Britney Spears on Signing Record Deal at 15: 'Rooms Full of Men Looking Me Up and Down in My Small Dress' (Exclusive)
In an exclusive excerpt from her upcoming memoir, 'The Woman in Me,' the "Toxic" singer opens up about her early years in the entertainment industry
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Britney Spears at the American Music Awards in 1998Britney Spears is reflecting on the moment she signed her first record deal.
In an exclusive excerpt from her long-awaited memoir The Woman in Me, the pop superstar, 41, writes about life after the Mickey Mouse Club — which she appeared on as a child star alongside the likes of Ryan Gosling, Justin Timberlake, and Christina Aguilera.
By 15, Spears was ready to record her own music, because as she writes in the book, she "missed performing.”
Britney Brands
Britney Spears on the cover of PEOPLE“My mom had been in touch with a lawyer she’d met on my audition circuit, a man named Larry Rudolph, who she would call sometimes for business advice,” Spears writes of the man who would become her one-time manager. “He suggested I record a demo. He had a song that Toni Braxton had recorded for her second album that had ended up on the cutting room floor. This would become the demo that I would use to get in the door at record labels.”
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic
As Spears explained, Rudolph brought her around for auditions.
“Larry took me around [New York City], and I went into rooms full of executives and sang Whitney Houston’s ‘I Have Nothing,’” she writes. “Gazing out at the rooms full of men in suits looking me up and down in my small dress and high heels, I sang loud.”
With her recording contract in place, “the label wanted me in a studio immediately,” Spears recalls in the book of recording her debut album, …Baby One More Time. “I worked for hours straight. My work ethic was strong. If you knew me then, you wouldn’t hear from me for days. I would stay in the studio as long as I could. If anyone wanted to leave, I’d say, ‘I wasn’t perfect.’ When all the songs were done, someone said, ‘What else can you do? Do you want to dance now?’ I said, ‘Hell yeah, I do!”’
Spears’ book, which arrives on Oct. 24, will also feature an audio edition narrated by five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams, PEOPLE exclusively revealed late last week. While Spears herself will record an introduction to the book, Williams will lend her voice to the remainder of the project.
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Britney Spears for PEOPLE"This book has been a labor of love and all the emotions that come with it,” Spears told PEOPLE. “Reliving everything has been exciting, heart-wrenching, and emotional, to say the least. For those reasons, I will only be reading a small part of my audiobook. I am so grateful to the amazing Michelle Williams for reading the rest of it."
The memoir will be released through Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, and will “illuminate the enduring power of music and love — and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms,” according to a release.
For more of the exclusive excerpt and interview with Britney Spears, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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Read the original article on People.
