Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
In early June, Shania Twain stepped onto a stage in Seattle and launched her first tour in more than a decade.
It’s also, she insists, her final tour.
Well, who can blame her, then, for lightening her famous chestnut mane to engage in some blondes-have-more-fun revelry?
Twain is still the biggest-selling female in the history of country music with more than 85 million records sold. In 2012, she returned to performing live with a two-year residency in Las Vegas in a show jammed with hits (and some horses).
A few weeks before the kickoff of her five-month “Rock This Country” outing, Twain chatted with reporters about her plans for the future — expect to hear new, self-penned music — as well as the production and set list for the show, which lands at Philips Arena on Saturday.
No, the horses aren’t coming.
What fans can expect from her live production:
“The tour is called ‘Rock This Country’ and it’s a celebration tour for a lot of reasons. I’m reuniting with the fans in their hometowns. It is a goodbye to the stage, so the show is full of great technology. It’s a very dynamic show. It’s a whole new fresh production, entirely different from Vegas. It’s going to rock and it will be a lot of fun.”
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
How she chooses her set list:
“There won’t be any new music from the new album on the set list at this point, (but) maybe closer to the end of the tour, I might be able to pull some of that music in. I don’t want to bore people with songs they don’t know. When I go to a concert, I want to hear the songs that I’m familiar with. … This tour is really about the classics. The point is to say goodbye to the stage on a high with my friends, with my fans.”
What is it like during a typical day on tour?
“It’s pretty much strictly work. On one of my tours, I took my horse with me. That was very unique. It took a bit of planning, but it was my way of getting exercise and getting out and seeing the landscape and I love my horses. This tour will be a little more focused on making my new record. When I’m not onstage or traveling, I will be recording vocals or working on the songwriting, so I’m not going to be able to get out much on this tour.”
How she feels going back on the road:
“I’m going to have a lot of fun with this tour. I’m more relaxed in a lot of ways. I’m savoring it because it is my last tour. I’m in a farewell spirit, but I’m in a reunion spirit to get back together with the fans again and that will be emotional to me. I’m putting my best foot forward in every way, technologically, psychologically; it’s a bit of a bittersweet experience.”
What she learned during her residency in Las Vegas:
“It’s certainly the reason I decided to go out on the tour. During the last part of the two-year period in Vegas, I realized that I’d missed being out on the touring stage and missed going out to the public as opposed to them coming to me. I figured it would be fun for me to go and visit other towns and experience that excitement. … There were a lot of things to learn in Vegas, that’s for sure! The audiences there were very close to the stage. It was one of the luxuries I enjoyed. I like to see the people close up and touch the people.”
The sound of her new music:
“Stylistically, it’s hard for me to explain; it’s different from what I’ve done in the past. The songs and the spirit of the songs are still very relatable. I think it’s going to be a lot of unexpected elements to the music. I’m writing it myself so there is no influence from outside, so it will naturally give a different spirit to the music. I’ve evolved and have different things to say and express that weren’t true about me 10 or 15 years ago. It’s very personalized songwriting. It’s been a very therapeutic process for me. I’m pouring my heart out in the music, whether it’s in the lyrics or the melodies and chord progressions. It’s been a really great experience. I could just do that, write music, and be very satisfied and I’m learning that about myself.”
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
Credit: Melissa Ruggieri
How she got her voice back (prior to her Vegas stint, Twain had vocal problems and feared she would never sing again):
“It was a lot of work, a lot of physiotherapy and vocal therapy. Persistence, determination, because like any physiotherapy, it’s hard, it’s tedious, it’s repetitive, it’s boring, it’s painful a lot of the time, very similar to how an athlete would have to go through it if they had an injury. I need an hour and a half of physical and vocal warmup now before shows.”
On turning 50 (she hits the milestone on Aug. 28):
“I think anybody in the second half of their 40s is already considering what it’s going to mean to be 50, and for me, I think it’s an inspiration and a motivator to be my best. I sort of feel if I don’t push myself and bring myself to be the best that I can be now, it’s only going to get harder after that. You’ve got to be the fittest you can be, the most educated you can be, the happiest you can be and I feel it sets a positive, strong platform for myself to jump from, and it sets the tone for the rest of my life, is how I see it.”
So, is this the end?
“It’s certainly not my retirement from music. I’ll be doing that until the day I die. But the performance side of it I feel is a phase in my life. I’ve been on stage since I was 8 years old. I really put in my fair share of performances. I want to write more, I want to make a lot more records. I miss making records and I haven’t made enough records in my life and in my career. I also want to write songs for other artists who are coming up and enjoy them having their moment on the stage.”
CONCERT PREVIEW
Shania Twain
With Gavin DeGraw. 7:30 p.m. Aug. 1. $46-$136. Philips Arena, 1 Philips Drive, Atlanta. 1-800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.
About the Author
