Anastacia: for years, Europeans have been dancing to her thumping music. When will America catch on?

Interview, Sept, 2002 by Sara Switzer

Despite the tough girl presence, she is more spiritualist than pretentious diva, more homebody than party girl, more inspired by her family than anyone else--Anastacia knows exactly who she is and what she wants. Her refusal to bend to the music industry's wishes may have been part of the reason success eluded her at the beginning of her career, but she stayed true to her muses, and now those frustrating days are long gone. Like Jennifer Lopez and Paula Abdul, she got her start as a dancer, but record producers quickly came calling once they heard her huge, throaty voice--comparisons have been made to Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin, among others. All this came as a bit of a shock to

the Chicago-born teenager who, while growing up in a musical family, simply thought anybody who picked up a microphone could sing. Now, with millions sold in Europe and a recent induction into VH1's Diva club, Anastacia is hoping to finally break into the American market. She's on the road this fall, belting out songs from her se cond album, Freak of Nature (Epic).

SARA SWITZER: Let's start at the beginning: Tell me about your childhood.

ANASTACIA: I didn't want to be a singer as a child. I didn't have the dreams, didn't have posters on my wall. I wasn't influenced by music in this dramatic way. My mom wanted me to be a musical actress, like she was, but I didn't fancy that at all. I didn't like the idea of molding yourself into something you're not.

SS: How did you get your start?

A: My life in the "business" started accidentally when I went with my mom to a club, 1018. She knew the owner and I was way underage, probably 16 or 17. Some person handed me a flyer for a Club MTV dancer audition--with Downtown Julie Brown, back in the day--and I was like, I'm gonna be a star." Getting that audition, I thought, I have so made it. And then, of course, you do eight shows a day and they give you bread and water, so it wasn't so glamorous. I ended up meeting a lot of producers and they started asking me if I sang, because I knew how to dance. It was the "Maybe you can be in a girl group" kind of thing. But I was constantly disappointed. Every single time I would try to make it, I was never really right enough.

SS: How did they want you to change?

A: They were always trying to mold me into something. They didn't want me to wear eye-glasses at all. These are prescription, even the ones I have on right now, but they thought glasses were what a secretary would wear. And they really had a hard time with my voice.

SS: Why?

A: My voice didn't match the way I looked. I looked like a Marcia Brady, but then I would start singing and I sounded more like a girl who'd studied Motown lyrics. I didn't see that at the time because I didn't understand what they were hearing. And I didn't know what they meant when they said twang and brow and grit, or "You sing really big, you sing like a soul sister." And I didn't really fit in vocally with the industry at that time. I was Janis Joplin meets Bette Midler meets Janet Jackson.

SS: What gave you the break?

A: Another MTV show in '99, The Cut, and unfortunately the host of that show, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, is no longer with us. That has really been hitting me hard. She introduced me to Tommy Mottola [chairman and CEO of Sony Music], which got me my deal. [Anastacia begins to cry] So sorry. It's kind of difficult. My heart is still aching.

SS: You seem like a very spiritual person--

A: Yes. Very.

SS: Do you follow any specific practice?

A: No. I have a Zen philosophy, but I don't follow any religion, I just follow my spiritual guide from inside. Whether you want to call it an internal speaker, which could be God, or yourself or your inner child, I think that it is really important to be in touch with that. It really does keep me surviving in the business that I'm in. I don't think that I could handle it if I wasn't feet-on-the-ground, down-to-earth. You know, talking to the waitresses as though they are human beings as opposed to servers. That's the only way I know how to be.

SS: I know you've faced difficulties in your own life. You have Crohn's disease [an intestinal illness]--

A: --which maintains my spirituality. I didn't even realize that, to be honest. I was just sort of surviving and trying to be healthy and I was going down an avenue of spiritual health. So, it's a blessing.

SS: You have a wonderful attitude about the disease. How old were you when you were diagnosed?

A: I was 13. I really didn't have as positive a spin on it back then. For me, the biggest tragedy of having Crohn's at 13 was the fact that I was going to have a scar on my stomach for my whole life and, at 13, I thought, No one is ever going to want to kiss me. I'm a freakin' ugly duckling. It completely set me back with boys until I was 18 or 19. I wasn't even trying to deal with boys because I was so insecure about having a scar; now I display it like it's the five o'clock news. That's the journey you go on, realizing that your flaws are genuine and beautiful.