“I don’t know how I dealt with the temptation of having all that money or where that money went”
Speaking to TshisaLIVE in an interview recently, the star told the paper that at the age of 15 she was already a millionaire due to her ambitious nature. “I was ambitious. I used to tell my mom that rich people do not wake up before ten and that when I am rich she must not wake me before then. Then I became rich. I went to Jam Alley. Trust me, they used to give us so much money in boxes. I didn’t even know how much money there was. From there, I got a record deal. It was all happening for me. I had made my first million at 15 (years old),” Mshoza said.
She said that her management made sure she didn’t go anywhere after 8pm and prevented her from blowing her money on drugs and alcohol. “I wasn’t allowed to drink or smoke or even go out after eight at night. They couldn’t tell me how to spend my money, but they tried to keep me away from blowing it on drugs and booze,” Mshoza said.
“I’ve never had a drug addiction. I am crazy, I know, but I am on a natural high. I don’t do drugs. I laugh at it because people think that I am on drugs,” Mshoza said.
She added that at that point she was already driving and crashing cars without even having a license. “I bought cars. I crashed cars. I didn’t even have a licence.”
Sadly, as her career blossomed, so did rumours of her alleged drug use and alcoholism.
Mshoza revealed to TshisaLive that in those turbulent days she held onto the advice of her friends and mentors Brenda Fassie and Lebo Mathosa. Both stars passed away (Fassie in 2004 and Mathosa in 2006) leaving her “feeling completely alone and without a single friend in the world”.
“I still talk to sis’ Lebo. I still ask her for advice. I know she would be here for me and fighting for me, if she was still here. After Brenda died, me and Lebo became closer, like sisters,” she said.
“One person who thinks like me is Beyoncé because her album is also really personal. It tells her story through music. That is me, I tell my story through music – and now everyone is listening,” Mshoza said.
