Shania Twain says Little Miss Twain looks back on the girl before the fame

Shania Twain is heading back to the smoky bars where her career began, this time from the safer distance of a new album and a life she says she can finally celebrate.

The country superstar told CBS News that Little Miss Twain, due July 24, looks back at the years before Nashville, before the name Shania, and before the stadium crowds. The record, she said, follows the child who started singing in bars at age eight through to the recording contract she landed in her late 20s.

Twain, described by CBS News as the top-selling female country artist of all time, spoke between performances at London’s Wembley Stadium, where she appeared after an invitation from Harry Styles to join him as a special guest during his June run.

From Eileen to Shania

Before she became Shania Twain, she was Eileen Twain. She told CBS News someone at her record label suggested the name change, and said the new album captures that passage from one identity to the other.

The record is also tied to her mother’s early belief in her voice. Twain said she grew up poor in rural Ontario, Canada, and her mother would take her to bars to sing. Because she was a minor, Twain said, she could perform only after last call.

She said those early gigs left a mark. Twain told CBS News that large crowds were not the main cause of her stage fright. The fear, she said, came from being eight years old in smoky bars where people were intoxicated, singing songs about adult heartbreak she did not understand.

Twain said the anxiety did not fall away until her 50s, when she recognized she had her voice, an audience and a reason to celebrate.

A hard childhood, revisited with distance

Twain also spoke about her home life, telling CBS News she felt over-responsible for the household as a child. She said her mother was often depressed, there was violence in the home, and the family sometimes lacked enough food and proper clothing.

Her parents did not live to see the height of her success. According to CBS News, they died in a car crash when Twain was 22, after which she became guardian to her younger siblings.

Twain said she now looks back from “a very good place” and feels accomplished by staying connected to where she came from.

The voice that came back changed

Her later battles included a divorce from producer Mutt Lange, who worked with her on many hits, and the loss of her voice because of Lyme disease, CBS News reported. She went 15 years without releasing music.

Twain later underwent experimental open throat surgery to restore her voice. She told CBS News the process was “a very long road” and said she feels grateful and lucky to have her voice back.

The sound is different now, she said, with more rasp and gravel. Twain told CBS News she has accepted that change and has found new ways to sing her older songs.

Twain has remarried, to Frédéric Thiébaud, and lives in Switzerland, according to CBS News. Now in her 60s, she said time has helped her start to get things right, adding with a laugh that she plans to live to 200 so she can fit in everything she still wants to do.

This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.