Mariah Carey says her life was “controlled” in the early years of her fame.
Mariah Carey
The 50-year-old singer has claimed she didn’t have much freedom during the first few years of her career as a chart-topping sensation, and has said she was often prevented from answering questions in interviews by people from her record label, whom she alleges “scrutinised” her entire life.
Mariah began to get her freedom back following her split from her first husband and music executive Tommy Mottola, and with her 1997 album ‘Butterfly’, she finally started to “enjoy” talking to the press.
Speaking in a preview of her upcoming interview with Trevor Nelson on his BBC Radio 2 show, ‘Rhythm Nation’, she said: “It wasn’t fun, you wouldn’t have been allowed to ask me whatever you wanted to ask. There would have been a ton of publicists and people from the label saying, ‘You can’t say that, you can’t say that.’
“My philosophy is, if you ask me something that I don’t want answer and I’ll just be like, ‘I don’t really like that question.’ But back then prior to me meeting you everything was scrutinised, everything was controlled.
"It was such a drama and it was what it was. But I always enjoyed interviews and I think it was because they didn’t start until ‘Butterfly’. Those other interviews were bleak darling - they were bleak!”
Although the ‘We Belong Together’ hitmaker says she loves giving interviews, she recently said she plans to stop them now that she’s published her memoir.
Mariah said she can’t see “the point” in speaking with media outlets to promote her work any more as she’s given the full story of her life in her autobiography, ‘The Meaning of Mariah Carey’, so people can simply refer to the book if they have any questions about her.
She recently said: “No offence to doing interviews, but what would be the point? I can’t articulate it better than I already have [in the book]. From now on, I’m like, ‘Please refer to page 29,’ you know what I mean?’ ”
Mariah’s full interview with Trevor Nelson will air on October 12, on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Rhythm Nation’.
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