Even Showgirls Get the Blues

On writing: I never wanted anyone to hear things unfinished. Like no, no, no, you can't hear anything. My mother used to try so hard to catch me songwriting and I would just get so mad at her. "Don't listen, I'm not going to write then, I'm not going to write today then." Or I'd take my guitar and I'd go write out in the bush somewhere. "If you're going to listen I'm going to go write somewhere else." "I just want to know what you're doing. I just want to hear a little bit of something. Can't you play me something?" "No, no, not till it's finished." That's the way I was.

On her critics: I do get offended. But I don't get offended at their analysis of the whole thing but it always offends me when people take the liberty to knock you, because artistically you can't - there's no rights and wrongs. And this is what bugs me about criticism. It's not necessarily me personally, but I get offended when people do that with the arts, because it's like, this isn't like a race, you know, this isn't like that guy crossed the finish line first so he's the best runner. How can you judge? I mean it's like - you know, that's like saying, I could take Bob Dylan, for instance, I mean, and you put him up against Stevie Wonder and one can sing great and one can't. You know. But are you going to - is that really right? Is that really true? Like, how do you really write that, how do you really come to those conclusions?

On her first intimate moments with Mutt Lange: We knew each other - actually we pretty much wrote almost all of the album before we even revealed our feelings to each other at all. Which wasn't long. It was kind of exciting, actually. It's very funny because I've always been that way. I've never, ever, ever let a guy know the way I felt about him until I know. Because I'm just never a fool for that. I, I don't know whether I'm just really old-fashioned that way or what. But I just always felt there's no point making a fool of yourself, you know. Just feel it out for a little while. But, you know, when you meet somebody, get to know them for a little while. I just feel I've never been rushed about those things, I guess is what I'm saying. Just one day we hugged each other. But it was such a - it was a different kind of hug, and that was actually when we knew - right there. So it wasn't a kiss. So it wasn't like a very sexual moment or a passionate moment, it wasn't. It was a very sweet, honest moment.

On crying: I can get really emotional. It's got to be an age thing. I never used to get emotional. And I can get really sensitive, like - one time - this is such a sad thing - this kind of thing can make me just ball my eyes out. I was watching this program and this poor guy's dog got run over and he brought it into the vet and it was this little dog, and the poor dog could only move his upper body. His spine was cut and he was paralyzed from the mid down. And only could like lift his head and look at his owner. And, this is real life. Like the Discovery Channel or something. So this guy brings his dog in and they go through the whole procedure and this poor old guy, this is his buddy, this is his only pal in life. And he said, I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do for him. We're going to have to put him to sleep. Would you like to stay with him while we put him to sleep? Oh, my God. And the old guy was crying and it was the saddest thing I've ever seen. I bawled, I just cried. I couldn't deal with it.

On juggling: I can juggle. I can juggle 3 things. No, I can juggle 4 things, that's pretty good. But I'm not practiced. But yeah, that's something that comes quite naturally to me. I don't know why. Juggling of all things. But yeah, but I don't know if I'd call that talent.

Her motto: My motto is always, you know, a happy heart comes first, then the happy face. It's like you can't have a happy face if you don't have a happy heart kind of thing. And I mean I believe in that very much because maybe just being through hardships and learning that life just has to go on and you have to make it go on and that's all there is to it.

On getting drunk for the first time: The first time was when I was 13 and my parents got me drunk because I was showing curiosity, you know, what does that taste like? And I think it was like a holiday of some kind and they were having a few drinks, cause they never drank normally they never had liquor in the house. Maybe that's why I was so curious about it. So my dad, you know, being smart enough as he was, knowing that at 13 kids start drinking. Experimenting and stuff. So he said well, do you want to taste it? And I said yeah. So I tasted it and I said, hm, that's good. And I didn't really like it, and he goes, oh, you want some more? Sure. So I don't know how much I had, not that much. But you know he wanted me to be drunk, he wanted me to feel terrible the next day. And it worked, it was good. And I was like singing, I remember so well, singing with my guitar and slurring my words and falling off the chair - I was drunk. I remember the feeling. And then I went to bed and [threw up] all over everything. And they knew, they waited for me, they came, cleaned me all up, treated me like the baby that I was. And then made great fun of me the next day.