Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
The authorised biography of Nightwish, “Once Upon A Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006,” which was published in Finnish in 2006 and in English three years later, depicted Tarja Turunen’s exit from the band, as per Blabbermouth. In a recent interview with Albert Perera of Metal Hammer Spain, Turunen was asked if she would ever consider writing an autobiography in which she would give her side of her split with Nightwish.
Maybe one day. I wrote a book during COVID. It’s not really a biography. It’s about my career, where I didn’t involve too much about my past with Nightwish. Maybe one day I can go back. Maybe. It’s just perhaps. I don’t feel like I am in need of explaining too much. But I can tell you this, that I was not really involved in that biography [‘Once Upon A Nightwish’]. They’d made me only one interview on the phone, 20 minutes, and that’s it. But maybe [I could write about it in a book one day] — maybe, perhaps.
Tarja agreed with Perera’s observation that Turunen seemed to be happier currently touring as a solo artist than she was when he was performing with Nightwish more than 20 years ago.
Yeah, I am, I have some colleagues. I remember, for example, Sharon Den Adel from Within Temptation. When I was touring with them — it was also a little bit more than one year ago, maybe almost two years ago — she was asking me, ‘How on earth you are doing so many shows all the time, Tarja? You’re touring all the time.’ And so she was asking, ‘How the hell you work so much? You are on tour all the time.’ And I’m, like, ‘Yes, I am.’ But I also really do enjoy that. I really enjoy, and I’m like a glowing light bulb on my shows. I’m really happy. Very happy. And so I’m happy to hear that you saw that in me, because it’s really real.”
Of course it’s hard to be on the road. As a mother, leave the home door and close it behind me, leave my family behind, be weeks away from home. It’s hard. I miss my family. It’s hard physically to tour and be on the road. But I have the best team of people. I have really good guys with me. I have a beautiful crew, musicians. We all are like a happy bunch family. I don’t have a band, but I feel like I have a band with me. So they are there for me, and it feels great. And they are there to support me, and if I have a shitty day, like everybody does one day, they are there to give me a shoulder to cry on. And as well it was with Marko. We had good days and bad days, and we were there for each other. So it’s very important for me to be able to feel this happiness, because I would never, ever, ever, ever be willing to go back where I was with the days in Nightwish. It was so miserable. It was not happy times. Why? You do music — it should be happy. I want the people to come to my shows, and they also go back home happy. Yeah, having that energy is absolutely important.
