Shania Twain has revealed that she rejected Prince‘s offer to make “the next ‘Rumours'” together.
Twain said in a new interview that the late star contacted her in 2008, around the time that she was planning her divorce from her then-husband Matt “Mutt” Lange following his infidelities. Prince saw it as an opportunity to make the ultimate heartbreak album akin to the Fleetwood Mac classic.
“I missed out on that because Prince called me when I got divorced,” Twain said in a video interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe of the failed opportunity.
“We’re on the phone and he said, ‘Shania, why don’t you come to Paisley Park? I want to make the next ‘Rumours’ album with you.’ And that was the weirdest thing he could have ever have said, because Mutt – his standard of what he thought, where I could live as a standard – was that album, ‘Rumours’ album.”
But Twain explained to Lowe that she didn’t feel ready. “When Prince said that to me, I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m not even divorced yet.’ I’m just like, ‘I’ve been dumped,’ but I’m not, obviously, divorced yet. I’m like, this is way too ironic what you’re saying. Right? And I’m such a major Prince fan.”
She continued: “And then on top of it, I hadn’t found my voice yet.” Twain referenced her battle with Lyme disease that robbed her of her vocal power. “I was still working on it. I was so far from finding it still,” she added.
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Twain also said that Prince’s manners provided another hurdle. “I’m on the phone with him and I’m swearing like I always do. I mean, because I’m just at home,” Shain said, “and he said to me, ‘Well, if you do decide to come to Paisley Park, there’s no swearing allowed here.’ So that was another strike.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no, I love you so much, but I don’t think I could get through writing and recording an album without swearing, somewhere along the way! What are you going to do to me if I swear? I might have to stand in the corner or something.’ I wasn’t sure about that. I don’t think I was ready for what all that was going to mean for me. I didn’t give up on it or anything, but then he died.”
Twain’s sixth album, ‘Queen Of Me’, was released today (February 3).
The country pop star recently discussed posing topless for the cover artwork for album single ‘Waking Up Dreaming’, which arrived last September as the first preview of ‘Queen Of Me’.
“This is me expressing my truth. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and this is the way I am sharing that confidence,” the 57-year-old Twain said in a recent interview with People. “I think the best fashion is confidence, and whatever you wear – if you’re wearing it with that, it’s fashionable.”
Meanwhile, last year the singer opened up about her “touch-and-go” experience with COVID.
The musician detailed in a BBC interview about her documentary Shania Twain: Not Just A Girl what happened to her while she had the virus.
In the interview, she talked about recording a song called ‘What You Gonna Do With That Air?’ and later revealed that the track is about “the anxiety of running out of air”.
Twain explained: “I had a very bad bout with COVID, with COVID pneumonia, and it was very touch-and-go. I was feeling like, ‘Oh my God, I just have to breathe.’”