Shania Twain: Not Just a Girl

I believe every great leader of their own destiny is fearless.

There is no other way to be.

Aware but fearless.

I am going to make my own decisions in life,

and I'm going to make my own money.

I'm going to buy my own car, make my own way.

I'm not going to depend on anybody else.

The minute you depend on somebody else, you lose something.

You lose the right to decide for yourself.

You've just got to go for it.

Taking the risks to do things your way can be scary.

So you got to be brave.

Shania changed country music because she went like this,

"Oh, these are the lines? Cool."

She was the first person to break that door open and go across the music genres.

She was that trailblazer.

Shania does it all. She plays guitar, she writes her own songs,

she has, like, insane live shows.

She was a strong female in country, which is hard because country music's, like,

the women don't make it.

You'd have to take a sledgehammer to knock her down.

Record sales. Not streaming.

How many artists have followed huge records

with one more, much less two more?

She might not wear a banner on her hat that, "I'm a feminist."

She just did it.

Shania Twain shifted culture.

She paved the way not only for women in country,

but musicians everywhere.

Are you ready?

I said…

are you ready?

I spent most of my childhood growing up

in what I would call a medium-sized mining town,

Timmins, Ontario.

We were struggling as far as, you know, money.

So there was always a problem paying electric bills,

the rent, um…

Always a problem buying groceries.

So it was just this struggle all the time.

My mom loved music.

Both my parents loved music, so there was always music playing.

Mostly country music.

I mean, I listened to a lot of Dolly, you know, the Coat of Many Colors.

So Dolly Parton was a big influence on me.

-My child, how you've growed. -I'm growin', ain't I?

She had lived a life that was very interesting,

you know, grew up in a little shack.

With a bunch of kids, not a lot of money.

I was fascinated by her story, and I related and thought, "Well…"

"If she came from all the way there and ended up all the way over there…

I guess it's possible."

"Maybe I can…"

"Maybe I have a shot."

I was kind of a radio channel hog.

I was the one that was always changing the channel,

finding music that I thought we should listen to in the car.

I would always go for the harmonies just constantly,

you know, singing along.

I think that's probably where my mother would have recognized

that I had a different…

ear for music than just the average kid.

She thought I should develop it and become a little singer.

At the age of three, my mom would put me up on the counter tops,

and I would sing for the people in the restaurant.

Sing along with the jukebox.

Pretty much anywhere that my mother could find an audience,

that's where she brought me to sing.

I started playing guitar at the age of eight years old.

My dad taught me my first three chords.

D, G, and A.

I remember clearly.

It was my mother's dream for me to become a professional singer.

She'd say, "Okay, I'm going to come get you up, uh…

once your dad's asleep,

and then we're going to sneak out and…

go to the bar, and you're going to sing a set."

And, you know, sometimes we would get back, and he'd still be sleeping,

and other times he'd be waiting for us. Um…

That would not end well.

I was petrified to get up there and sing.

It was okay to go in there as a kid

once the bar was legally no longer serving alcohol,

even though everybody's tables were loaded with their last call drinks.

It was crazy. I had school in the morning.

My mother was obsessed.

There weren't any other kids singing in bars.

I mean, just period.

And it was not the norm. No.

I remember that I always tried to keep a hundred songs in my repertoire.

At a time.

So that if the band didn't know one song,

they'd know the other song or something like that.

And also I could take requests.

Growing up in a violent household

was…

horrible.

But I…

locked myself away with music

to block out everything else,

so that all I could see, hear, think, and imagine was music.

Probably hearing my mother

saying, "You can make it. You're going to make it."

I felt like that was going to save us somehow if I made it,

and it was more of a responsibility to be…

a performer, to do it as a career.

I was doing a concert in Northern Ontario,

and Shania was the opening act.

And this little girl, probably 11,

guitar was larger than she was, actually,

and sat down and sang, and I was in the wings and went,

"Oh my, I… I can't believe this."

I mean, this sound, this voice, the control, way back then.

She brought tears to my eyes. That's how much emotion was in the voice.

Her mother was there, Sharon.

And Sharon asked if I would consider working with her.

I, I thought then, right from the get-go, that this little girl had a chance.

I just knew that I loved music.

I was always singing. I was always being musically creative.

By the time I was a teenager, yeah, I was on…

I was doing the odd little TV thing.

It's a pleasure to welcome her back, 15 years of age,

here's Miss Eilleen Twain! Let's make her welcome.

By the time I was 16, I was already…

really wanting to sing rock.

Which my parents did not like

because they thought I was going to sing "their country" for the rest of my life.

They wanted me to be the next Tanya Tucker.

I wanted to rock out, you know.

Wanted to use my energy and get out from behind my guitar.

It was a really tough transition because I was always such a shy singer.

I think, once I started singing rock,

I started developing my own style.

I was stretching out creatively, artistically,

and it was also affecting my songwriting.

Mare was a big support. She was encouraging me to keep writing songs,

make more demos…

It was at that time, I thought, you know, she really has it.

She really has something unique.

The idea was to make these demos for…

you know, to get producers and record labels interested.

And…

then my parents died.

And nobody could really help me through that…

grief.

It was a devastating time.

Her world was pulled out from under her.

She said, "Mary, I don't know what I'm going to do."

"I really don't know."

At the time, I just really wanted to quit…

And…

get a real job.

I've got kids now. I've got kids to support.

How am I going to do it?

And Mary Bailey says, there's a singing job opening up at a resort