Article from the Sunday Mail newspaper from August 2001.
"DYLAN'S A GENIUS, BUT EMINEM IS MY NEW HERO"
Says his No 1 fan, Scots singer Barbara Dickson.
She served her showbiz apprenticeship in the couthy folk clubs of Scotland... and cracked the charts with singalong hits such as Answer Me and January February.
He is pop's most controversial new act who takes the stage armed with a chainsaw to perform his foul-mouthed songs.
The gulf between the music of Scots singer Barbara Dickson and Eminem couldn't be wider.
But - whisper it - Babs is the US rap megastar's No.1 fan. Believe it or not, the Dunfermline-born star reckons Eminem is the most talented artist of his generation.
She said: "Eminem is the new Bob Dylan ... he really is that good. He's a modern-day folk singer.
Like the young Dylan, his songs are interesting and really sharp. What he's writing about is angry and disturbed - particularly his recent chart-topping hit Stan.
"But lyrically it's all incredibly artistic stuff worthy of great praise. He's a clever boy and his enormous talent should be nurtured. I got in to him when my eldest son Colm began playing his CDs at home. He can't believe his old mother could like that kind of music, too."
Eminem is one of the headline acts at this year's Gig On The Green festival in Glasgow on August 25 and 26.
And Barbara returns to Scotland to star in the stage musical Spend Spend Spend at the King's Theatre in Glasgow from September 4 - 15.
The award-winning show also runs for a week at the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh from October 2-6. It tells the rags-to-riches-to-rags tale of Viv Nicholson, who won pounds 152,000 on the football pools in 1961. As Bruce Forsyth handed over the cheque - the equivalent of pounds 3million today - the Yorkshire housewife declared: "I'm going to spend, spend, spend." She became a celebrity overnight.
Barbara will recreate her starring role as Viv for which she won a prestigious Best Actress Olivier award and a Variety Club award.
The Scots actress, who met Viv two years ago while rehearsing the musical, said: "I play her as she is now and her story is told in a series of flashbacks. Viv was the first person in Britain who was famous for being famous, but her's is a human story which will make the audience laugh and cry.
"I had to work with a dialect coach - as did the whole company - to master the accent of her home town of Castleford. As a child, I remembered an image of this blonde who drove around Yorkshire in a pink Cadillac. It caused a sensation and Viv became isolated from her community."
When Viv and her late husband Keith scooped the pools jackpot they lived up to her boast that they would spend, spend, spend. Ironically, Keith had ticked the 'no publicity' box on his coupon, but Viv couldn't wait to bask in the limelight and have her photo splashed across the newspapers - and that's when her problems began.
Barbara said: "Viv's father wasn't able to hold down a job through epilepsy so she grew up in poverty and deprivation. When she won the pools she went mad and splashed out on things she did not need. She suddenly had loads of money and couldn't cope with it.
"When Keith died a few years later, the bank foreclosed Viv's accounts and kept a lot of the cash to pay off debts. She had also invested in business deals which went wrong and ended up back in Castleford with nothing."
Now in her 60s, Viv lives quietly in her home town and is a Jehovah's Witness. The pools cash helped pay for a private education for her four children, but that apart, she has little to show from her years of extravagant living.
"Viv is chastened. She's not the brash, flash blonde hellraiser everyone remembers," said Barbara. "I'm sure a lot of that was for the media's benefit . When it all went wrong she appeared unrepentant and the public found it difficult to accept that. Maybe she would have been more popular if she had admitted she had messed up."
Barbara lives in a beautiful home in Lincolnshire with husband Oliver Crookson and sons Colm, 14, Gabriel, 12, and Archie, 10. She admits to daydreaming of how she would cope if, like Viv, she scooped a win on the pools or National Lottery.
"Two years ago in a raffle I won one of those things you use to clean your windscreen," said Barbara, laughing. "That's how lucky I am. But if I ever got a big win on the pools or lottery I would shove the cash straight in to the bank and use it to do things for my kids. I'm not materialistic. If pushed, I might buy myself a nice pair of diamond earrings or a Cartier watch. I wouldn't splash out on a big flash car, though. I'm happy with the one I have."
Barbara's career began when she performed her songs in the folk clubs of Scotland. In 1974, she got her first big break when Liverpool playwright Willy Russell offered her the role of singer-narrator in his musical, John, Paul, George, Ringo and Bert.
"The cast was amazing," recalled Barbara. "Bernard Hill played John Lennon, Trevor Eve was Paul McCartney, Phillip Joseph played George Harrison, Anthony Sher was Ringo Starr and George Costigan was Bert. It was a wonderful show for me because while I always knew I could sing - I didn't know if I could act, too."
Barbara also carved out a successful pop career with hits such as Answer Me (1976), Another Suitcase In Another Hall (1977), January February (1980) and I Know Him So Well (1985).
She also starred as Mrs Johnstone in Russell's hit stage musical Blood Brothers and her other acting credits include appearances in TV dramas Band of Gold and Taggart.
Barbara is also planning to record a new album and embark on a concert tour later in the year - and it has the added benefit of allowing her the chance to visit her beloved homeland again.
She said: "I still love going on stage with just a guitar or piano and playing my songs. It's hard to believe it's 21 years since I had my my hit single January February. I used to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night worrying I would end up trying to be some kind of middle-aged pop singer. But luckily, thanks to acting, I can do so much more.
"I love seeing how Scotland has become such an exciting, vibrant country over the last year. There seems to be a great pride among the people again. I'm so looking forward to being at the King's in Glasgow for two weeks and seeing how my old haunts have changed.
"I'm a bit of a shopaholic so I always spend a lot of time in Princes Square, the St Enoch Centre and Frasers ... you can't go wrong there.
"I've had some lovely times in Glasgow - the people are great."
