I didn't have any of those good assets to have successful teenage years. It was hard. And what saved me was definitely my whole family. I knew where I was coming from and where I was going to.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I didn't inherit any great success and the problems that came with it, and yet I was able to keep working and supporting myself and later a family. I'm crazy fortunate.
As a lower-class kid, I was raised to think success would be owning stuff. Having that great job, too. Now I find my parents' dream was wrong. You never really own anything. And you're never really finished as a person.
The best thing about success was being able to buy my parents a house.
I led a comfortable life, went to good schools and was privileged in many ways, but my father worked hard. We never considered ourselves rich.
Growing up, I stayed in a child's place. My father was murdered when I was 20. I was a model and never had a real job and my parents took care of me.
I could enjoy the life that I had by virtue of the educational attainment that my grandparents and parents had pursued. Education was always incredibly valued in our family.
I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact.
Having lost both my parents as a teenager, family is so important to me, and I cherish my time with my children and grandchildren. I have four children, and they all became lawyers - as I was myself before I got into music.
Everything about my teenage life was almost ideal.
College and the responsibilities that came with it helped me transition from teenager to adulthood.