Sharleen tunes out the modern world
As Texas hit the road with a new album, Sharleen Spiteri tells JOE NERSSESSIAN that music provides a vital escape from the planet’s ills and how her bandmate’s brain aneurysm put some things in perspective
SHARLEEN SPITERI is full of energy. Quick-witted and lively, her Glaswegian accent purrs down the phoneline. It’s something of a surprise because it’s mid-morning and the 49-year-old hasn’t yet been to bed. She came off stage the night before at a sold-out Kelvingrove in Glasgow and returned to her parents’ house to speak to Australian journalists over the phone. Several hours on she is still going but jokes she will “probably hit a brick wall in about an hour”.
It was Texas’ third straight gig at the venue and comes off the back of the release of their ninth album, Jump On Board, in May.
The record topped the charts in Scotland and hit number six in the UK but there was a time a few years ago when the band looked as if they may have reached the end.
Following a four-year hiatus starting in 2005 when Sharleen was working on a solo effort, the band were due to regroup and start work on an eighth album but guitarist Ally McErlaine collapsed with a brain aneurysm. He spent six-and-a-half months in hospital and took longer to fully recover.
“It turned everything on its head,” says Sharleen. “You’re in a situation where someone that you love and have grown up with and is part of your life is in a life-threatening place. At that moment and time you can’t think about the band you’re just like ‘our friend has to get better’. Time came to a standstill.”
But as soon as Ally had made a full recovery, the band knew he needed to get a guitar back in his hands so they put their album plans on hold and went straight to touring.
“I’ve never even had the conversation with him about that,” she says. “I think after what had happened to him he had to maybe prove he could still play.”
She jokes after a break of almost eight years how she was surprised people still wanted to see them but this is a band whose longevity has stuck two fingers up to an industry which initially doubted them.
Now, with Jump On Board bringing in a whole new wave of fans, the band were determined not to wallow in misery in the turbulent era of President Donald Trump and Brexit.
“We were trying to make a positive upbeat record to help us escape reality for a couple of minutes a day,” explains Sharleen. “We were just making a record for us and we wanted to make something that will stop the s***tiness of real life. For one minute of the day, I don’t want to hear about the a***holes that are running the world, I don’t want to hear about disasters or horrible things being done to people and for a minute I just want to put my hands in the air and stand in the kitchen and have a wee hum and escape.”
But, as a Glasgow native, Sharleen is not always inclined to turn away. Over a near 30-year-career she has acquired quite the pugnacious reputation.
There was the run-in with Liz Hurley, who once invited her to a party and then asked who she was (Ali Baba, she is said to have replied). While Paris Hilton was also on the receiving end of a tirade after standing on Spiteri’s jacket and ignoring pleas to move.
All this happened quite a few years ago now, but Sharleen doesn’t expect she would act any differently.
“I’m from Glasgow and when someone acts like an a***hole I don’t see it as anything else other than someone acting like an a***hole,” she says. “I look at it as you should f ****** g know better.”
It hasn’t isolated her from celebrity friends. Former Arsenal striker, Thierry Henry, is a longterm pal and starred in the band’s video for Let’s Work It Out.
Sharleen has been on the road since she was 18 but – other than aching knees – says she struggles to remember she’s turning 50 in November.
“My knees are probably about 70 to be honest but it’s weird, “she says. “In my mind I’m still starting, I’m just beginning in Texas at the moment, it still feels fresh.”
Pausing, she continues: “There are different things you appreciate and you’re able to slow things down when you get older so you can really look at something from the outside and enjoy it.”
After more than 30 years together, Sharleen says Texas are still all about the music.
“It is literally writing great songs and putting on great shows. There’s a work ethic within us that makes that our priority,” she explains. “We don’t always get it right but it’s not through lack of trying.”
Jump On Board is out now. Tour tickets are on sale now. See texas.uk.com for details.