NEWS'It's Just Soul-Sucking': LeAnn Rimes Relates to Britney Spears' Parents Controlling Her Career
LeAnn Rimes knows Britney Spears' story all too well.
In a new emotional interview, the "How Do I Live" singer reflected on the unfortunate similarities between her and Spears' careers and the profit-hungry people who weren't afraid to hurt the prodigy in the process.
LeAnn Rimes first rose to fame at the young age of 13 with her hit song 'Blue.'
"I saw the Britney Spears documentary and was thinking, like, all these people that make money out of her and she has nothing to do with it," Rimes, 41, expressed to a news publication of Spears, also 41, noting: "It’s just soul-sucking. That poor girl. That poor woman, really."
Rimes first tasted fame at the young age of 13 in 1996 upon release of her hit song "Blue."
Britney Spears and LeAnn Rimes both became famous singers as young teens.
Like Spears — who starred in The All-New Mickey Mouse Club at age 11 before signing with her first record label at age 15 — it wasn't long before Rimes's father, Wilbur C. Rimes, began to control her career.
Rimes similarly battled her father in court in 1998, when she filed a lawsuit against her dad and Lyle Walker, who were both co-managing her at the time, claiming the duo had stolen $7 million of her earnings.
Her dad countersued before the case was settled, with the father-daughter duo eventually reconciled more than two decades later — ahead of the "Can't Fight the Moonlight" singer's 2011 wedding to her husband, Eddie Cibrian.
"Looking back, I think my dad did the best that he could. Parents managing a child is always a recipe for disaster. For me it became a business and I ended up not having parents," Rimes admitted, seemingly having sympathy for her father — who divorced the actress' mom, Belinda Butler, in 1997, one year before the bitter lawsuit battle.
Like Britney Spears, LeAnn Rimes fought against her father's control of her career.
Rimes' legal feud with her father wasn't the only situation landing her in court at a young age, as she sued Curb Records in 2003, requesting to be released from her contract and the 21-album deal she had signed at age 12.
"I was very gutsy, but I was in a contract that was really quite unfair and insane. I just wanted fairness," she explained.
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"I was America’s sweetheart. People didn’t want to see me grow up and explore my sexuality," Rimes recalled of the difficulties surrounding growing up and finding yourself while being in the public eye.
Rimes remembered always feeling fatigued, as she working immensely hard on her career while simultaneously being homeschooled.
LeAnn Rimes said it can be 'soul-sucking' when a parent takes control of their child's career.
"Good thing I was a teenager and had so much energy. Now I’d be curled up on the bed, not moving for days," she quipped. "Sometimes when I have busy days I get so triggered. It takes me right back to not being able to say no, not having control."
"I don’t feel like I stepped into my womanhood till the last five years. Learning to say no was probably the best thing in the world. I started to realize how disappointed I felt in myself when I did things that I just didn’t want to do," Rimes concluded.
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The Times interviewed Rimes about Spears.
