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The best of times
... and she's out with her greatest of hits
By JANE STEVENSON, Toronto Sun
THE TWAIN Train is about to descend on Ontario. Country music
crossover queen Shania Twain returns to her home province next week
with stops in Timmins on Tuesday and Toronto on Wednesday to promote
her greatest hits collection, due in stores Nov. 9.
But back in September, during an exclusive print interview with the
Toronto Sun in a posh, 100-year-old lakeside hotel in Montreux,
Switzerland, the singer was reveling in the fact that pretty soon she
would have no schedule at all.
"Really my goal probably for the next year is just writing," said
Twain, 39, relaxing on a couch in one of the hotel's ballrooms and
dressed casually in a black hoodie, grey shirt and black pants with
matching black boots.
"I need to write again. So I don't know when the next album's going to
be. I don't know when the next tour is going to be. And I think that
what this album represents, for me, this greatest hits, is a period of
pause."
Twain said she didn't even know what musical direction she may take
for her next studio album -- the official follow-up to her 2002
release Up!.
"I don't know if I want to change direction," said Twain, who lives
about 15 minutes outside Montreux in the exclusive neighborhood of
Tour-de-Peilz. "I've entertained the idea of doing a really rootsy,
country sound; it would be more on the bluegrass side. Would I want to
do a straight-ahead pop record? I've entertained the thoughts of doing
just duets with all my favourite artists. I've thought of maybe doing
an album of covers of my favourite classics. And so what kind of album
is the next album going to be? I don't know. I have to think about it
a little more."
And while the tabloids may love to speculate that as 40 approaches,
Twain and hubby/uber-producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange may try for
another child in her down-time, she said there are no plans to give
three-year-old son Eja a sibling.
"He's beautiful and we're having such a great time," said Twain. "If
it happened, it would be an accident, let's put it that way. We're not
planning another one. I'd always welcome another child, but we're not
going to plan for it. And we're quite happy the way we are. We've got
so much to look forward to, with the (Up!) tour ending, and Eja's
going to be starting school in a year or so. I look forward to all
those things. I won't want him to start school earlier than he has to.
I'd like to wait until he's five if I can."
Incidentally, Twain doesn't think turning 40 is a big deal: "It
doesn't make any difference. You change physically, but I'm happy to
do that."
Twain did say that Eja surprised her by how much he enjoyed going on
the road for Up!
"He did great. He was a real trouper about it all. He had his bed on
the bus. He loved the bus. Whenever we'd leave it to go somewhere, the
bus couldn't come with us or whatever, he'd go (adopts little boy
tone) 'Where's my bus? I want my bus!' "
Twain -- who has sold close to 80 million albums worldwide -- is
facing some mighty fierce competition on Nov. 9 -- Britney Spears is
also releasing a greatest hits collection that day.
"I didn't know that," said Twain." I don't think it's going to
interfere at all on a competitive level, because we have such
completely different audiences. There's some crossover, sure, my
12-year-old fans, my eight-year-old fans, I have a lot of kid fans,
they're probably her fans too. I know they are.
"But my fan base is so wide that I can't imagine that their parents
are buying Britney's album. Their parents are buying my album. Their
grandparents are buying my album. So it's a different audience in that
sense, but there's probably some crossover there.
"Besides, things are long-term. I've got three singles on this CD.
This isn't just about the first day. This isn't just about the first
week. My records never have been anyway. This is about what's going to
happen over the following year."
Her first single is Party For Two, which she recorded in both country
and pop versions as duets with Billy Currington and Mark McGrath,
respectively. There's also a new ballad Don't, which was written for
the new movie, An Unfinished Life, which stars Robert Redford,
Jennifer Lopez, and Morgan Freeman, and a honky tonk track I Ain't No
Quitter.
Otherwise, her 21-song collection brims with hits such as Man! I Feel
Like A Woman! and Whose Bed Have Your Boots (Been Under).
Twain claims she doesn't "have a competitive bone in (her) body,"
despite the music industry's ever-increasing focus on first day and
week sales.
"I remember when I was on tour with Toby Keith, he's a really
competitive guy, and we were talking about it." Both of them were just
getting started in the business. "He actually had a hit and I hadn't
had a hit, yet. And he was telling me how competitive he was and how
he had to win and he wanted to be on top. He's a football player. He's
got that mentality.
"He says, 'Don't you just want to be a winner?' And I said, 'No. I
really don't care.' I make music and that's what I do. And, of course,
I want it to be successful, but I'm not looking at the scale and
going, 'Who's beating me or whatever.' So there's just different
types.
"I, definitely, I'm in my own race. I don't have that nature. It just
breeds jealously because then you're a sore loser. And how can you
lose in music anyway? It's all a matter of opinion. There's no losing
or winning. You put out your music and that's what your music is.
"Success, to me anyway, if you can feed yourself, if you can make a
living at what you do, you're successful in life. Maybe that's because
I come from a poor background."
One notable TV appearance Twain made earlier this year was on Oprah to
promote her part in a Dolly Parton tribute record. Twain found herself
becoming emotionally overwhelmed as she talked about, then met and
sang opposite, her idol Parton.
"During the hardship of my childhood, Dolly Parton was such a staple
of my life," said Twain.
"Somebody I listened to all the time. I'd dissect her songs. She was
just a very big part of it. And so to have her there, oh, it was just
really weird and it was very emotional."
The scene made such an impact because Twain, who lost her parents when
a logging truck plowed into their car, and was forced to raise her
younger siblings, is rarely seen in public breaking down.
"It was a personal moment -- that's what it was -- and it was on TV,"
said Twain. "So it really was truly personal and I really just needed
to do that with her by myself. I was like, 'I wanted you to meet my
mom. I want to talk to you about your songs.' I wanted just to have
her to myself. So I kind of felt exposed a little bit. But that's what
Oprah does."
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