Mariah Carey 20Q Interview

Our sexy cover girl with the big voice reveals all about that tiff with Eminem, acting goofy on MTV, her wardrobe malfunction and why, at heart, she's really a prude

Q1

PLAYBOY: On the song "Get Your Number" from your album The Emancipation of Mimi, you sing about picking up a guy at a club and taking him home. Is that something you would ever do?
CAREY: No. Here's the problem with me--well, one of them. [laughs] I can be flirtatious when I don't mean to be. Let's say we are at a club, me and some friends, and we're hanging out with guys. If I'm sitting there and a song I like comes on, because I'm a singer, I start moving. It's just what I do. I don't realize I'm sitting there doing a video in somebody's face. I end up being very flirtatious, and people take it the wrong way. I'm very much a prude. But I don't want to disappoint people, so maybe we shouldn't discuss that.

Q2

PLAYBOY: But on the song "Say Somethin'" you sing, "I'm over here looking at you / You're over there watching me too / Both painting pictures of how we'll kiss and fuck." That doesn't sound prudish to us.
CAREY: I didn't say that! There's an f and a few squiggly little letters. [laughs] And that was the producer Pharrell's idea. He just wanted to shock everybody. I was like, "All right, Pharrell, if this will make you happy." That was one of those little sexy moments.

Q3

PLAYBOY: Last year you clashed with Eminem after he claimed the two of you had been romantically involved. Then he reportedly sent you a letter of apology. What did it say?
CAREY: Something is clearly askew with him, and I'm not quite sure what it is. I just heard something else he recently said about me. I'm curious as to why he's so obsessed with me. I never got an apology letter, by the way; I don't know what they're talking about. Then again, I wasn't exactly searching my mailbox for it.

Q4

PLAYBOY: Your mother is Irish American and your father was African American and Venezuelan. When did you realize being biracial made you different?
CAREY: When I was in kindergarten. Our assignment was to draw our family. The two kindergarten teachers were really young. I don't think they meant any harm, but they were looking over my shoulder and giggling because I drew my family the way I saw them. My mom was peach, my brother and sister and I were in the middle somewhere, and my father was brown. They said to me, "You've made a mistake, Mariah." I said, "No, that's my father. That's what he looks like." They didn't believe me. It was as though I'd taken a green crayon and made him green. All of a sudden they stopped laughing because I was confused and upset. Their laughter kind of trickled off, and they walked away and started whispering. They never looked at me the same way again.

Q5

PLAYBOY: On "I Wish You Knew" you sing about having an inferiority complex. What makes you shy?
CAREY: I think I have an all-around inferiority complex from growing up biracial and feeling as if I didn't fit in. I didn't feel pretty as a little girl. The entertainment business is an extension of high school, so I'm still my own little class clown. Maybe I overcompensate by having a big personality. I'm usually pretty boisterous now.

Q6

PLAYBOY: How old were you when you started singing?
CAREY: I was four. My mom used to sing with the New York City Opera. She made her debut at Lincoln Center and had gone to Juilliard. I think by the time I came around she wasn't singing professionally, but she still practiced here and there. She tells the story of when she was doing the opera Rigoletto, and at one point I corrected her because she'd made a mistake. That's when she realized I had a good ear.

Q7

PLAYBOY: At what point did you know you wanted to make singing your career?
CAREY: From the point I knew one could have a career, I knew it was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be either a singer or a genie. [laughs] When I realized that being a genie wasn't an actual option, I went with singing.

Q8

PLAYBOY: How did you start your career in music?
CAREY: When I was little I auditioned for Annie. I wanted to be in Annie because it was the big show on Broadway. I was too tall, but I'm kind of thinking I was too ethnic as well. [laughs] I auditioned with a black wig. Even the wig color wasn't right, which is weird because my nana on my father's side had a penchant for red wigs. I probably could have borrowed one of hers, but nobody thought of it.

Q9

PLAYBOY: If American Idol had existed when you were young, would you have auditioned?
CAREY: Remember Star Search? That was around, and I didn't audition for it. I didn't think it was for me. I know everybody thinks I'm the poster child for American Idol, but I was really shy when I first came out as a performer. My mother wasn't a stage mom. She was more of a hippie.

Q10

PLAYBOY: Randy Jackson from American Idol has worked as your musical director for several years. Did you ever imagine he'd be a star?
CAREY: Randy Jackson--well, now we have to call him Randy Jackson of American Idol--has worked with me since my first record. I've known him for so long, and now he's a huge star. It's just weird to me. We'll get mobbed walking down the street. You know how the band is introduced at a show? My little joke used to be that he was Michael Jackson's brother, and the crowd would believe me and go crazy.