The Lil' Ol' Gal From Texas

It takes me a couple of seconds to recognise Sharleen Spiteri when I walk into the library of Dublin s Merrion Hotel (an establishment so swanky it doesn t even have a sign over the door). It s not that her image change is so radical, just that she looks so downbeat.

The last time I met the Texas singer was on the day of an Olympia show in 1997 and she was very bright, sparky and alive doubtless because she was going on stage in a few hours and the adrenaline was already starting to flow. This afternoon, however, midway through a gruelling series of interviews to promote the band s just-released Greatest Hits album, she looks tired, washed out and a little bored.
Wearing jeans, t-shirt and a massive pair of boots, the 32-year-old singer looks more like a mature college student than anything else still beautiful but a far cry from the pouting sex goddess on the album s sleeve (at least, until you look closely and those hard, challenging eyes of hers catch your gaze).
But then, I guess she can be forgiven for her obvious lack of enthusiasm. Sharleen s been a very busy girl recently and, as she explains, doing four or five interviews in a row can become more than a little tedious. And she was already pretty wrecked from the previous 48 hours. Two nights before our encounter, she opened for Madonna in the Brixton Academy an on-line gig that attracted a record number of Internet viewers, in addition to the 3,500 present. When she hasn t been busy in cyberspace she s been talking to the media about the new album.
Unfortunately, there s not much new about it, given that a couple of new songs and a Method Man remix of Say What You Want aside the album simply charts Texas s chart smashes to date, all of which we know and have varying opinions on. They re all there, from debut late-eighties smash I Don t Want A Lover to Say What You Want , Halo , Put Your Arms Around Me and the list goes on. Say what you want about Texas but the band know how to make memorable pop. It s just that there s not a whole lot more to say about it.
Not that Spiteri makes any apologies for this. She s very much a no-nonsense girl and Texas make no-nonsense honest to goodness pop classics love em or loathe em, they ve sold more than fifteen million records in as many years. And you can t argue with that. Not that you d want to. Sharleen s boots look like they could do serious damage to a man s kneecap. Greatest hits, even . . .

OLAF TYARANSEN: I know you hate flying. How was your flight this morning?
SHARLEEN SPITERI: Really shitty (smiles glumly). That s why I look so tired. Well, I look so tired because I was out last night and the night before I was at the Madonna thing in Brixton as well which turned out to be a bit of a number.
Did you play on your own?
I didn t do it with all of Texas. I did it with my DJ and another friend of mine, Mark. We did the two DJs and I did my acoustic guitar. I did one song and Eddie did one song on keyboards. So that s how we did it with loads of beats and stuff.
How was Madonna?
She s really cool. She s a really nice person.
Have you only met her recently?
No. I met her when she first came to London. She invited me over for dinner at her house. I was over and I thought she was a really good person. She s dead relaxed, really normal.
Do you get many of those sort of invites just because you re famous?
No not many. I wasn t shocked, but it was really nice. We ve got a mutual friend in Stella McCartney, so that kind of led to us getting together. But I really liked her.
You ve changed your image again since the last time I met you. Your hair was much shorter.
I just haven t cut my hair that s all (pulls thoughtfully at her ponytail). It s dead long. I ve got it tied back. I can t have the short hair again because so many people had that hair cut.
Do you decide your image or is it consultation?
I decide on it totally. Who else would?
Well, you do go out with style magazine publisher Ashley Heath, so I m presuming you know a few people in the industry.
Yeah, well I ve been with Ashley for seven years and I suppose we do have a lot of friends who are photographers or art directors or whatever. So we re very aware of who s coming up. But I still decide my own image.
I see that Juergen Teller took the shots for the album sleeve again.
Yes. Well, Juergen s just my mate. He s one of my best friends. So for me to work with Juergen is really, really easy. We turn up to a photo session and we do the album sleeve and it s always wicked! I turn up and say what t-shirt should I wear? And then I chuck on a t-shirt and Jurgen ll go ah, we ll just do it like this . And then we shoot for about 15 minutes and go for a five-hour lunch and then come back and shoot for another 15 minutes, and hand in the photographs and that s it! We just hang around like mates.
Chris Evans is another good friend of yours, isn t he?
He s a good mate as well, yeah.
I see the show s gone now
No, it s still on. It s just that he s not presenting it. He was contracted to finish the show and Chris is no fool. He s knows exactly what he s doing and he felt that him doing it had passed its sell-by date. And by contract he had to finish the shows. So it was a good idea to get other people to present it, which is good. He s very mellow at the moment actually. I saw him the other night. He s got a good smile on his face and he s very happy just now.
Well, he s a very rich man now.
I don t think he s happy because he s rich. Definitely not, no way.
How big a motivation is money for Texas?
Money? Christ, no (looks aghast). If you only do it for money, you ll never get there. You can t. It s lovely to have it, believe me. It s a great thing to wake up in the morning and not have to worry about paying the mortgage or going into a shop and thinking yeah, I can buy that whatever it is. It s a luxury.
How long have you had that luxury?
Fifteen years ago I was a hairdresser. It was 15 years ago when I met Johnny and we started Texas.
How long before you were financially comfortable? It was pretty hairy for the first three years or so.
Yeah. But I ve always been a bit canny with my money.
Sorry I forgot that you re Scottish!
It s nothing to do with being a canny Scot! (laughs). I ve just always been quite sensible. I bought my first flat when I was 18 years old and lived in it for two years with just a sofa and a bed and a stereo because I couldn t afford to buy anything else. And then I was paying the mortgage by the skin of my teeth. I got through it and then I made a profit when I sold it and bought the next one. So it was quite good.
Irvine Welsh was the same actually he made a lot of money in property. It s definitely a Scottish thing.
Well, I m not really Scottish. I m only first generation Scottish.
You re part Maltese do you go there often?
No. I ve got a lot of cousins there, but my grandmother s French. And my grandfather lived in Bordeaux all my life. So most of my family are in France.
Do you spend much time over there?
Well my grandfather died a couple of years ago so it s difficult to go back. I ve played Bordeaux since then and it s obviously quite difficult because my grandad used to come and bring the town mayor and things like that. It was always such a big deal. The last time I was there when he was alive, I got laryngitis and I had to get B12 injections every couple of days. And the doctor came to the hotel to give them and my grandad was there at that point. So I went to the bathroom and the doctor was giving me the jab and he comes out and I went to pay him for giving my injection and grandad was going, Do you know who she is? You should be paying her to see her arse!!! I said, OK grandad, calm down. Take it easy! (laughs).
Where do you enjoy travelling the most?
I enjoy travelling at my own pace. It s very weird when you re touring, different to what you d expect. People are always saying to me, wow it must be great to be off travelling all the time but to be honest, most of the time I could be anywhere. All I ever really see is the hotel room and the lounge. I m fine with flying to a certain extent. Sometimes I get a little freaked. Especially today when our flight was delayed for an hour-and-a-half. And then everybody in the band starts fighting because nobody wants to go on the plane. Everyone s going I m getting in the car .
How do the band get on generally?
Really good.
In a sense, you are the band to most people. Nobody would recognise the other members of Texas. Does that ever cause problems?
I think anyone that knows anything about Texas (pauses). Like, I am the frontperson of Texas. That s what I do. That s my job. And we re all really relaxed with that. The guys haven t got any hang-ups about it at all.
Is there much stress involved in being that recognisable?
Do you know what, I think I ve been really lucky because it s not that I can t walk down the streets. But then again I ve never got it into my head that I couldn t walk out in the streets. Do you know what I m saying? I always think that if I did go out with a massive entourage and did the whole rock star number walking down the street, then I might find it difficult. But normally you re walking around and doing your own thing. There d be times when you ve got past someone and they ve just clicked who you are and they d be like (pulls star-struck face) so you don t really cause any fuss.
Do you think many people bring it on themselves?
Well, some people want it badly. Some people aren t that talented. The only talent they really have is being recognised. So they bring an entourage and all that shite.
Madonna must be a case in point.
Ah no (shakes head). Madonna s massively talented.
I didn t mean in terms of talent, just in terms of being recognised.
You d be surprised. If Madonna walked through here in two seconds, it s not that you wouldn t recognise her you would recognise her. But she wouldn t make such a fuss that you d necessarily be looking in her direction, you know.
Anyway, a Best Of Texas album
No (shakes head, laughing). It s not a Best Of . It s a Greatest Hits ! Big difference. Big difference!
Still, the sound of a death knell, perhaps?
Not at all this isn t the end. You know, we re still writing songs, whatever. The next album s already written.
You re working with new songwriters now for the first time on this record.
We wrote two tracks and we just wanted to put something new on the album. We did one with Dallas Austin and we did one with Gregg Alexander from the New Radicals. The opportunity came along because of the success of the band and we were in a position to ask other songwriters to work with us. So we just asked them, do you fancy doing it? and so we did it.
Are you experimenting much musically? I know you worked with the Wu-Tang Clan a couple of years ago?
That s kind of what we re about. We like to try different things to see how they ll come out.
Still, you ve never really gone for complete reinvention. Texas haven t done a dance record or
Well, we have! (indignantly). I did a record with Roger Sanchez and Johnny re-wrote it. We ve done the Wu-Tang thing and worked with Sun Ship and people like that. So we ve always worked with very different people. We ve done Giorgio Moroder. We ve done a lot of different stuff.
Do you have any other ambitions outside of music? I know you just turned down an offer to appear in a movie with Nicole Kidman.
I can t get my head around it just now, the movie thing. I just got another script in last week for a French movie. I m like a French movie? I probably have to get my clothes off or something (laughs). And they said, no, it s a comedy . And I m like, it s one thing to speak French, but then to be funny in French at the same time, it s really difficult . And I was wondering why they think I m so funny in the first place!
Is your French good enough for that?
Well, my French isn t bad but they said there s actually going to be English spoken and they ve apparently written a part especially for me.
Is it something you d like to do?
It isn t something I d ever refuse to consider. If the right thing came along I might think it s a really big chance for me to do it. But it normally involves taking a year out of your life to go and film a movie. And I have no control over it. Anyway, I m always really busy with the band.
Are there any other ambitions like having a family?
Lots, yeah. Family, all that kind of stuff.
Wouldn t having a child involve taking a long break from Texas though?
Not necessarily. In a perfect world it would involve not doing promotion, or being on tour. But let s see what happens. I don t think you kind of pencil it into the diary.
How much time do you spend as part of Texas in an average year?
Probably the whole year apart from one day or something. Christmas Day or something. We see each other all the time. Even when we re not working. We all speak every day. If anyone goes away we re always on the phone.
You used to write songs with Johnny down the phone, didn t you?
Yeah. Johnny and I have a massive telephone relationship. We re all very close.
That s a bit strange isn t it, after so many years together?
Well, I don t know. I lay down the ground-rules and keep those boys on their toes (laughs). No-one ever really says it, but I think what happens to bands when they become very, very successful bands always fight is that it becomes easier to walk away. So what happens is bands become really wealthy and then when there s a fight, it can be terminal. Someone says fuck off! and it s like fine, I will fuck off then! and, before you know it, the band s split up. It s really easy to walk when you don t actually have to work.
So what s the motive, the inspiration for all of you collectively?
We wanna make great records. And the boys know I d kill them if they walked! I d boot them in the shins!
When was the last time you hit one of them?
Twenty minutes ago when I booted Johnny in the shins for being so cheeky to me! It was a bit of a joke really. He tried to pull my ponytail, so I booted him. We wound up chasing down the corridor.
Speaking of bands kicking the crap out of each other, what do you make of the Gallagher brothers?
I love Liam. He s alright in my book. I really like him. I always have a lot of respect for him. Liam Gallagher is very much one of those people who either likes or doesn t like you. He always comes over to say hi to me. He s always very respectful to me. So I m totally fine with him. Then again I think Liam knows that if he said anything to me I d probably whack him in the mouth without even blinking an eyelid! I think it s very much that. I say what I think. I speak my mind.
What do you think of Scottish devolution? Do you have strong feelings politically about Scotland?
Yeah, I do. I have really strong opinions on it. Basically at the end of the day I think Scotland has to have very strong representation of what it s about because it is very different to England. I think to live in Scotland is very different in virtually every way. I think our needs are different. So I think it s really important to have a government there that actually sees what s going on and how the people are reacting to things. But I don t think we can ever be completely separate from England. You know, it s one big bloody island.
Were you ever tempted to discuss this with Tony Blair when all that Cool Brittania stuff was going on and rock stars were being invited to Number 10?
I ve no interest in any of that stuff (waves hand away).
I see you ve got Alan Rickman in your video. How did that come about?
The lovely Alan Rickman! He s such a sweetheart. I love him. I spoke to him yesterday after the Madonna thing. We just decided to ask him. I was really happy when I phoned him up about the video, he just said yes . There s wasn t any bullshit. He said I want to do it and he did it. I had a lot of fun doing it. He s so easy to be with. A really lovely man.
Actually, check out TOTP tonight the new video will shock you because I m not me in it! I turned into Elvis Presley!! Gucci did my outfit and everything. It was so good. The video looks amazing. I love Elvis and I was always watching Elvis movies when I was little. So doing it was really natural. It was really hard to get out of being Elvis when they took all the prosthetics off, because I d been Elvis all day. It was wicked!
Do you find friendships difficult in this business? Sussing out who s genuine?
Not at all. I meet some wicked people. A lot of my friends are not in the music business, but they re very successful people. They don t need to have me around them to be successful. And I ve a very finely tuned bullshit detector. So I never enter into conversation or a friendship with that thought in my head. If you re going to think like that, you re going to end up being a paranoid person. Alone.
What did you do on the night of the Millennium?
Played Edinburgh Castle. It was really good. We played at about 9 o clock at night and we were in the castle and it was pretty plush. All our families were there and we got a police escort straight back to Glasgow for the bells. We arrived in Glasgow as they were chiming. We said we d do it on the condition they d get up back to Glasgow for the bells. I m going down to London for Christmas this year.
And how will you be celebrating the real millennium this year?
In my bed! I don t really care for all that shit (laughs).