. It's good, huh? It's a very good texture, I think. Do you like karaoke? Or are you like Jessie because you're a singer and you think it's a bit Coles to Newcastle? Do you know that expression? I think it's you like karaoke? Or are you like Jessie because you're a singer and you think it's a bit Coles to Newcastle?

Do you know that expression? Yes, I do. I'm the last person to get up and do karaoke because I love watching other people. I just get so much joy out of watching other people do karaoke. I'm the one that's helping them through the lyrics or whatever, but I'm not a karaoke person. I think I people do karaoke. I'm the one that's helping them through the lyrics or whatever, but I'm not a karaoke person. I think I do bad karaoke.

But if we made you do karaoke... Oh, if you made me? Yeah, which song would you choose? I would probably choose... Um... Long and winding road Leads me back to your door That's my favourite one.

Oh, well done. We had to pull on to this. Mum and I had a big fight in that one. It would be a Paul McCartney song. I mean, the melodies and the musicianship and the arrangements are just so brilliant. Gorgeous. Shania Twain, thank you for being on the series, what do you call it? Opener.

Series Opener. You are amazing. You are inspiring. You are fantastic. And thank inspiring. You are fantastic. And thank you very much. And congratulations with the new single. Well, thank you. And I want to say thank you for the beautiful food.

Pleasure. So good. I just can't look at you. You're so gorgeous. I know. You're absolutely beautiful. Let's go girls She is fantastic She gave us everything

She gave us a vocal solo She ate your food She was lovely Gorgeous Couldn't really not look at her she's kind of was dazzled by her kind of amazingly star i'm starstruck i know that my son is going to go home i'm going to take that aubergine palm pie home and he's going to wolf it down so thank you do you think oh my god it was delicious wasn't it and the

panna cotta honestly the wobble on that and now a confident panna cotta maker i think if you want to see lenny's panna cotta in all its glory with sour cherries you can go on our instagram it's table manners podcast um and you can see all the content from each week's guest and food that we're feeding them thanks for listening and we'll be back next week