First Posted: 4/30/2013
There is at least one breakup in Selena Gomez’s life that doesn’t involve any type of speculation, TMZ report, or deleted Instagram photo: the split with her band known as “The Scene.”
“I am solo for sure,” Gomez said of her performance, not relationship, status on “The Ralphie Show.” “I’ve had my band for so long and I love them so much. I think as musicians, though, they want to go and do other things and they’ve been with me for a while.”
A new group of musicians will back Gomez on her upcoming tour, one of a few changes to her stage show.
“I wanted to get into more performing than anything,” she elaborated. “I’ve tried to get better at dancing and getting more about the entertainment aspect of it, as opposed to more of just me and the band.”
Gomez’s “Stars Dance Tour 2013” kicks off Aug. 14 in Canada. The trek will support her first solo album, due out this summer. The first single is “Come and Get It,” a catchy, mid-tempo song that sounds as if Rihanna could have sang it. Ester Dean, a frequent collaborator to RiRi, Katy Perry, and other pop stars, has a writing credit on the track.
“All artists inspire me, including her,” Gomez said of the Barbados-born singer. “That’s the best part of what I do. I get inspired by musicians that are older than me because I’m still kind of up-and-coming and figuring out what I want to do.”
Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato, two of Gomez’s friends, also inspire the artist, seemingly in more ways than one.
“I think what’s specific about those two individually is they represent the confidence of each things that they’ve gone through,” said Gomez, alluding to Swift’s relationships and Lovato’s stint in rehab. “I appreciate the fact that, even as my friends, they’re able to share the things that they’ve gone through.”
So will Gomez take a cue from either on her next album? It doesn’t seem likely.
“It’s harder for me to do that because I tend to clam up about certain things, and I think it’s just because I’m a super private person,” Gomez explained. “But, there is a song on this record that was really personal to me.”
Trying to maintain her privacy in the spotlight is something the actress struggles with; Gomez admitted to me that she deals with anxiety over some of the headlines and hounding photographers.
“It’s never going to change,” she stated. “So even if I were to sit here right now and tell you guys everything that I’m going through, the media would twist it in some way, or they would make up a completely different story.”
Presumably, this is the reason why Gomez wouldn’t speak about Justin Bieber during our interview. The singer told me the coverage ultimately forced her to put “a guard up.”
-Listen to “The Ralphie Show” weeknights from 7 p.m.-midnight on 97 BHT.
