Charlotte Church recalled the "lovely" moment she met musical icon David Bowie as a teen at the MTV Music Awards and says that if she'd met him now she would have "talked the hind legs off a donkey" to him.
Speaking on Gavin & Stacey star Rob Brydon's podcast Brydon &, the Welsh singer, 37, revealed she wasn't much of a fan herself at the time of the Life On Mars singer but her mother was and had insisted Charlotte, aged 14 at this stage, take a picture with him.
The Crazy Chick singer said that as a "slightly awkward teenager who was going through a lot" she had largely been "on receive" while meeting multiple famous faces to "absorb it all" after she catapulted to fame after her first album, Voice Of An Angel, came out when she was just 12.
Discussing her early career and experiences she told Brydon about the slew of celebrities and world leaders she had met including boxer Muhammad Ali, Beyoncé, and former US president Bill Clinton.
Read more: Amy Dowden shares another huge health update as she takes next step after cancer surgery
Speaking about her meet-cute with Bowie she said: "I met David Bowie at the [2000] MTV Music Awards... when I was 14 in New York. I had just presented an award to Eminem.
"It was me and my mum... [who] was a really big Bowie fan – I am now consequently a massive Bowie fan but I wasn't at the time – and he was there backstage... just chatting to somebody else.
"My mum tapped him on the shoulder and said: 'Oh, can you have a photo with my daughter?' and he was like: 'Yeah, sure'. [So] he had a little photo with me [on] my mother's disposable camera."
She continued: "He was just lovely you know, again, it's because I was a kid. As an adult now meeting all these people, I would have talked the hind legs off a donkey to him. I would have been so curious and fascinated... but as a slightly awkward teenager who is going through a lot, I just took it all in really."
She also recalled the time she was "just left backstage" at an event with Muhammad Ali and explained how although she sat in silence next to him she could feel "the energy and the magnetism of him". She added: "I just happily sat in silence next to him. He didn't say anything but knowing what an absolute legend and icon and loved this man was, and just being there in silence with him... it was nice."
Another nice moment she told Brydon about was meeting Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary who had been "immensely skilful at really making you feel like they actually wanted to meet you". She said: "They were genuinely interested. I've met a lot of members of the royal family and other politicians and other world leaders and they just aren't.
"They're not really interested. They don't want to be there and they can't even be they can't be bothered to pretend."
The singer also discussed her "fairytale" career success after being scouted at an early age. "My life and my family's life changed forever. It was a proper fairytale. It was mythic – plucked from obscurity.
"My early life, being famous, was extraordinarily exciting. As is what often happens with fairytales the first bit's cracking. We did get to travel the world. We did some incredible things and we met some amazing people, some of the most important people in the world."
Upon being asked about perceptions of her and how they've changed over the years, the singer said she considered herself to be "a very self-aware person" and has been since she was young. She added how she was "very very" aware of how she was and how she had been perceived throughout her life.
"I think I became famous at a time which was particularly toxic for women and for working class women," she said. "Growing up in that really toxic culture, which [was] very much based around a very narrow view of what women could be in society and what it looked like for women to be successful."
As for whether she thought the situation had changed for young people today she said: "I don't know. "I think it's just a bit more insidious now, that actually it's just sort of more covert.... Things have definitely changed."
The pair also discussed Church's new home, Rhydoldog House – a home that once belonged to Laura Ashley. Read more on that here.
To watch the full episode see Rob Brydon's YouTube channel here or to hear it go to Spotify.
For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
