SHANIA TWAIN: How to Be Proud of Yourself | GREAT MOMENTS

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2:59Hello everyone, I'm Jamie Lang and this is Great Moments. Hey guys, welcome back to Great Moments. This week I'm really excited for this one because we have the queen of country music, or one of the queens of country music, the Shania Twain. Now, I'm going to be honest, I was so excited to have her on. She has like the most incredibly inspiring story. She is amazing for so many different reasons. And in this great moment, Shania opens up about how writing music became an escape through the hard times and the importance of learning to be proud of yourself. So here it is. Great moments with Shania Twain.

3:36Let's go, girls. What was your relationship like with your mom? Was it always good? Because I think she, from what I understand, she was the one who pushed you towards singing. She wanted you to be the country singer. you she took you I think you were singing at the age of eight in different places I mean that feels like so and then I think you took on this role of right well now I want to become the singer because I want to do it to help and provide for my family because you sort of took on that responsibility it wasn't so much to provide for my family um I would earn you know when I would go sing in the bar I might get 20 bucks 25 bucks 50 bucks you can't provide for a family on that this was to Like if we were going to use the gas money to go to the bar to do my singing, then I'd have to be able to put money back in the tank or, you know, put some money toward the groceries or something like that.

4:33So it was, I couldn't just go and do it for nothing. It was more of that, more of a compensation. We were, I mean, trust me, 50 bucks. Bought a lot of apples, for example, or a lot of bruised apples. We always went for the bruised fruit and stuff and vegetables. But, which is all fine. It's all good. Nobody died from a bruised apple. But the deeper message is really more, or not a message, but I don't really want people to think that I was the provider for the family. I was a peacekeeper. I was more responsible for my mother's happiness than I should have been. She lived for my music. She loved my music.

5:18She was inspired by my music. She would get out of bed to listen to me sing. She would take me to the bar. My mother otherwise barely left the house. And I would do her makeup before we would go. I would do her hair and her makeup, and then we would go out to the bar. And it was, my mother was just, you know, sort of broken. But at the same time, she's the woman that saw, she's the mother that saw the talent and wanted to nurture it. She just didn't know any other way of doing it. And it's like, well, I just got to find stages around here. She started by putting me up on restaurant countertops to sing with the jukebox.

6:14And you weren't nervous to do it? You just got up and did it? Not at three. Yeah, true. Okay. You know, and the people would applaud. And it was, you know, it was fun then. Then by the time I was eight and I'm singing in the bars, now it's no fun anymore. Why is it no fun at eight? Oh, because, you know, I'm only a lot in the bar, the liquor law, at least at the time anyway. No kids in the bar, no minors in a liquor premises until the bar is closed. Bar closes at midnight. So last call is at midnight or maybe just before midnight. And then I was allowed in. I could get up and sing. And if the band didn't want to carry on playing, then I would just get up there with my guitar and entertain everybody that was left finishing up what was on their tables.

7:03But it was smoky and stinky. and by then everybody's, you know, half cut and it's not where a kid wants to be. And you got school the next day. So no, it wasn't fun. Wow, that image of you at midnight when everyone's drunk and you're just getting up there doing a cappella or just singing if someone wants to help you do it. That's wild. Well, with my guitar. Yeah, of course, yeah. But you know what I mean? I always had that. I had my guitar. Or, yeah, I didn't like it. I didn't want to do it. But there's the dependency thing, see? What do you do when you're eight? And your mom, you know, is living for this.

7:45It makes her happy. But when you were performing, was that a sense of escapism? Could you then just suddenly escape from everything and you were just singing and you were on stage? It doesn't matter if it was a countertop or a bar top. At least that was your stage. Not the performing. Really? No, the performing was more like I was on display. The writing was the escape. So the writing was mine and I would, that was my great escape, writing. And, you know, writing, music, any stories is creative writing. You're playing with words. I was playing with an instrument, so I was writing music and lyrics.

8:31I would take my guitar for long walks. I would literally go into the bush, light a fire. We were a real bush family. We spent a lot of time out in remote areas out in the wilderness. And so, like, it was nothing for me to go out alone into the bush and start a fire and write music and just escape into other realities, create the stories. My imagination could go anywhere. I could write about anything, anyone, any topic, any chord progressions. And I was alone. It was for me only. my own nourishment my own um uninhibited self-expression escapism therapy yeah because it's all of you and it's so personal because it's just you just yeah just writing and putting it out there and it's for no other reason no one ever has to hear it you're an amazing storyteller you really are and not only we can obviously see that in your music but in person as well you just you have this energy about you that I don't know.

9:37Are you just saying I talk too much? No, no, you don't. You've got this energy about you. Tell great stories. Oh my God. I mean, I honestly, I wish I had a whole day. I wish I had 24 hours with you. I really do. Because you explain things and you, that's probably why your music relates so to you. Because you allow me sitting here to feel it, to understand exactly what you're feeling. Because you're talking your mind. Does that make sense? You're really explaining how you're feeling and what you were going through. And that's incredibly unique, I think. I think most people just go, okay, well, this is my fault.

10:10But you really feel it and tell it and let other people feel it. I'm a passionate person. I don't consider myself a great storyteller as a talker. And I do definitely like to put my thinking into songs or storytelling. Favorite lyric you've ever written? Oh. Oh. Have you done one in USCON? That's good. Because I could name a few. Well, I do love to play with words. I love playing with lyrics. A lot of times, though, it's more the process of putting the song together that's the play with lyrics. Yeah. Something like, I don't know. I'll give you an example of something that everyone probably knows the lyric.

11:00Man, I feel like a woman. So you might have been expecting something more deeper, more emotional. But Man, I feel like a woman is a statement that tells so much in those few words.

11:23And I could write a book on what is behind that song. so the skill of the song writing not that it disguises those little you know those few words that short phrase but there is so much more behind it I mean there's a lot of great classic even hits out there that really don't say much of anything some of them are just la la la songs right and that's fine but when you talk about an actual writer a lyricist um man i feel like a woman is talking all about uh or not not that it's talking about but i'm expressing so many things yeah and um so the joy in that is is really really really great so i don't know what i thought i would say that was my favorite one but it meant a lot when you wrote that well you you must have been like this feels this is strong because it's it's such a iconic strong i mean it doesn't really matter who you are you kind of know that line it's amazing well it's paul mccarton you said that said didn't he say that was it let it be or one of one of the great beatles songs um that it with scrambled eggs at one time.

12:49That's very true. So it starts, you know, not all my songs start that way, but a lot of them do start with gibberish. Just more about, it's more about the phrasing and the cadence of the way you play with the actual phrasing of the wording. So man, I feel like, well, when I was searching for that phrasing, but not deliberately thinking I want to write a statement about feeling good in my own skin as a woman. The song ended up being that but The Man I Feel Like a Woman was just a statement. It was almost like I had a realization. This song, I know exactly what I'm going to say in this song. I'm ready.

13:39You could feel it. A light bulb went on. I'm like, oh yeah, okay. I'm just going to let all this out right now. this is going to be fabulous. So it's very satisfying. It was, so I didn't know it was going to be a hit or that it would mean something fabulous to anyone else. Yeah. Songwriting is solving puzzles. That's totally what it is. I imagine, right? Because you're making your, you got a jigsaw and you're putting it together. And then when you suddenly complete it, you go, here we go. But even more difficult than a jigsaw, you don't know what the, what you're actually putting together yet.

14:10You don't even know, you know, when you have a jigsaw, it comes in a box with a photo on it. Yeah, so you know what you're doing. It's like, okay, that, okay, I know that there's a tree up here, and there's a, you know, the sun is here somewhere in the middle. You're just guessing. Well, you're creating. Yeah. You're creating it as you go along. I heard that Dolly Parton was one of the people that really inspired you. And what's incredible is that she did the legend slot at Glastonbury. and hello Shania Twain also at Glastonbury in the legend spot tell me about it unbelievable here we go the fact that Dolly did that slot makes it a very surreal why?

14:58tell me why that is because she's one of my absolute heroes so it puts a stamp on things for me it's difficult to get perspective in a career at times when your career is at times extremely busy you don't always have time to reflect on everything that's happening you don't have time to absorb even you know some of the great accolades but when it's so obvious like Dolly Parton's done that and now you're going to do it It's a stamp. It's a stamp of approval. It's a stamp of achievement. Are you trying to say you're proud of yourself? I am. There we go. I'm very proud of myself. And you should be.

15:51It's unbelievable. But I think if you get to that, if you're doing something that Dolly did at this level, you've achieved something amazing. I think you've already achieved it. I mean, God. Yeah, but there's some things that are just... You know, Blastonbury's... It's an event. And the more I hear about it and talk about it, the more I realize. It's a religion. Yeah, it's a religion. And a lot of people say that. And it's also a commitment. Yeah. It's a cultural commitment to an event, not to necessarily specific artists. so it's as if the event has developed or the the the the culture has developed these slots that we get invited to it's it's the it's very very surreal so you know like dolly parton was at the head of the table and now i'm going to be at the head of the table you know that's it feels like a great it feels like an amazing moment right it's very very special are you are Are you generally proud of yourself now and realize, do you sometimes think, because you spoke about it, it's like ships in the night sometimes when you're just achieving, achieving, achieving, doing arenas, going around, selling albums, you know, 10 million, 20 million, 30, whatever it is, you keep going.

17:10When does that point happen where you suddenly go, hey, I've done all right here?

17:17I wasn't doing enough of that when I was younger in my career because I was just too busy. I wasn't absorbing it. I wasn't appreciating it. So I didn't get to appreciate it. I wasn't patting myself on the back. I was like looking, busy looking forward, writing more songs.

17:39And didn't get to reflect and enjoy the moment in the moment a lot of the times. I'm doing that now. I'm catching up with all of that now. So now I'm like, oh, how about this is that? Isn't that great? And I'm having fun with that. And there's a sense of humor that comes with that as well. Because really, if I'm proud of anything at all, if you're talking about pride and achievement, it's more about the courage that I've mustered at times to deal with the stage fright, to take the plunge with the operation, to take that risk. moving on after divorce which was my music partner for so many years that was a whole stepping out in itself there's been a lot of jumping off cliffs and uh i i'm proud that i've if i'm proud of anything i think that those are the things that brought me the achievements i love that you're you have jumped off a lot of cliffs you have you've just done it you've going for it.

18:49Takes courage.

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