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Tommy · Guru

Shania on Redbook cover - June 2011

Tommy · Guru

Exclusive: Shania Twain Couldn't Sing or Speak After Ex's Betrayal

Country singers know a lot about heartache!

Shania Twain is "tired of suppressing [herself]" when it comes to talking about the unraveling of her marriage and betrayal at the hands of her best friend. In the June issue of REDBOOK, Twain, 45, candidly speaks about the breakup of her 14-year-marriage to music producer Robert "Mutt" Lange after his affair with her close friend Marie-Anne Thiebaud.

"I felt that the sooner I could relax about my secrets, the sooner I'd find the relief that comes with release," she explains. "Nothing like getting it out there in the sunshine and fresh air."

So just what did it feel like when she found out about her former best friend and ex-husband's affair? "It was like I was kicked off my own bus while it was moving full speed ahead, and I landed in the dirt and everything I had was thrown out after me. And after tumbling and getting a mouthful of dirt, I had to try to stand up, then figure out where I was and start walking."

Twain says it took about eight months before she realized, "Yes, I'm still me, and yes, I'm a mother, and yes, I'm a singer and a songwriter, and I can love again, and I have friends, and yes, I'm alive."

The five-time Grammy winner was unable to sing in front of people after the affair because of a condition called dysphonia. "It's a constriction that's both psychological and emotional, and it literally does choke the muscles around the voice box."

"When my marriage broke down, I got so physically constricted that I couldn't get any volume out at all," she recalls. "I couldn't even call for my dog. I realize I couldn't live without singing and had to do something about it. This is why I was like, 'Just get it all out right now. Clean the pipes.'"

Twain's now-husband, Frederic Thiebaud, understood exactly how she was feeling. It was Thiebaud's ex-wife who had an extramarital affair with Twain's ex. "I got to observe Fred going through the same thing that I was, and I admired how he handled it," she explains. "That is where I fell in love with him, because he was so exemplary in every way."

For more of Shania's interview in the June issues of REDBOOK, go to http://www.redbookmag.com/shaniatwain

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/shania-twain-couldnt-sing-or-speak-after-exs-betrayal-201145

barebackwarrior · Senior Member

Nice pictures.

Chris Farley · Senior Member

As previously stated, let the magazine covers begin!!!

Chris Farley · Senior Member

She's everywhere, she's everywhere!!!!

I can't keep up.

She looks so happy to be back!!!

Kringlesforall · Veteran Member

Chris Farley wrote:
She's everywhere, she's everywhere!!!!

I can't keep up.

She looks so happy to be back!!!

lol Well I took a three hour "too nice to be indoors" drive. And I dust off all the CDs and had them playing. I never driven so not aggressive in a very long. I forgot how much her music relaxes me to point I'm not stressed out. Yeah I won't be surprised if she sold additional 3 million copies on iTunes this & next month.

PurplePeopleEater · Guru

Kringlesforall wrote:
Chris Farley wrote:

She's everywhere, she's everywhere!!!!

I can't keep up.

She looks so happy to be back!!!

lol Well I took a three hour "too nice to be indoors" drive. And I dust off all the CDs and had them playing. I never driven so not aggressive in a very long. I forgot how much her music relaxes me to point I'm not stressed out. Yeah I won't be surprised if she sold additional 3 million copies on iTunes this & next month.

Excellent points! Mebbe 4 million.

Tommy · Guru

Shania Twain Covers Redbook, Wants Her New Music to ‘Affect People in a Positive Way’

By: Amy Sciarretto

Singer Shania Twain is making her comeback with her new series ‘Why Not? With Shania Twain,’ which premieres Sunday night,’ and now she’s telling her story in Redbook, too. After sidestepping music for a while, the singer is writing again and learning to enjoy doing what she does best: singing.

Twain, who had a rough couple of years after splitting with her husband, rock producer Robert “Mutt” Lange, opens up in this revealing cover feature about the songs on her next album, what she hopes to convey to her contingent of female fans and where she is today, which is a much better place than she was a few years ago as her marriage crumbled from the ultimate of betrayals. What’s refreshing about Twain, especially in this interview, is that she isn’t afraid to admit her insecurities, which makes her that much more “real” to the fans who adore her.

“I am stronger,” Twain proclaims. “I’m more mature, but I’m more carefree. I feel like I’m in a transitional period. I’m really trying to get comfortable in my own skin because it’s not easy to do when you’re in the spotlight all the time. I don’t want someone photographing my cellulite — I can’t take it! See, this is where the push and pull comes in. It’s a very strange paradox: I don’t really want to share all my dirt with people, yet I want to be real. I want to be successful, but I don’t really have what it takes to do it comfortably.”

Twain says that the songs on her new album are more introspective, admitting, “They’re about the insecurity that the spotlight highlighted for me. I found it so hard to take the criticism — not the professional criticism, but the personal criticism. I don’t want people to care about my horrors. It frustrates me and makes me focus on the wrong things. I want to focus on my songs. So I struggle with that, and I’m just getting to the point now where I can honestly say, ‘I either get comfortable in my own skin, or I quit this industry.’”

Overall, though, Twain remains committed to a goal, and that’s being positive, especially in her songs. “I want to continue to write and record things that affect people in a positive way, and keep trying to make songs that are meaningful,” the singer says. “What I write and sing is a very big part of who I really am. I just want to write music that matters.”

Twain is also concerned about her fellow females; this is, after all, a woman who achieved her biggest success on the back of a single called ‘Man! I Feel Like a Woman,’ said she hopes to translate a simple message to her female fans, saying, “I think for women’s mental health, honesty is crucial. We’re way too superficial. We need to be able to laugh at ourselves. I want to feel OK with being me.”

As for her future? Twain has interesting visions of what lies ahead, saying, “I was always very solitary growing up, and that made me creative. Then, all of a sudden, I became successful with music, which became an extremely extroverted thing. Now I’m somewhere in the middle, trying to balance my wish for solitude with the exposure fame brings. If you talk about the far future, I’ll probably be in the Canadian wilderness somewhere, living among the moose and bear [laughs].”

http://tasteofcountry.com/shania-twain-new-music-redbook-cover/

Tommy · Guru

Here is the article. Thanks to "ktsthegame" for the scans!

twain2country · Guru

Shania Twain: I drew inspiration from Duffy

Tommy · Guru

RE: Shania on Redbook cover - June 2011

Tommy · Guru

The entire article is now online.

How Shania Twain Got Her Groove Back

Three years ago, Shania Twain lost her husband and one of her closest friends in a single scandalous blow. She told REDBOOK how she climbed out of the wreckage, faced her most paralyzing fears, and regained not only her billion-dollar voice but her belief in love.

By Jancee Dunn

Shy. Private. Reserved. These are the words that have always come up in conversations about Shania Twain with my journalist friends who've interviewed her. So then there I am, on a couch at REDBOOK's photo shoot in Toronto, waiting for Shania to finish on set and strategizing all the ways I can encourage her to open up. Should I ask about her recent wedding? People love to talk about their weddings. Tell her (truthfully) that she looks decades younger than 45? See if she has any recent pictures of her 9-year-old son, Eja? So much for strategy: After the last shot has been snapped, the country superstar bounces over and plops herself on the couch, ready — no, excited — to get personal. Sitting cross-legged in a navy tracksuit, worn-in sneakers, and an eye-popping diamond ring, she talks (and talks), laughs frequently, and reaches out companionably to touch my arm. For the next hour, Shania, who is warm and sharply intelligent, amazes me with all she's held back over the years.

This is the changed woman fans will encounter in her candid new autobiography, From This Moment On (which she wrote herself, instead of hiring a ghostwriter as many celebrities do), and on her TV show for the OWN network, a journey of self-discovery called Why Not? With Shania Twain. They will hear Shania speak out about topics as wide-ranging as the domestic violence she witnessed as a child in Canada to the breakup of her marriage in 2008, when she learned that her husband of 14 years, music producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, was having an affair with her close friend Marie-Anne Thiébaud. "I'm tired of suppressing myself," she tells me. "How can you live such an extreme life and nobody knows even half of what you've gone through?"

Now, thanks to her openness, we will. Stunned after her husband's betrayal, Shania shut down. Every morning, she'd drag herself out of bed and put on a happy face for Eja [pronounced Asia] as she got him ready for school. After he left, she'd get back into her pajamas and climb into bed until he returned. Days turned to months as she obsessed over details of the affair. By the time Shania wrote the book last summer, however, some righteous anger had kicked in — so much so that she decided to include a few smoothly deceitful emails from Marie-Anne. "I am actually at the spa now.... I really enjoy it!" she wrote Shania from a trip that was, in fact, a getaway with Lange.

Even though Shania says she's still healing, she has clearly moved on — to bigger and better (and oh-so-handsome) things. As everyone who saw her luminous New Year's Day wedding pictures knows, Shania is now married to her friend's ex-husband. In a state of mutual shock, she and businessman Frédéric Thiébaud turned to each other for comfort, and a year later, love blossomed. Now she finds telling her story incredibly cathartic. "I felt that the sooner I could relax about my secrets, the sooner I'd find the relief that comes with release," she says, smiling. "Nothing like getting it out there in the sunshine and fresh air."

What made now the right time to put out your memoir?
One reason was to share my experiences with others. And it was important to me to have a legacy for my son. I certainly don't think you need to be famous to want to leave a legacy, but when you are famous, it's even more likely that your child will get the wrong perspective on your life if you die prematurely. There are so many opinions about who you were.

So if something were to happen to you, and Eja researched you, he'd get a distorted picture?
He'd get a million different perspectives. He wouldn't know who I was, what I thought, or how my life unfolded. And then, of course, a feeling of urgency was the other reason for doing the book. When my parents died [in a car accident when Shania was 21], that started a lifelong anxiety in me about dying prematurely. The breakup of my marriage really brought all those worries to the forefront and reminded me that, hmm, you just never know what's around the next corner.

You describe the experience of fame so well in the book — your isolation and craving for normal activities. I loved the story of when your assistant went to Walmart to pick out paint and you jumped to join her.
[Laughs] She said, "I can't believe you want to pick out paint with me." I think it's important that readers know that not every celebrity is a freak. But I started to feel like one the further away I got from being able to live a normal life. And I'm not a freak! I'm just like you. I'm like everybody else.

Tell me about the process of writing the book.
The book came so easily. I wrote it very quickly, in a matter of months. My life revolves around my child's routine. I'm a mom first. I can't do the whole night-owl thing while I'm writing and then not be able to get up at 6:30 to get my son ready for school. So I was very disciplined. I'd write in the middle of the day, and then a little bit in the evening after Eja was in bed.

There are some harrowing parts in it, such as graphic descriptions of your dad beating up your mom when you were little. When will you let Eja read it?
I wanted to be honest. But now I feel like there needs to be a warning sign on the book that nobody under 16 should read it. My life is just loaded with extremes, and I think what I'll do with Eja is slowly, over time, start explaining my life to him and preparing him. I'll just judge it as the time comes. I've led such a private life that even he doesn't know what I'm about — my own child. The first time he ever saw me cry was when I found out about the affair. I'm not a crier, but I thought, Gee, that's not right. That was a wake-up call.

What did that time feel like?
It was like I was kicked off my own bus while it was moving full speed ahead, and I landed in the dirt and everything I had was thrown out after me. And after tumbling and getting a mouthful of dirt, I had to try to stand up, and then figure out where I was and start walking. So it took me eight months before I realized that, yes, I'm still me, and yes, I'm a mother, and yes, I'm a singer and a songwriter, and I can love again, and I have friends, and yes, I'm alive.

You also found you couldn't sing in front of people afterward.
It's a constriction that's both psychological and emotional, and it literally does choke the muscles around the voice box. It's called dysphonia, and I realize now that it began when I was a child. I was not naturally meant to be on stage. I hated being in the spotlight; I was scared. Who likes being scared? I know people will say, "Why did you do it, then?" Well, when your parent says, "Eat peas," you eat peas. When your mom says, "You're going to be a singer," you become a singer. Was it me who really wanted it, and my mother saw my passion? Or was it that she wanted it, and then I discovered my passion? I'll never know. When my marriage broke down, I got so physically constricted that I couldn't get any volume out at all. I couldn't even call for my dog. I realized I couldn't live without singing and had to do something about it. This is why I was like, "Just get it all out right now. Clean the pipes."

REDBOOK has done plenty of stories on men who cheat or just up and leave. What would you say to women who have been through something like that?
Being betrayed is one of the most valuable lessons life can teach. Now that you are wise to the game, you have the tools to choose your friends more carefully and protect your inner circle from these predators. Wear your scars like a badge. Someone hurt you, you lived through it, and now you can talk about it without rage and revenge in your heart.

Were there any songs or artists who helped you get through your toughest times?
The album Silence Speaks, by the [Canadian] twins known as RyanDan, brought me to my knees in complete, uncontrollable tears and also gave me a feeling of peace and inspiration. I also drew inspiration from Duffy and old classics like Etta James's "At Last," as well as my own song "Today," the first original song I wrote alone after 14 years of collaborating with Mutt. It became the theme song for my series.

Is it true that your husband, Frédéric, planted the seed for your TV series when your breakup was still fresh?
It was Fred's birthday, and we'd gone to Italy for the weekend. He started filming me on his phone camera, and looking at the video, I thought, I've never seen myself like this before. I've never seen myself so devastated. And I realized I didn't want to run away [from what I was experiencing] anymore. I wanted to face it. I thought, I have to document everything. I need to know myself better, dig deeper.

You're stripped of all glamour and artifice on much of the show. Was showing your natural self a conscious decision?
I documented the last months of my healing process to force myself to face uncomfortable fears so I could move forward and share my experiences. I hope that people benefit from the candid footage. I'm human, you're human, we all go through the same doo-doo. No need for makeup, lights, action.

Fred was a big part of your healing too, wasn't he? How did you know he was right for you?
I got to observe Fred going through the same thing I was, and I admired how he handled it. That is where I fell in love with him, because he was so exemplary in every way.

You really do see what someone is made of in a crisis.
Yes, you see all their anger, how they handle their grief, their desperation. And he did it beautifully and was able to give me support at the same time. I admired him first. I think that's very important.

Then, later, you found out that he was this "romance god," as you put it in the book.
He creates romantic surprises for me all the time. The other day I was showering and he had to go out. He knew I hadn't eaten yet, and I had to go somewhere too. So before he left, he prepared me a salad. I could hear chopping and singing, and I'm thinking, What is he doing? I came out of the bathroom, and he'd set up a little table with a note saying, "I love you — Fred." And there was a glass of wine, and this beautiful salad with little tomatoes and flowers all around the edges. He's very good at doing displays!

He plated it like a restaurant would! Do you feel like you two had a whirlwind courtship?
It's three years now since our separations, and we had a good year of just suffering together as friends. And don't forget I'd known him for many years before. So it was that, then another year of falling in love. It didn't feel like a whirlwind at all, to be honest.

I'm sorry, but I just have to say this: Your marriage to Fred is kind of the perfect revenge. Do you ever wake up, look at him, and think, Nice!?
Of course I do, only Fred is not only nice, he's incredible. He's attentive, brighter than God should ever allow any one man to be, funny, romantic, and cute as heck. Most of all, he shows what he feels, and that's a quality that could come in any shape or size and be admired — it just so happens that Fred has a very gorgeous shape. He's too good to be true, only he's real! Good for me, is all I can say, and I'm loving every minute of it.

5 Facts About Frédéric
Shania would like to nominate her man for our Hottest Husband award!

HIS BEST PHYSICAL FEATURE: "His eyes. They're gentle, intelligent, and alluring, and such a beautiful shade of green. Fred's and Eja's eyes are exactly the same shade."

HIS BEST CHARACTERISTIC: "Fred is a true gentleman. He waits for everyone else to begin eating before taking a bite. He's always concerned about world affairs and the interests of others."

OUR SILLIEST COUPLE HABIT: "We stare at each other a lot and call each other lovey names. I'm Sunshy, short for Sunshine, and he's Beauty Man, because he's so darn beautiful!"

OUR FAVORITE ACTIVITIES: "Kissing, talking, playing tennis. Fred hits hard and keeps me on my toes. I'd chase a ball for him any day."

BEST LESSON HE'S TAUGHT ME: "Fred has shown me through example how to stop, listen, think, and then express myself, instead of immediately saying things I might wind up regretting. Trust me, that's hard for a girl who grew up cursing hockey refs. Fred's my 'count to 10.'"

http://www.redbookmag.com/fun-contests/celebrity/shania-twain-autobiography-interview

Tommy · Guru

This looks like an outtake from the shoot.

Tanya · Guru

More outtakes.

Tanya · Guru

And some more:

Tommy · Guru

How can we get full-size?

Tanya · Guru

Tommy wrote:
How can we get full-size?

From AnneMerie's website. I don't know where she took them from. Here is the link: http://eilleen-shania-twain.webs.com

Tommy · Guru

Tanya wrote:
Tommy wrote:
How can we get full-size?
From AnneMerie's website. I don't know where she took them from. Here is the link: http://eilleen-shania-twain.webs.com

Those are the same thumbnails on there.

Tanya · Guru

Yes. AnneMarie found them. If she had got bigger ones, she would have uploaded them. I guess it's all that's avalable for now.

Tommy · Guru

OFFSTAGE: Shania Twain's Words to Live By

June 3, 2011; Written by Alison Bonaguro

(CMT Offstage keeps a 24/7 watch on everything that's happening with country music artists behind the scenes and out of the spotlight.)

I just re-read the Shania Twain story from Redbook magazine and found some refrigerator-worthy quotes in there. The ones you want to tear out and tape to your refrigerator because their messages remind you of simple-but-important life lessons, so you want to read them every day. At one point, she's talking about how much she hated being in the spotlight, but that she did it because her mother told her so. "Well, when your parent says, 'Eat your peas,' you eat peas. When your mom says, 'You're going to be a singer,' you become a singer," she admits. Other Twainisms I love:

"Wear your scars like a badge."

"I'm a mom first."

"I feel like there needs to be a warning sign on the book (From This Moment On) that nobody under 16 should read it."

"I think it's important that readers know that not every celebrity is a freak."

"I'm human, you're human, we all go through the same doo-doo."

http://www.cmt.com/news/cmt-offstage/1665077/offstage-shania-twains-words-to-live-by.jhtml

Tommy's #1 SHANIA TWAIN SuperSite Message Board

Shania Twain on the Shock of Betrayal (and Her New Love)

Get a sneak peek at the no-holds-barred conversation with Shania Twain from the upcoming June issue of REDBOOK.

Exclusive: Shania Twain Couldn't Sing or Speak After Ex's Betrayal

How Shania Twain Got Her Groove Back