Debbie Harry experienced an "identity crisis" after being adopted.
The Blondie singer, 68, who was given up by her mother when she was only a few months old, sometimes struggled to deal with her past as a child after being told of her adoption when she was four.
She told MOJO magazine: "Unfortunately for me, or unfortunately for my parents, I was determined to be an artist.
"And of course they weren't artists and the whole idea of it was barbaric. My mother came from a family that thought artists were the slime of the earth. I think it was frightening for them, because they of course were trying to protect me."
The 'Heart of Glass' hitmaker fantasised about Marilyn Monroe being her real mother when she was younger but insists it was a "philosophical thing".
She explained: "I probably used the wrong language in the past. I saw her as the mother of invention or something like that. She had a profound effect on a lot of people."
Debbie admits she was attracted to "dark side of life" as a teenager and travelled to Greenwich Village from New Jersey in search of new experiences.
She said: "I think it was more the forbidden and less known sort of things that weren't a part of my upbringing or normal life. I just wanted to live. I was an artist.
"I was trying to find a specific avenue I was perhaps most suited for. I'm interested in acting, I'm interested in art, I'm interested in music, so I was really ingesting, digesting."
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