and Jessica Simpson back then. Did you feel like you were always fighting for respect?
I was always third or fourth in line, in terms of being mentioned in the gaggle of gals — Britney and Christina [Aguilera] and Jessica Simpson. I think because I never found the degree of success that those women did, that allowed me the freedom to continue to make music that I wanted to make — but also as an actor. I was able to find some success in that arena because I wasn’t a one-name pop star that people would watch onscreen and just go, “Oh, I know everything about her life.
You’ve campaigned for Pete Buttigieg, and you’re close friends with his husband, Chasten. What makes Mayor Pete your ideal candidate for president?I’m not the most publicly vocal about politics, but I remember when Pete ran for the DNC chair in 2017. That’s when I first heard about him, and he was captivating to me then. I’d never heard him publicly speak until about a year ago, here in Los Angeles, and I just was blown away. I was like, “He’s our next president.