While LeAnn Rimes has been a smash hit professional singer since the age of eleven, more recently she has been in the headlines for her turbulent personal life. While married to actor Dan Sheremet she had an affair with CSI actor Eddie Cibrian who was then married to Brandi Glanville. Both couples divorced and LeAnn became Mrs Cibrian in 2009. There has been an ongoing row between LeAnn and Brandi ever since. LeAnn recorded her first album when she was eight years old. She shot to fame when she signed her first record deal aged 12. She has gone on to have a string of hits including How Do I Live and Can't Fight The Moonlight. She chatted exclusively to HELLO! Online about 'spitting fire' on her new album and writing music to help her deal with her personal troubles ahead of her performance at London's C2C festival on 17 March.
Have things in your personal life calmed down? "They've been calm as far as our marriage and our home. I can't speak for the rest of it. We're happy and I'm happy with Eddie. We have a really blissful home life. We've just bought a new house in LA and we're moving. Having a sanctuary for ourselves is super important." What's the new album Spitfire about? "I think the title says it all. I really feel like I'm spitting fire on this album. For the last few years I feel like I've had piece of tape over my mouth so it all came out through my music. There's nothing hidden on this album. It's the truth and it's in no particular order. "It's about the emotional rollercoaster of life and I know I'm not the only one who has experienced this. It's so brutally honest and that's always hard for me to sing about. I think it has really opened up a door for me in the way that I approach music and writing from here on in. I'm pretty much an open book when it comes to writing music these days." Does writing about the troubles in your personal life help you deal with what has gone on? "Yes. It does but it doesn't make it any easier. It's amazing to have that outlet. For me it's very cathartic. But at the same time, it can be hard to be that brutally honest with yourself." You recently said you wouldn't want your children to be in the industry. Is that because you started out so young yourself? "Obviously if they had a true talent I would help nurture that but it's not something that I would urge them to go into immediately as a child. I think it is important for kids to be kids. I only had that for a very short period of time. I recorded my first album when I was eight and signed my first record deal when I was 11. I think with children the focus should be on nurturing the talent and not kicking it off so quickly." As regards the pressure of being in the public eye, is that something that affects you more or less as you've got older? "It probably affects me more as I've gotten older. The tabloids are much bigger than they were when I was a kid. The hard part for me is constantly being lied about and that their perception can be so different compared to the reality of what I live. I constantly want to fight back about it but sometimes I don't. "There are certain things I respond to and other things I don't. But I've also learned to let it roll off my back but I'm very protective about things like my husband, my marriage and my stepson. To have people throw your life around so haphazardly to make money out of it is sad and pathetic. It's a reality we have to deal with as best we can and protect our private lives."
You're approaching 20 years in the industry. What advice would you give to someone starting out? "Please yourself. You can't please everybody. Especially these days when there is a whole world watching and you have to remember that as much as they build you up they can throw you down again and it's about how you come back up when you're down. And some people can't. "If you do and you're a fighter who is talented and able to reinvent yourself, I think that's when you really learn who you are in this business. Keep your sense of self, don't get caught up in what people want you to be." Would you like to have your own children? "Yes definitely. It's something we've talked about and we still do, daily. Eddie's boys are five and nine and we have them 50 per cent of the time so we have our hands full. We run a million different places with them like yesterday I'd had a show in Vancouver the night before and I'd flown home and went straight from the airport to a baseball game from a junket so it's definitely a reality check. It's like two separate worlds for me of my job and then coming home. It's very grounding." You're looking very well. What's your secret? "I'm very ADD when it comes to working out. I have to keep it interesting for myself or it just gets quite monotonous. I love to box. I lift weights. I've been doing a lot of Pilates and yoga and I hike. I really mix it up to keep my body guessing and interested and focused. I've also changed my mind set so that I work out for myself and I feel good when I do it and I'm happier. I cook a lot at home and I eat a balanced diet. I don't deprive myself of anything but I don't eat a lot of junk food."
Are you looking forward to being in London for the C2C festival? "I am. I love London. I've been lots of times but it'll be good to be back. I love the shopping. I love going to Harrods, that's one of my favourite places, I always end up there. And Topshop, I know it's crazy but we Americans honestly think it's the best thing ever. I'll be loading up on things because it's so inexpensive and the stuff is awesome so I'm really looking forward to going there." How does your British audience compare to the one back at home? "They are very eclectic. I remember touring there and seeing a kid with their mum stood next to a guy with tonnes of piercings, someone you think would never end up at my show. So they're definitely a diverse group of people but that's kind of the style of my music too. I have a lot of great fans and they always seem to be very into not only the just the singles but the whole album so people really dig into the whole body of work not just what's been released." What sound can we expect from your new album Spitfire? "It's definitely country. I really love old style country music and that isn't around anymore. So I took the acoustic elements of that and the sparseness of it. I made it about the lyric and my vocals but also focused on making it modern. So I took modern songs and put a bit of an old-school twist on them but kept them as the music of today."
To buy tickets for the C2C festival visit theo2.co.uk/C2C