Shirley Manson Recounts Intense Meeting With J-Lo

Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson told Girl On Guy’s Aisha Tyler about an early encounter with a pop star she’d spoken ill of to the media earlier in her career in a podcast interview released Thursday.

When Tyler asked Manson if she ever had a public moment where she thought she was going to say something “explosive” or incendiary to the media, she responded with this anecdote:

“One really stupid thing I said was, I kind of went after J-Lo. Which I do regret actually because I then met her many years later and I respect her, she’s hardcore. She’s a hard worker. She’s fought tooth and nail to do what she does for a living.” 

“But you know, I was young and dumb and I was contemptuous of her pop status … I was very rude about her in the press. I think I said something dreadful like ‘it just makes me want to punch her in the face.’ I literally said something that dreadful and then I later met her at a shoot for Vanity Fair and it was excruciatingly embarrassing. It taught me a lesson, you know.”

“This is my great J-Lo story which I tell everyone because it was so fucking awesome. I was standing with my back to the main set and she hadn’t arrived on set yet. And all I can say is, the energy changed. I turned around and there was J-Lo strutting towards me in all her glory. And I was thinking ‘oh fuck here we go, the fly girl is literally going to fight me.'”

“She just thrust out her hand and she said ‘Shirley’ and I said “Yep” and she went ‘Jennifer’ and I said ‘Hi Jennifer’ and I shook her hand. And then I kid you not she walked backwards and kept eye contact until I dropped my eyes and looked away.”

“I had so much respect for her after that.”