Shirley Manson Quotes

I still get nervous about singing. I drink tea with honey and lemon before every concert. And I need to have scented candles in all of my hotel rooms.

Carly Simon abandoned the stage for seven years after collapsing from nerves before a concert in Pittsburgh in 1981. When she resumed performing, she would sometimes ask members of her band to spank her before she went onstage, to distract her from her anxiety.

I get terrible butterflies. Before I go onstage, I'll have to freak out for five minutes. I scream. It seems to help!

I tend to do yoga before I go on stage, so that keeps me nice and calm.

I tend to be very relaxed on stage, but the nerves have to come out somehow.

If I'm not nervous, if I don't have at least a little bit of the same self-doubt and anxious feelings I had when I started playing, then it will be time for me to go on. I must have that tension.

I wake up around nine and do morning chants in my bed. I learned transcendental meditation four years ago, and I do it twice a day, plus an extra ten minutes before the show because I struggle with stage fright just before I go on.

People think I look odd onstage. But the way I deal with being incredibly nervous is by concentrating really hard.

I have this system. I torture my husband and everyone around me with my nerves and anxiety. Then, when I get on stage, the fear is gone. I've exhausted myself. It just dissipates.

I warm up. I do about 50 push-ups with my trainer and my security just to get pumped up before a show, get our energy up. And then I just go have fun.

I am absolutely not a roll-on-stage kind of girl! I would be totally freaked out if I didn't warm up, and I don't know how other singers do it.

Nothing like a bit of 'The Best of Times' before prancing around on stage.

I used to psych myself up before the show and now I do the complete opposite: I psych myself down. It's 12:30 at night, you don't want some guy yelling at you. You want some guy just talking to you.

I still get really nervous, though, before each performance. It kind of hits about 15 minutes before we go onstage - sometimes I don't even want to go on. But once I'm onstage I'm fine.

I find that putting my make-up on and playing with different looks is really relaxing for me before the show. It kind of helps me make that transition from 'mommy' to 'performer,' or star or whatever you want to call it!

If you have stage fright, it never goes away. But then I wonder: is the key to that magical performance because of the fear?

We have little bags we pack specifically for touch-up makeup if you're chosen for the top 16. I knew I had to sneak in my banana because nothing calms my nerves like it! I don't know if it's the potassium, but I need it before I get on stage because it always calms me down.

When some people get parts, they feel they can now relax, but for me it was always the opposite. Sometimes before I do a movie or before I act out a scene, I may not sleep well the night before. If I don't know what the scene is about, I might get all worked up.

I don't agree with superstitious routines, but there are a couple of things I'll always do before performing. I'll get together with the band and chill out, and then, just before I go on stage, I'll always check my flies.

I am definitely someone who needs to take a second by myself and stretch and breathe before a show.

I used to get nervous about three weeks before a gig... now I've managed to condense it down to a manageable ten minutes.

I dare not drink before a gig because I'll get tired and blow it. So I have to sit drinking tea in a caravan.

I've never felt nervous in front of big crowds and in big stadiums.

My nerves before a gig got worse; I had terrible bad nerves all the time. Once we started... I was fine.

Sometimes I try to take a nap before shows. That clears my head.