Come on Sharleen

By Jon Wilde
Last updated at 6:52 PM on 19th September 2008

Fighting Paris Hilton (and anyone who crosses her), flirting with Bob Dylan, partying with Texas...there's never a dull moment with Sharleen Spiteri

As the lead singer of Texas, Sharleen Spiteri has endured as pop’s most stylish and outspoken frontwoman. Now, after 22 years, she has embarked on a solo career. Her debut album, Melody, is being hailed as the finest pop release of 2008. Intensely soulful, it documents the break-up of her relationship with publisher Ashley Heath, her partner of ten years and father of her six-year-old daughter.

Scroll down to see Sharleen's new video below...

Born in Bellshill, near Glasgow, in 1967, Spiteri grew up in Balloch on the shores of Loch Lomond and joined Texas in 1986. They scored a top ten hit with their debut single, I Don’t Want A Lover and their first album, Southside, sold two million copies. Follow-ups failed to repeat that level of success but the band’s 1997 comeback album, White On Blonde, sold three million copies. In 2000, their greatest-hits album sold more than five million. The band’s most recent album was 2005’s Red Book.

Now 40, Sharleen Spiteri divides her time between Glasgow and London’s Primrose Hill. She is dating television chef Bryn Williams.

If you get on the wrong side of me, I’ll smash your face in.

I’ve got a very long memory when it comes to insults. Years ago a journalist wrote that my voice was more numbing than novocaine. I know who it is and if I met him tomorrow, I’d be straight in there to have it out with him. Damn right I would.

I’ve just turned down a fortune to pose naked for Playboy.

I can’t say exactly how much was on offer but it was a fantastically huge amount. No amount of cash is going to be enough to persuade me to get my kit off. When I had the body for it, I was constantly asked to pose naked. I refused then, so why should I agree to do it now? OK, Farrah Fawcett did it at 50 – she looked like she had the body of a 20-year-old but her face looked like Godzilla’s.

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Thierry Henry announced the birth of my daughter to the world.

He was living near me at the time and Texas were huge in France so we got to know each other. Straight after giving birth to Misty Kyd, I was watching Arsenal play on the hospital television. Thierry scored and, by way of celebration, he lifted up his jersey to reveal a T-shirt that read, ‘For the new-born Kyd’. I had no idea he was going to do that and leapt about 50ft up into the air. Maybe it’s not the way I would have chosen to announce I’d become a mother. But it was very cool.

I’ll admit to being star-struck when I met Michael Douglas.

Usually I’m completely at ease in the presence of famous people. I get invited round to Madonna’s house for dinner and I don’t sit there thinking, ‘Wow! I’m having a meal with Madonna.’ I’m friends with Stella McCartney so I’ve spent a lot of time in Paul’s company. But I’m not thinking, ‘Wow! I’m talking to a Beatle.’ But I have had to pinch myself when I’ve met certain people. Once, Texas were opening for John Mellencamp, a good friend of Bob Dylan. One night Mellencamp said, ‘Bob’s downstairs. Do you fancy meeting him?’ It was unreal. I was sitting up on an amp and Dylan kept looking at me with the cheekiest smile, like that of a 15-year-old who has learned to play the guitar and knows he’s pretty hot. That was an ‘I can’t believe this is happening’ moment.

The quickest way for anyone to lose money would be to take me on at poker.

My dad was a captain in the Merchant Navy and, when he was home, he would teach me cards. I was a quick learner. I can also liven up any party with my repertoire of card tricks. But I’m not impressed by show-off magicians. Recently I was at some event and noticed David Blaine standing there. So I went up to him and said, ‘Show me how you levitate.’ He sheepishly replied, ‘Normally I would. But I’m not feeling the energy tonight.’

I nearly tore Paris Hilton apart.

I was partying with friends at a London nightclub. She arrived with a massive entourage and proceeded to stand on one of the chairs that had my mates’ clothes and bags on it. She refused to move so I put a straw in my drink, sucked up the liquid and blew it all over her. That’s when the gates of hell opened up. We got into a real catfight and had to be separated by bouncers. My parting words to her were, ‘If you don’t clear off, I’ll kick your teeth in.’ She’s supposed to be a celebrity but she’s just a joke to me.

Schoolyard bullying ruined my life until I decided to fight back.

I was a big target for bullies at school. I was a proper tomboy and didn’t have much in common with the other girls. So they’d pick on me. It got so bad that I was afraid to get off the school bus in the morning. It all came to a head when one of the main bullies and a bunch of her mates confronted me in the school corridor and accused me of stealing one of their boyfriends. One of them grabbed me and I fought back. Once I started I was unstoppable. I turned into a terrifying wildcat. It took two teachers to break up the fight. After that I was never bothered again.

I expect a man to be a man.

The biggest turn-off for me is hearing a man talking about how he’s in touch with his feminine side. Don’t give me any of this new man rubbish. I hate it when I’m talking about something personal with a man and he says, ‘Yeah, I understand.’ Get out of here. How can he understand? Men and women experience a lot of the same things. But we deal with them in different ways. So I don’t want a man pretending that he knows what I’m feeling when all he’s doing is listening. But I’d never tell a boyfriend in advance not to try that on with me. I let them figure it out by themselves.

Texas were huge party animals.

We had some wild, amazing times. One time in Switzerland we got hopelessly drunk and, at five in the morning, our drummer decided that the enormous plant in the hotel foyer belonged in his room. So he dragged it towards the elevator. He was so drunk that he was convinced the plant was Robert Plant and was trying to talk to it about Led Zeppelin. Then he managed to knock it over and destroy the lift. Boys will be boys, and boys will be idiots.

I looked more like a boy than a girl at school.

Boys never fancied me and I can understand why, I was geeky and ridiculously skinny. It only really bothered me when I had a crush on someone and I’d be hoping they’d feel the same. They’d talk to me and my hopes would go up. But they were only talking to me because they fancied one of my friends. It happened all the time. Even now, I don’t think of myself as remotely sexy, unless I’m wearing Agent Provocateur lingerie. At parties, the only guy who’ll approach me is the drunken idiot who won’t take no for an answer. I tell them to sling their hook and they say, ‘I do like a feisty woman.’ And I say, ‘I’m not being feisty. I’m moments away from killing you.’

Robert Plant fancies me.

I was being photographed by Jimmy Page’s daughter, Scarlet, and she told me. I was so amazed I couldn’t speak for the rest of the day. The idea of anyone finding me attractive is absurd, especially if it is Robert Plant.

My dad was a monkey-owning pirate.

When he was at sea he owned a monkey called Mickey. He lived in my dad’s cabin but had a tendency to bite people, so he had to go. I’m not sure where Mickey is now. I’d like to think he joined a circus.

Audrey Hepburn made me decide I was going to be a pop singer.

At the age of ten, I watched her sit on a fire escape and sing Moon River in Breakfast At Tiffany’s. That was it for me. I grabbed my dad’s guitar, tried to recreate the moment and told him I was going to be a singer. He said, ‘I hope this isn’t another of your fads.’

Sharleen Spiteri’s new single ‘Stop I Don’t Love You Anymore’ is released on September 29. The album ‘Melody'
is out now.