We Almost Got a Collaborative Prince and Shania Twain Album
Music

We Almost Got a Collaborative Prince and Shania Twain Album

It's hard to replicate the complicated emotions displayed on Fleetwood Mac's iconic 1977 album Rumours. The original album, painted with the emotions that come with drug use, infidelity and drugs, remains one of the most career (and genre)-defining records in history. However, Prince and Shania Twain could've gotten close.

In a surprise anecdote shared with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Twain recalled getting a surprise call from the legend looking to make the collaboration of a lifetime:

”I missed out on that because Prince called me when I got divorced. We’re on the phone and he said, ‘Shania, why don’t you come to Paisley Park? I want to make the next Rumours album with you.’ And that was the weirdest thing he could have ever have said, because his standard of what he thought, where I could live as a standard was that album, Rumours album. And he said that to me. So when Prince said that to me, I’m like, oh man, I’m not even divorced yet. I’m just like, I’ve been dumped, but I’m not, obviously, divorced yet. I’m like, this is way too ironic what you’re saying. Right? And I’m such a major Prince fan. And then on top of it, I hadn’t found my voice yet, I was still working on it. I was so far from finding it still. I was writing, but I was too insecure to go and get with Prince in the studio. I was too insecure, in every way.”

Twain is referring to her divorce from Robert John "Mutt" Lange. After nearly 15 years of marriage, Lange had an affair with Twain's best friend. Very Rumours-y if you ask me, and Prince seemed to think the same. As for not finding her voice yet, the pop country singer was referring to being diagnosed with Lyme disease and dysphonia, both of which impacted her singing.

As if all that wasn't enough, Twain shared another interesting reason why she didn't want to work with Prince, and it had to do with her potty mouth.

"Plus, I’m on the phone with him and I’m swearing like I always do," she recalled. He said to me, ‘Well, if you do decide to come to Paisley Park, there’s no swearing allowed here.’ So that was another strike. I’m like, oh no, I love you so much, but I don’t think I could get through writing and recording an album without swearing, somewhere along the way! What are you going to do to me if I swear? I might have to stand in the corner or something. I wasn’t sure about that. I don’t think I was ready for what all that was going to mean for me. I didn’t give up on it or anything, but then he died."

While we respect Twain for asserting her boundaries, we can't help but wonder what could've been.

Photos courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images and Jason Sean Weiss/BFA