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Interviewing Shania Twain: On last tour, coming to Allentown's PPL Center,
singer wants to prove she's 'Still The One'

The Morning Call
By John J. Moser
September 25, 2015

For someone who says she’s on the final tour of her career, Shania Twain, the second-best-selling female country singer of all time, sure sounds wistful about being on the road again.

She doesn’t sound like someone who’s ready to walk away from giving live performances of her 22 Top 20 country hits, seven of which hit No. 1. Or like someone who’s preparing to release her first studio album in more than a dozen years.

But that’s precisely what Twain says will happen.

After debuting with her self-titled platinum disc in 1993, Twain shot to superstardom. Her 1995 sophomore disc, “The Woman in Me,” sold a staggering 12 million copies. She topped that with 1997’s “Come On Over,” selling 20 million copies. And 2002’s “Up” sold 11 million more.

In just six years, Twain had six gold or platinum singles, including her biggest, the double-platinum “You’re Still The One.”

Most of her hits, including “That Don’t Impress Me Much” and “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” also crossed over to the general music charts, as she was one of the first country artists to embrace a more pop-rock sound. She also won five Grammy Awards.

But by the end of her last tour in 2004, Twain says she decided to focus more on being a mother and largely stepped away from the music scene.

She then developed lesions on her vocal cords that she says not only left her unable to sing, but threatened her voice entirely.

Through therapy, Twain rehabilitated her voice and in 2012 returned to the concert stage with a Las Vegas stage show “Still The One.”

She also began working on a new album, with the intention of releasing it to coincide with the new tour, but the disc has taken far longer than expected. That means she’s working on it as she tours.

In a recent telephone all, Twain talked about her career, her vocal problems, her comeback and the future.

Here is an edited transcript of the call:

We’ll do the obvious question to start: It’s been a long time since you’ve been out on a full tour like that, and even in your press release you said you’ll have more to share as a performer now that you’re going back out on tour. I’m curious how you think fans will see a different Shania. What’s going to be different about who you are on stage, what you do, and what you’re capable of bringing to the show?

“Well, it’s a very exciting time for me. I think the fans – I think we’re going to be re-introduced to each other is the best way I can put it. And that in itself is very exciting. It’s like a reunion of sorts. A lot has happened over the last decade, since I’ve been off tour, in all of our lives – my life and in their lives. And music is bringing us back together and we’re going to celebrate and reminisce with all of the hits that they know and that we’ve all lived with for all these years now.

“And in my case, it’s a lot of the kids that were listening to the music years ago, that I would have seen on tour years ago, that are going to be adults now. And it’s just exciting for me to be able to be reunited with them. And I have to say the most rewarding thing for me – and the thing I’m looking most forward to on this tour – is seeing the fans and being with them again and feeling their excitement and sharing mine with them.”

So there’s been a lot of talk about this tour being something that’s the last for you. Is this the last tour, or are you looking for retirement from music one day? Can you kind of clarify what it is that this is the end of?

“Well, it’s certainly not my retirement from music. I will be doing music, I’m sure, till the day I die [laughs]. I love music too much.

“Um, the performance side of it, I feel, is a phase in my life, and I’ve been doing it for so long. I’m 50 this year, I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old, and I’ve really put in my fair share of performance. And feeling that the time is just right now to do other things musically. I want to write more. I want to make lots more records. I miss making records and I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career. I’ve done a lot more live performing than I have recording, so I want to do a lot more of that.

“And I also want to write songs for other artists. Other artists who are coming up. And I want to sit back and enjoy them having their moment on the stage and being proud that I’m part of their success. And watching my music as the observer, from the audience.

“So that’s a while other exciting phase for me that I look forward to. So I just see it as an evolution in my career, really.”

It’s been more than a decade since your last North American tour, and the pop landscape has changed a lot since you first broke big. I mean, you were one of the first artists to really break down those walls between what’s traditionally considered country, rock and pop. How do you feel about the very, very mainstream pop push that country music has had in the last couple of years – and that being the kind of pop landscape that you’re setting out into with this tour?

“Well, you know, ever since I started listening to radio as a small child, the genres have gone in every possible direction I could have ever imagined. And what falls into any specific genre has changed and evolved. And then also new genres, you know, there’s new genres all the time coming out.

“So I just think it’s a moving target, and I’ve enjoyed that. I always enjoyed following that; I’ve enjoyed new things, new music, new styles, new artists, new ideas and concepts and I never really felt that it was necessary to box anything in. And that it was a lot more fun to watch … for things to evolve and to cross boundaries.

“And that’s what I ended up doing in my own career. I never saw myself as any one thing, and I never labeled my own self specifically or wrote music specifically for a genre. So it didn’t surprise me, or at least was a pleasant surprise, when my music ended up basically being a cross-genre thing. And I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been a big part of the fun for me. Just kind of being myself, and it lands wherever other people decide it should land.

“But I do like the whole moving target of that and just being myself. So I’ve enjoyed watching it all evolve and seeing everybody enjoy these boundaries being pushed and changed and even dissolved, in a lot of cases.”

How do you feel that you have evolved, personally, over the last 11 years and how will that affect the spirit of this tour?

“Well, I’m having a lot more fun now. I’m going to have a lot of fun with this tour. The most fun I’ve ever had on stage. I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit. I’m in a reunion spirit to get back together with the fans again after all these years. You know, it will be emotional for me. The show will be very exciting; there’s a lot of dynamics in the show – I’m putting my best foot forward in every way, you know, technologically, psychologically. Just throwing myself into it.

“And, yeah, it’s a bit of a bittersweet experience, and, you know, I’m almost afraid to start it, ‘cause once it starts it’s going to go by very quickly, then all of a sudden it will be done.”

You’re just coming off the Las Vegas residency, and I’m just wondering if that long stay in one place has impacted the way that you approach touring and your shows and that kind of thing.

“Well it’s certainly the reason I decided to go out on the tour – ‘cause during the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I missed being out on the touring stage and missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me.

“So I was thinking, ‘Gee, it would be fun to go and visit people in their own hometowns and experience that excitement and atmosphere again. So I enjoyed Vegas very much for a lot of reasons, but it did motivate me – it was a motivation to one more time experience one more time going out into the arena setting and being with people in their hometowns.”

You talked about what the set list might include, and I was wondering what the progress is on a new album, whether there’s going to be any new music on the set list.

“There won’t be any new music from the new album on the set list – at least at this point. Maybe closer to the end of the tour I will be able to pull some of that music in. I don’t want to pull it in too soon, ‘cause it’s very difficult to know when the new album’s going to be ready. I don’t want to bore people with songs they don’t know, either. I know myself, when I go to a concert, I want to hear the songs that I know, that I’m familiar with and that I already have memories to and so on.

“So I think if it’s close enough to when I’m about to release something, I think it would be fair, then, to play one or two new songs off the new album. I’m dying to do it; I would love to be able to do it [Laughs]. But I just feel that it would be … I don’t think I would want that myself if I was going to see my favorite artist and I wanted to go hear their hit songs. So I’m just sort of looking at it that way. But like I said, if the album progresses quickly enough and the timing works out, then I might very well just put one or two songs in closer to the end of the tour.”

Is part of the reason for doing the tour at this point simply that the major changes in the way recorded music is sold over the last 10 years have kind of dictated that it’s more important for, or more necessary for artists to perform live than to release records?

“Um, are you saying, is that why I’m going out on tour?”

Yeah, or is the fact that you’ve had 10 years when you didn’t have records out – was it partly motivated by the fact that the change to digital sales meant that it was just harder for musicians to do recorded music anymore?

“Oh, I see what you’re saying. Well, I mean, at this point for me it doesn’t really apply, ‘cause I don’t have new music yet [laughs]. So the music that I’m going out with is the music that’s always existed. It’s the classic stuff that everybody know and that’s what this tour’s all about – bringing the hits to everybody. Bringing the hits to their hometowns and out on tour.

“So I think, especially if you’re a new artist, it would be very difficult to not tour live. I understand what you’re saying because record sales have been dramatically affected by just the climate of the whole market and how it operates. And touring just becomes more important.

“But for me, this tour is about reuniting with the fans – I haven’t done it in a long time. I am just bring the music that I’ve already sold records for, so it doesn’t apply in that sense what you’re saying there. But I do hope, in talking about new music, that maybe near the end of the tour I’ll be able to introduce a couple of new songs from the new album that’s coming out.

“But it’s so hard to know when that’s going to be ready that it’s hard to say whether I’ll be able to do that or not. But this tour is really all about the classics, and the tour – the reason for the tour is just, you know, to say goodbye to the stage, um, on a high. And just with my friends – with my fans.”

What did you learn from your time in Las Vegas that you’re planning on taking out on the tour with you. If there were favorite parts of what you did in Vegas that you’re eager to take to our hometown.

“Hmm. Well, I mean, there were a lot of things to learn in Vegas, that’s for sure. I think what I learned there is the audiences there were very close to the stage. So it was one of the luxuries that I enjoyed, because I love to see the people close up; I like to touch the people and mingle with them. So it was really cool to do so much of that there – having them so close to the stage, and such a controlled room. It was a theater environment.

“And what I learned is I have to do more of this – I want to do more of this. And I want to make sure that when I go out on the road and we do this tour, that I don’t miss out on that. I have to make sure that I’m able to get out there in the audience and touch people and look at them in the eye and be among them. So there’s a plan for that [laughs].

“It was a good experience being able to be so close with the people in Las Vegas. It really did – it’s something that I’m going to take with me on the tour, even though it won’t be as easy to do because of the scales of the rooms and so on. But we’re going to do it. So that’s been part of the plan and been built in to the production for me to be able to do that.”

What’s it like for you on tour these days? Do you get out and sightsee in any of the cities?

“This tour will be a little bit more focused on making my new record. So on my days and time when I’m not on stage or traveling, I will be recording vocals or working on the songwriting and so on. So I’m not going to be able to get out much and do any sightseeing on this tour. I’m going to be pretty much working between the stage and the new album.

“I have a very little portable setup and I just sing and record my vocals. That’s how I do my songwriting now and how I do my demos. And you can be electronically connected with your producer wherever they are. And the producers will come out to me as well, when I’m touring and we’ll just poke away at it like that – work on the arrangements, work on the vocals and then they can send me sessions and I can Skype. There’s just various ways to do this now that are pretty efficient, pretty effective.”

In relation to the fact that this is your last tour: I was wondering if there was anything you had planned to do, maybe new or different, in terms of the stage show that maybe differs from the previous tours that you’ve done. So you can really assure that you go out on a bang with this one?

“[Laughs] Well, you know, the tour’s call Rock This Country, and it’s just a celebration tour for a lot of reasons. I’m reuniting with the fans out in their own hometowns, that I have not done in a decade. It is a goodbye to the stage, and so the show is just full of great technology, the highest-end possible. It’s a very dynamic show – more dynamic than ever before, and no one has ever seen me in this light ever before. It’s going to be a whole new fresh look – a whole new fresh production entirely different from Las Vegas. We’ve stripped everything down and started from scratch.

“So it will be something that no one’s ever seen before of me. And I think it’ll be memorable. It’s gonna rock, that’s for sure. And it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m in a good spirit for it, and just primed to visit the fans’ hometowns and come to them. ‘cause for the last two years in Las Vegas, the fans have been coming to me. So I really feel pumped to get out there and go to their towns and bring them this whole new show.

“And I guess this big sign-off, this big farewell.”

What have you missed most not being out on tour, and are there any parts that you’re not as excited about?

“Well what I’ve missed the most is the connection with the fans. I’ve evolved a lot over the years. My life has changed so dramatically and my point of view has changed in a lot of ways. The way I see my role on stage and what I mean to the fans and what they mean to me. All of that is more valuable, and there’s just another level of maturity that I have now. And gratitude. So I’m looking forward to just exchanging that and experiencing that with them. And just saying thank you and celebrating my farewell with them.

“And then what I’m not looking forward to – well, I mean there’s nothing, really. The timing of this tour – there’s a sort of inconvenience to the timing of the new music and the tour because I want to get the new music finished and I want to be able to tour with some of the new music. But the tour isn’t going to leave me any time to do that.

“So I’m going to try to squeeze in working on the album while I’m on the tour. So there’s going to be a little bit of tug-of-war for my time and getting this new music together and finished. So that is the biggest struggle, really. I’m anxious to do both, and I’m going to have to manage my time and I’m not going to be able to have it all – which will be a little frustration, ‘cause I’m a little anxious about the new record.

“So that’s really it. But there’s nothing I’m not looking forward to.”

You talked about your desire to write new music and record more albums. So why haven’t you written music or recorded albums in the past dozen years? And for that matter, why haven’t you toured?

“Right. Well, I’ve been writing for ... I never stopped writing. So I’ve been writing all the time. You know, it’s a creative outlet that I would do whether I was touring or not or recording or not. So that never stopped.

“Why I didn’t record anything is primarily because my voice just wasn’t there and I didn’t have – I wasn’t sure I was ever going to sing again. So I was writing the music, but I didn’t know what to do with it. And then the same thing goes for touring. I mean, touring even more so, for the vocal side of it because you’ve just got to get out there and you have to be able to deliver your thing and stuff.

“Initially why I had slowed down after the last tour, though, was more so just for the break and to be a mom. And those few years after the last tour were very deliberately to concentrate on my son and my home because at the end of that tour, my son was just starting school for the first time. So that was logical timing for me.

“And then that period, that shorter sabbatical, turned into rather a long one, and then the problems started compounding with the voice and so on and so forth, and that ended up being over a decade.”

Can you give us any idea what the new songs are like?

“Stylistically it’s hard for me to explain it. It’s different from what I’ve done in the past stylistically. I think the songs and the spirit of the songs are still very relatable. They’re communicative –I don’t think that they’re obscure or anything like that. But I think it’s going to be a lot of unexpected elements to the music, for sure. ‘Cause I’m writing it all myself, so there’s not influence from outside, and there’s no other writer or no producer directing it.

“And this is just naturally going to give it different spirit to the music. And of course I’m matured, I’ve evolved. I have a lot a more … I have different things to say. I have different things to express that weren’t true about me 10, 15, 20 years ago. So that I think is just a natural evolution. I don’t think that is going to surprise anybody.

“But stylistically, yeah, there’s a different direction behind the music, for sure. And I’m not terribly objective about it. So it’s hard for me to know really where it fits and how I would be able to describe it, for the sake of others really grasping it. So I’m not even going to try doing that.

“But I’m enjoying it and It’s a very personalized songwriting. It’s been just a very therapeutic process for me. I’m pouring my heart out in the music – whether it’s literally in the lyrics or just emotionally through the melody and the chord progressions and all of that. It’s been a really great experience, and I want to do more of it. I’ve indulged in it and really don’t want to stop. I want to just keep going.

“I could just do that. [Laughs]. I mean, I could write music and be very satisfied, and I’m learning that about myself to be honest. I’m feeling less extrovert about expressing – the need to express my music –and more content just creating it.”

Compare the sense of fulfillment you get out of performing verses what you want to do more of – the deep sense of fulfillment you get out of songwriting.

“Well, the fulfillment I get out of performing is just being with the fans. Being with the public, seeing their reaction, getting their reaction. Me giving my reaction to them. It’s the interaction, it’s not the performing itself why I do it. I don’t need to be in the spotlight. It’s never been a desire of mine to be in the spotlight. I enjoy the interaction that that platform brings me. If that makes sense; it’s hard to explain really. But the gift of being on the stage for me is the fact that I can communicate with all these people over something we both love so much.

“But the songwriting part of it is by far the bigger pleasure than perfuming it. I wouldn’t say that it’s a bigger pleasure over, you know, his cool relationship I can have with the public. ‘Cause that is, you know, is just so unique and great and inspiring.

“But the songwriting – I could just do songwriting, and I would be happy, I would be fulfilled. It’s fulfilling in so many ways. I’m a creative person, and being a performer doesn’t necessarily mean you’re creative. I couldn’t just be a performer. I need to be a creative person. That’s really where my heart is. And I could be the creator of things and other people could be the performers of my creations and I would be fulfilled.

“I don’t need to be the one performing what I create, in other words. And you know, I could be talking to thousands of people and not performing at all and still get the same thrill of being with the people. So you know, it’s not a matter of performing. It’s just being able to communicate with all these people and to relate to them. So that could be in any form. It doesn’t have to be in the form of being the live stage singer. I mean, Oprah probably gets a great thrill out of doing what she does and communicating with the public. Or even writing books – being able to communicate with people through books and writing books and writing stories. There are just so many ways to do it.

“I just like the connection with the masses, I guess is what I’m saying. And it’s not necessarily being the singer that gives me that. The stage gives me that. It’s hard to break it down. I hope I’m not sounding confusing, but it’s the best way I can sort of describe it.”

You’ve mentioned the years of not recording and not touring and mentioned a lot of it due to your voice, and I’ve certainly read a little bit about what you were kind of going through it. But I’d like you to talk just a little bit about that experience, ‘cause it really does sound like it had to be pretty traumatic to see your voice going to the point where I think you were even having problems just with your speaking voice. I’m curious how just going through that was, and just how much you feared you wouldn’t be able to get back to singing.

“It was very, very scary and it went way beyond not being able to perform. It went beyond concerns for my career or not having a career. As a singer, it was a part of me that I was losing – like losing a hand or something, I was going through a grieving process. I really thought that I lost my voice – the voice that I knew and the voice that I once had.

“It was just very scary and it was something I just was having a terrible time coming to terms with, And before I gave up on it completely, luckily I found the courage to tackle it and take it on. But the period that I believed that I would never sing again was incredible depressing, it was a grief, is the best way I can explain it. I was really grieving the loss of the voice that I knew and that I had – that I once had.”

You turned 50 last month. How did you approach that, and does part of you feel like your representing or helping define what the age of 50 is?

“[Laughs heartily] I’m trying to figure out what that is myself. I suppose I’ll have more answers, but I probably should have some idea already. I think anybody in the second half of their 40s is already considering what it’s going to mean to be 50. And, you know, for me I think it’s an inspiration and a motivator to be my best because I sort of feel like if I don’t push myself and bring myself to the best that I can be now, it’s only going to get harder after that.

“So I’m saying to myself, ‘OK, at this point in your life you’ve got to be the fittest you can be. You’ve got to be the best you can be, the sharpest you can be. You’ve got to be the most educated you can be, the happiest you can be. And then I just feel that it sets a positive, strong platform for myself to jump from. And it sets the tone for the rest of my life, is how I see it.”

If you put this record out and people love it – which they probably will – and they’re going to want to hear it live and you might want to play it live. So do you feel like maybe you’re boxing yourself in a little bit by saying this is your last tour? When you’re till petty young?

“It’s such a good question, and I’ve gone through it in my mind so many times. But when I decided to do the tour – the timing of the tour was decided on not leaving too much of a gap from when my residency finished in December. I didn’t want to shut everything down and then start all over from scratch again, you know, a year down the road or two years down the road.

“But at the same time, I was hoping that my album would be further along by the time I finished my residency in December in Vegas. So the timing was just not ideal, it didn’t work out as I planned. But I can’t rush the album and get it out just for the sake of the tour. So it was just one of those things where the timing didn’t work out very well.

“What I will do, though, is at the end of this tour, if the music is far enough along with the album that I’m able to introduce one or two songs live, then I’ll be able to do that. And I’m hoping that I can do that. But I just had to let go of the fact that the timing wasn’t ideal. You know, with tours and albums, you’ve got to plan way far in advance and it just doesn’t always work out the way that you want it. You know, some things get delayed, and there’s no guarantee that things will ever line up. So that’s kind of what happened.

“So I didn’t intentionally box myself in, but it’s sort of the way it played out.

“And yeah, it would bum me out to not be able to do those new songs live, but I also believe that records have their own life as well. They’re an entity in their own way, and yeah, I just have to cross each bridge as I get there. But I’m kind of disappointed that the timing didn’t work out. But I’m optimistic that there’ll be something before the end of this tour that I will be able to do a couple of highlights from it.”

Do you think it’s possible that you’ll enjoy this tour so much and the new album will do well, is it possible you’ll change your mind and come back out of retirement from touring. I know some artists are real adamant about it, and others, they leave the door a little bit open.

“I think it just depends on where you are – what your frame of mind is. And it is so individual. But my frame of mind is I want to move on to different things, and I need time to do it. I want to make more albums and I want to write more music. I don’t know about other songwriters, but it takes a lot of focus to write meaningful songs and it takes a lot of emotional energy and it’s time consuming. So if I’m distracted all the time by, you know, creating productions and all of the facets of the tour and then the touring itself, you know, how much music am I ever really going to be able to write? And how many records am I going to be able to make?

“So I guess my focus is switched. My focus has already been switched. And I’m going to a record-making mode when this tour is over, and that’s what I want to do. I want to do more of that. I want to bring more music out. And I’ve got a lot more to say, a lot more to sing and that’s been what’s behind this decision. I can’t do them both at the same time.”

SHANIA TWAIN, 7:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 2, PPL Center, 701 Hamilton St., Allentown. Tickets: $47-$133. www.PPLCenter.com, 610-347-TIXX

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