Alicia Keys is getting candid.
In her new memoir, More Myself , she’s recalling all of the experiences that have helped shape her into the person she is today.
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Sadly, one of these experiences included a scary incident that took place early on in her career. It was a high-profile photoshoot where she felt taken advantage of.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Alicia Keys debuted her critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Songs in A Minor.’
Since then, she’s won 15 Grammy Awards (in addition to hosting the show several times) and has collaborated with some of music’s biggest stars, including Beyoncé, Drake, Prince, and Jay-Z.
In addition to her seventh album, “Alicia,” coming out later this year, she released her new memoir, *More Myself*.
The memoir , which was released in March, tells the trials and tribulations the 39-year-old singer went through to become her most authentic self.
Getting there meant facing her fair share of fear, heartbreak, loss, and insecurity.
One of these stories included the time she had to call the late Prince to get his permission to cover ‘How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore’ on “Songs in A Minor.”
“I had to call him, which is literally one of the scariest things I ever did in my life,” she recalled the story in an interview with *Rolling Stone*.
“Trying to pick up the phone knowing that you had to convince your favorite person on the planet, who often says no to his compositions being redone,” she said .
“But he was so gracious,” she said.
“He invited me to Paisley Park. He said, “Why don’t you come play the song for me?” So I went to freezing-cold Minneapolis. Walking those halls and seeing all those beautiful memorabilia.”
She continued:
“Just all of these incredible moments in his life, and these pianos that were engraved, and he had candles and doves and the outfits from Purple Rain. My jaw was on the floor the entire time.”
“And then he told me that I couldn’t curse, which is really hard for me because I love to curse.”
While that was a touching moment for the star, things weren’t always easy early on.
In her memoir, she got candid about a photoshoot where she felt taken advantage of .
She was just a teenager at the time and it was her first-ever high-profile photoshoot.
“When you’re trying to get your music heard and yourself out there, it’s rare that you get big opportunities, and this one was awesome,” Keys recalled in an interview with q host Tom Power.
“So everybody was really excited.”
At one point, though, the photographer asked Keys’ team to leave the studio.
They agreed since they figured he just wanted to focus better with privacy.
Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Instead, he started asking Alicia to do things she wasn’t comfortable with.
“It was like, ‘Can you just kind of lift this a little bit? Can you pull this down a little bit? Can you open this a little bit?'” remembered Keys.
“I’m 19 and I’m like, ‘Um, this doesn’t feel right.'”
While the photographer never physically touched Keys, she did feel violated and taken advantage of.
It was also a turning point for her, as she became determined to honour her true, authentic self.
“When it was all said and done, and the photos came out, I just was so devastated.”
She continued:
“I despised them. I did not like the way I looked. It looked like a way that I didn’t ever want to represent myself.”
“And I felt like I’d been taken advantage of and manipulated.”
“I needed to know very early that you have to trust your instincts in life. And I think it changed my trajectory in a lot of ways because I knew that I’d just never want to be in that position.”
With this goal in mind, the singer has come such a long way since then.
“No matter if we’re artists or bankers or assistants or whatever, oftentimes we find ourselves really trying to accommodate other people’s opinion of us and making sure that we’re in some way likable,” she said.
“And a lot of times I think that takes away our knowledge of ourselves because we’re just so busy wanting to please.”
“It really is ‘How do you find your authentic self? And what is that? Who is that?'” she said.
“And for different people that happens in different ways.”
You can purchase More Myself here .
