‘Making Space With Hoda Kotb’: Shania Twain

foreign [Music] Shania Twain songs like that don't impress me much that don't impress me much You're Still the One [Music] and Man I Feel Like a Woman Man I Feel Like a Woman catapulted her into musical icon status she became the top selling female country music artist in history but behind the music is the ultimate Story of Survival after a battle with Lyme disease Shania came close to losing the very thing that kept her alive her voice the Shania you'll meet today has experienced a rebirth more confident more at peace and with more agency in her own life this Shania is free the Shania who sits across from me today is open honest and Unapologetic you are in a beautiful chapter in your life I feel like you're comfy in your own skin how do you feel at this age this stage where you are right now I'm feeling quite liberated in so many ways I'm positive and optimistic but still at the same time very Unapologetic that's a good word you know I mean I don't I don't feel like I need to explain myself as much as probably ever in my life but I feel very responsible still you know like the queen of me title for the new album it couldn't be more fitting for where I'm really at in my own minds I'm responsible for myself I take the good with the bad I know I've got faults I know I'll never be perfect and I'll keep striving to be better but I'm mostly enjoying the the search yeah enjoying the the the evolution they say there's that saying if you're not learning you're dying if you're not growing you're dying and I feel like through all these chapters in your life you're always evolving because some people are are very similar I feel like year to year to year but I don't feel like that's you at all I feel like I'm an explorer at home you know I like to explore um things I've never done mostly things I've never thought of this is where songwriting is so great because it's it's a creative platform to let my imagination run wild and I'm a true Explorer in that sense with songwriting so that's always been a very liberated space for me anyway but I think more in my real life I'm taking on more of the you know I'm taking I'm letting go of inhibition a lot more wow people say right what you know if someone were just to see this album as your life they would say wow her life was rose-colored glasses and she went through that way this is a moment in your life where you are seeing the joy I'm celebrating the job yeah yeah really um I've always seen the good in things I've always been being an optimistic person but I'm appreciating um being able to sing again after this you know very difficult operation on my throats I'm just grateful for so many things I have a great son I have a happy marriage I'm healthy my focus is more about well-being than it's ever been before I'm just concerned less about the Small Things I Love It I know the more the important things there's a small list of really really essential things yeah in order to be happy yes yes it's a small list what do you need to be happy you know you need help health you got that yes yeah you got health I need Freedom meaning I mean anything creative gives me Freedom yeah I could live in a box and still find that freedom wow that's good I really I can escape with my mind yeah and I'm exploring that more than I've ever ever done before I'm writing things that are more more explorative more I wouldn't say more honest because they've always been very honest I'm more Frank than I've ever been that's a good thing to do now with my lyrics um the songs are fun they're bouncy Giddy Up is a blast you decide that you are going to be 100 you yeah I mean this is terrifying at any age um at our age it's maybe a little extra well it was I did a photo shoot in the nude in the nude in the news first time you've ever done first time are you kidding oh my gosh no that was that was a real leap of faith in my own courage people always thank me for um being so courageous about talking about certain things about sharing things and I started to look at myself and say you know how courageous really am I wow how much inspiration am I really giving and am I really living that inspiration myself it's been a lot of reflection and now listen when I stand in front of the mirror I don't like to stand in front of the mirror you don't no or or only at certain angles or if I was if I look at myself from head to toe in the mirror I see my faults I'm just I'm just hired of that lack of freedom I want to be more relaxed and comfortable in my own skin it is what it is and I can't change it so it's the way I see things that has to change instead of changing who I am and what I look like so fashion and clothing and styling and glamor hair makeup all that stuff this is something that I like to play with and you can play with how clothing and and hair and makeup can complement your assets or make your your faults disappear again but when you're naked now you're relying entirely on your own love of yourself and respect for yourself so there's two different things I can feel beautiful when I'm dressed up and I feel beautiful when I'm naked too there's no way I would have said that before I took this leap of do a naked photo shoot I don't even know where I got the courage to do it I think I just got fed up of judging myself it's not funny how we do that just fed up with it you know why am I doing this yeah so let's talk about just how you grew up did you know that your childhood upbringing was different was difficult you didn't have often enough money for food to keep the lights on for heating these are Basic Essentials that a child needs did you know what you were living in at the time I certainly did from the moment I started going to school in the ottoman Canada it's cold you need winter clothing um I would go through a whole winter with rubber boots this is it's dangerous you know your feet can freeze you can't go out for recess with rubber boots so I'd have to make up excuses to stay in for recess so it was really clear early on that we weren't like the other kids that we weren't dressing like we needed to we weren't eating like we needed to how do you mean all the other kids came to school with lunches like nice lunches you know even if it wasn't elaborate even if it was just a sandwich and an apple and a drink there would be days when we would have nothing and I was I would I would always sit there going oh my gosh is she not going to eat her apple like if she would just give me that Apple you know and I didn't ever want to ask because then suspicion starts Rising you know why don't you have your own lunch and and when my teacher would ask that I would say oh I forgot it or I'm not you know I'm not hungry it's in my locker or and you learn very quickly that you are not within the norm was it shame what was it part of it was shame uh and also a lot of it was to stay under the radar why this is very important for kids that are neglected or abused because you then you've got Social Services stepping in the door you know taking the kids away or getting your parents in trouble you're afraid of getting them in trouble afraid of getting them in trouble and afraid of being separated I can't imagine carrying that burden as a kid do you know what I mean like yeah I can't ask for help because if I ask for help then I'm going to get my mom and dad in trouble so therefore I will live this way and it'll be my fault and it'll be your fault if something goes wrong yes if I say something it'll be my fault if my parents get in trouble it'll be my fault that my that the kids are separated it'll be my fault did your parents bring that up to you or how did you know that well my parents made it very clear it's a burden it's too much for a child to have to cope with the lack of um Necessities but then to also keep it a secret when you're going out there every day into this normalcy into what you know is normal yeah you're like why why don't we have that I mean it seems so basic so your Escape uh was what ended up being your talent and what's what you brings you here today which is your singing was that how you escaped what what seems like a very unsettling childhood did you just hide away and write or sing or what did you do hiding away is a very good way to start this this is off because a lot of times I was hiding away from violence in our house you know when things got really tough financially but it affected Us in sometimes more difficult ways than others easiest thing for me to do was Mind Over Matter distract myself do something else so you forget that you're hungry I would definitely take my guitar and I would go out to the bush normally I would go out we always live somewhere remote and there was always the Bush was always very close by so I could walk five ten minutes um be in the middle of the Bush light a fire and write stories you did write songs and that was that was the greatest escape and I got good at telling story I got good at escaping I got good at creating imaginary tales and stories and I ran away in my mind but it was your mom who recognized in you that you had a talent was her ultimate goal like let me get Shania out of this or did she want you to sing just because she knew you would be talented and she thought this would be a good fit my mother did definitely believe that I was talented she was very deeply convinced that I was talented beyond the norm and and she also realized that this could be our break our yes this could break the cycle of Our Lives I felt the pressure of that too because I didn't want to be on stage I hated it I was petrified to sing in front of other people wow I was great escaping off to the forest you know off to the bush or in a in a closet somewhere just by myself and singing and writing um it was my own special place to go to in my mind I wasn't meant to be a performer but she realized that the only way that I could succeed was to be on the stage doing it she took you to bars and you sang and you sang in the middle of the night when a kid should be sleeping but you sang she took a risk by taking you out there in the night a risk not just from your father and the abuse but just you know what's this doing to my child but yet somehow weirdly that ended up kind of helping you in your career is that fair it's very fair to say that it helped me in my career it there what there were no children performing in bars at that time kids are not allowed to be in on like our premises so this is why I had to go in after midnight so you went after after the they stopped serving booze then you could go sing then legally technically she convinced them that I could go in there then everyone's drunk by then this is everyone's already drunk by midnight so this is now my audience I mean my mother of course she would have known that I was going to have trouble those all those times getting up for school the next morning and I had a huge responsibility in the mornings I was ironing my dad's shirt and his pants getting ready for work I was getting the kids out of bed I had to wake him up at six o'clock I was I was responsible for the alarm clock and getting everybody breakfast the kids on the bus it was you yes it was a whole routine and so a lot of times I missed school I was just too exhausted or I missed my bus I just didn't make it in time yeah did your dad think you were talented my dad very much believed in my talent talent if he loved my voice you know his idea of me being a singer was to get up and sing for family and friends he was he was the much more reasonable one in that sense yeah so as you're growing in your your voice is improving and you've got all this stuff going and you're I think you're 22 years old and there are days that you don't forget in your life and this was I'm sure one of yours how did you learn that both of your parents had died in a in an accident I was in Toronto uh working I was I was built working on my backup plan in case I didn't make it as a singer so I'm at a computer programming school and I'm gigging at night I'm doing you know I'm gigging in bands at night and I'm I'm at the school and I get a call that my parents were killed in my sister was God called me and told me that they died in a car accident and I mean I just um you know I fell apart totally just into shock for days and uh I just couldn't let go um of them what did you lose the day they died I lost a foundation I lost a very important foundation as rickety as it was it was still a foundation it was still a foundation that I associated with my whole life history was there with them well then you had to be a mom to your siblings how many siblings do you have do you have four siblings but three three miners so you were becoming mom again at 22. so you had your dreams or however you were trying to Cobble your life out you're like now I'm back and now I'm taking care of of my the kids the kids that's what you called them how much older my kids yeah often I know they're not mine but I just do say that but my older sister was married and she had um two children she had a she was very very busy um you know with her life my younger sister was still living at home and my two younger brothers were still you know 13 and 14 years old and um I didn't you know we all agree that they shouldn't be separated but it was you know no other no relatives were able to take both of them in so the only way to keep them together was for us to stay together so you did that too so I did that I've heard a lot of where you've came from stories from different artists I don't think I've ever heard one like yours I mean yours is and the way you speak about it is honestly and very matter-of-factly and I know that there's a lot behind it but I feel when I when I watch what happened your career it kind of makes it all makes sense it's like of course you fought through of course this was something you could do um do you think once your career started rolling did it feel like a puzzle piece that fit like you were now riding a wave instead of swimming Upstream I definitely lacked motivation uh to be a performer to be in the spotlight that was always going to work against me the drive was out of desperation the drive was not ambition there's a a big differentiation I don't know many stars you know that get to this point that didn't have genuine ambition I my my honest ambition if I could have been Stevie Wonder's backup singer that would have been my dream come true my dreams were different um from where I ended up I ended up being this big former nothing that I would ever have been able to imagine but my my desperation was so strong I knew there was nothing to go back to especially after my parents died there were no other options for me in life now that I had not gone to college so by the time I did make it to Nashville I was Fearless were not able to intimidate me you can say anything he wants okay I'm all right there's no way to discourage me now from getting somewhere with this I've never heard it described as ambition versus desperation that's a whole different animal right there did you ever then love performing on stage did it ever when did it switch or did it it took me a really really long time I started really enjoying being on stage when I started getting my voice back again I didn't love being on stage I was loving the people but I couldn't see beyond my responsibility to the people um I see but I felt like they needed so much they needed something I couldn't give them and I realized later like I realize now that all I had to do was give them what they were giving me that's all I had to do but I just it was as simple as that and um I don't know why I couldn't see that earlier I took it for granted maybe or maybe I was just allowing my stage fright to to create so much angst that I couldn't because I was doing something against my will almost against my comfort zone right so this is why with the naked thing taking this photographs make it I'm like pushing myself for this I am I'm uncomfortable with it so I'm gonna do it that's actually a good lesson because some people think if it feels like it's against your nature then stop but you've you kept pushing through because usually there's this fight or flight I was only hurting myself yeah you see I was I was the only one missing out I would say the same thing if it doesn't feel right stop because it's probably hurting someone else yeah it's probably not right there's something wrong yeah yeah but if you're missing out on something out because of fear and you're letting it in your way you yeah are the only one you're hurting yeah yeah I should have been enjoying all of those years of performance I should have been indulging in all of that exchange with the audience instead of resisting it and all of these years I should have been enjoying myself and my own skin instead of wishing I was different well what's so fun now is watching you enjoy yourself in your own skin and watching you like Inspire first of all when Harry Styles and you were up on stage I was like there's this magic and I was watching that moment and I was like yes there was something about that and the watch Taylor Swift swift on bended knee you know you have all of the people who are who will be icons in the future who are now you know incredible pop stars are looking at you on this huge pedestal what is that like the mutual respect Mutual yeah it's it's everything because we me and these kids that are icons in their own right are the same kids that were my fans when they were four and five and six so we are having this cyclic phenomenon in my mind I'm re I'm being reintroduced to them as adults now this reunion of admiration it's incredible it's very very surreal I feel like your life has had so many highs and so many difficult times and you keep rolling like you just keep rolling so I felt like if someone had your childhood then after that everything should just be easy because life should never be filled with more Downs After surviving what you survived yet like a lot of people in this world there are marriages that don't work and then there's a recovery from that how did you ever come back from that how did you rebuild just the trust or your own belief in yourself like is you know am I choosing right I am somebody who tends to live in the future I play my own if game if this never happened to me what would I do and uh it's almost like I'm always preparing myself for something bad to happen but I don't live in anxiety about it but I do keep the glass half full so when I lost my voice for example I'm thinking okay well if I never am able to sing again with pleasure and for other people's pleasure I'm going to write songs that other people sing for me there's always a way to get pleasure out of the things you love even if you can't do them the same way even now I can't sing the same way I sing differently I'm celebrating the fact that I can still sing periods because I can tell by the doctors that just the physiology and the the procedure that I had done may not last forever so I either may have to have that operation again which was very painful and probably the most painful thing was not being able to speak for three weeks because I can be quite Shady um no it was very painful but so would I do it again I don't know what I do it again so I I can carry on singing I don't know I don't a lot of I don't knows but I know that I will find another way um or our way to get satisfaction out of music and pleasure out of music so this is the way I am about everything in life you know if I even in on the most basic level just you know when life throws your lemons make lemonade and I really believe that do you rely on people I mean do you allow yourself to because once you've been let down sometimes it's like you know what I'm driving this bus now everyone can jump on if they want but this is this is the way I'm gonna do it I'm the boss of me I am not the boss of anybody else and I cannot control how other people treat me what they do to me or what is in my destiny I don't know I don't know what the plan is I don't know what God has planned for me I accept that whatever the plan is is what it is but I do expect myself to manage whatever it is that comes my way and I hold myself to that I I really think that we have to do that we have to carry on we can't give up we can't quit so I'm definitely not a quitter I will find a way I'll find a solution maybe that's just the creative side of me but there is no way that I I will never stop until I find a way to get through something or to get to the other side of it you talked about you have a beautiful happy marriage what makes it work uh communication he's better at it than I am yeah uh I'm definitely the person that would just rather go and play my guitar and get work through my yeah my emotions that way but he's very good about communicating so he's always the one you know let's talk about this and um so communication it doesn't hurt that he's you know drop dead gorgeous sexy and that you know so the attraction remains I think that's very important you know you need to be uh in love with each other in the first place um but marriage is freaking hard yeah you know it because we go through so many different phases um as individuals and then how to work through those individual changes and be uh respectful and empathetic to each other as we're going through our own stuff thank you thank you thank you hey thanks for watching don't miss the Today show every weekday at 11 A.M Eastern 8 Pacific on our streaming Channel today all day to watch head to today.com all day or click the link right here

Channel: TODAY

Views: 42,337

Keywords: Today, Today Show, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales, domestic news, international news, weather, interviews, politics, money, media, entertainment, sports, breaking news, food, health, home, parents, style, concerts, pets, shopping, Hoda Kotb

Id: -gc5dgLw0Xk

Length: 25min 12sec (1512 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023