Shania Twain has bravely admitted to having a lot of “emotional scars” resulting from her “challenging childhood”.
The Man! I Feel Like a Woman! singer was recently interviewed on the How to Fail podcast, where she spoke about growing up in a destitute household in Ontario, Canada with her mother, Sharon, and stepfather, Jerry.
When Shania displayed musical talent at a young age, her mother pounced on it as a potential income source for the struggling family. Sharon would sign her daughter up at “every opportunity possible” to play gigs at local bars.
From the age of eight, Shania recalls being woken up mid-sleep to perform after midnight, because that was the time when bars were legally required to stop serving alcohol to patrons.
“I would go to do the after-hours set and everyone was already intoxicated,” the five-time Grammy winner revealed. “It was a terrible environment for a kid. But I was very professional about it and I took it very seriously.”
There was also pressure on the young performer to earn money from these gigs.
“If I didn’t earn anything from it, it was going to be a domestic problem,” Shania explained. “The cupboards were often empty, the gas tank was often empty. We were living hand to mouth.”
The star added that the family’s financial troubles created a “dysfunctional” household and was often a catalyst for physical abuse by her stepfather, Jerry.
“There was a lot of violence in our home,” Shania reflected, adding later in the discussion, “My mother suffered so much in her marriage.”
Eventually, Shania learnt to forgive her mother. She was left devastated when Sharon and Jerry died suddenly in a car crash in 1987. Shania was just 22.
An emotional Shania explained that, despite all their hardships, “I’d never felt any grief like my parents dying.”
At the time, Shania was on the brink of her country music career breakthrough. She shelved those prospects to care and provide for her younger siblings.
“It was like I was a single mum overnight,” she recalled.
It was years later that Shania finally became the international singing superstar the world knows today. She is about to make her debut at Glastonbury before commencing her third Las Vegas residency.
When asked by podcast host Elizabeth Day if she would change anything about her childhood, Shania surprisingly responded, “No. I wouldn’t want to live it again. Once is enough. But I don’t regret anything, and a lot of it I didn’t have control over anyway.”
The You’re Still the One singer did, however, reveal she harbours “regret” that her mother never got to witness how far her music career has gone.
“She was there for all of the beginning but none of the success,” Shania reflected. “It’s regrettable in the deepest way she never got to witness any of that.”
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