‘The Drew Barrymore Show’: Shania Twain Confesses That She “Developed A Little Broken” After Being Brought To Nightclubs As An 8-Year-Old

Let’s go, girls! After five long months and one major controversy, The Drew Barrymore Show kicked off its Season 4 premiere with an emotional heart-to-heart with Shania Twain right from the songstress’ living room couch.

At one point in the interview, Drew Barrymore bonded with Twain over their turbulent childhoods, specifically how their mothers brought them to nightclubs as children. According to Barrymore, she felt “pressure and anxiety” to continue working as a kid out of fear her family wouldn’t be able to support themselves, prompting her to ask Twain if she had a similar experience.

“Regrowth means that you’re moving from one level of education or maturity to another,” Twain said. “I developed a little broken, I think. I mean, if you have drunk people falling all over you and I’m eight — just being put in situations that are very unnatural.”

(Editor’s Note: The Drew Barrymore Show is currently on hiatus. This article was originally published on Oct. 16, 2023 when this episode first aired. Drew will return with new episodes in January 2024.)

Still, Twain — who claimed that “children are prisoners of the adult environment” — loved that she was able to perform as a kid, even if it was in a bar.

“I loved what I was doing. I loved the music, so I was torn,” she told Barrymore. “I had this passion for music and I thought, ‘Well, I guess if you have a passion for music then this is the way you do it.’ I think certain personalities are not capable of coping with it. So I feel lucky that I was so resilient. But I paid a price for it.”

As for Barrymore, she opened up about having a difficult time parenting herself when she fled the coop as a young teenager.

“I got emancipated at 14 and got my first apartment and got away from it,” she explained. “I was in an institution for two years. I was like, ‘I’ve got to get away from this and I’ve got to go find my path somewhere else.’ I had to take care of myself so young.”

She added, “My biggest thing that I would like to put to bed finally is to stop being angry and disappointed and so critical of the way I parented myself. But I had no other choice because I had to.”

On the contrary, Twain — who had to “parent” her younger siblings from a “very young age” — admitted that she doesn’t blame herself. According to her, it makes sense that she was a “terrible parent” at 10 years old — and it’s experiences like that that allow her to take risks in her life now.

“You don’t always know what’s on the other side of the cliff. You don’t always know how deep the water is when you jump in,” she said. “Whatever happens to you, you will get to the other side and when you open your eyes, you’re like, ‘Wow, I achieved something. I actually went through a fear threshold. I passed the fear threshold.’ It doesn’t even matter what it is that you get on the other side. It’s more about the fact that you succeeded at taking the leap.”

The Drew Barrymore Show airs on weekdays on CBS. You can check the website for local airtimes.