Shania Twain tearfully reveals career began in ‘bars with cages’ at age eight as singer felt ‘uncomfortable’ performing
SHANIA Twain has held back tears while revealing the hardships she faced during her childhood in Canada.
The country megastar revealed she had to perform at just eight years old to help her family financially.
Shania, 58, was interviewed on CBS News on Wednesday and appeared to be near tears as she discussed her first gigs.
Shania began performing in Ontario, Canada, bars at just eight years old despite not wanting to, “not at all” she said.
The singer- promoting her Las Vegas residency – shared she hated performing in grimy bars where there was risque behavior.
She said the bars often had cages, hinting there were adult female dancers in them.
‘UNCOMFORTABLE WITH IT’
“I was very uncomfortable with it and it might have been that I was performing in adult venues- bars,” she said.
“Many bars I played had cages.”
“The adults all around me thought I should be a star, the next Tanya Tucker.”
However, at that time, fame never interested Shania as she was so young.
“I wanted to be a veterinarian or engineering architect,” she added.
“Music was a passion- something I did best when I was alone.
“When my parents were fighting I’d go to the backyard and start a fire with my guitar and pretend everything went away.”
Twain held back the tears during the entire conversation.
‘TOUGH AND GO PERIOD’
This comes after Shania discussed the weight put on her shoulders when her parents died, and she was left to raise her siblings.
In 1987, her mom, Sharon Morrison, and step-father Jerry Twain, died in a car crash.
Jerry was often violent to Sharon, once beating her unconscious, and he was also abusive towards Shania, The Sun previously reported.
At 22, Shania was about the have her breakthrough when she had to shelf her dreams and care for her younger siblings.
“It was like I was a single mom overnight,” she recalled at the time.
She added: “It was a very touch and go period in my life.
“I had frostbite many times just by not having the right clothes.
“I’d have to go down to the river and bring back coolers of water to drink and do the laundry down there by hand.
“I chopped my own wood, piled my own wood.
“It was a lot of pressure. I barely slept.”
But once her siblings were able to chip in, Shania compiled a demo tape to present to Nashville music execs and the rest is history.
It was the first step to Shania finally becoming the international singing superstar the world knows today.