Jessica Simpson: I 'Love Too Much'
Jessica Simpson says she couldn't have picked a worse time to come down with throat trouble: This is the week her latest CD, "A Public Affair," comes out.
After performing her first single from the album on The Early Show Wednesday, Simpson told co-anchor Hannah Storm, "I don't know what happened. It's the week my album comes out and I'm supposed to be singing my butt off, and I can't.
"I have like a busted blood vessel in my vocal cord. So, it bruised my vocal cords. You're supposed to be on vocal rest, but how in the world do I not talk? … I'll get a notepad and have to write everything down. So, I guess next week will be full of journal entries for me!"
To see Simpson sing "Fired Up" on The Early Show plaza,
Simpson told Storm that making entries in her journal "is my therapy. That's how I get to know myself. I have a lot of journals I've kept over the years and a lot of my music comes from that."
Does she ever go back and read the old journals?
"I do. We even have journal reading parties, me and my friends. It's really funny to look back in fifth grade and see what was really interesting to you!"
Simpson says she used to aspire to becoming an astronaut, until she went to space camp and didn't like the food.
Simpson describes "A Public Affair" as "a fun, dance around, shake-your-bootie kind of album. But there's also some really, really good, uplifting ballads and mid-tempos, good (to listen to while you're) driving around in your car with the top down."
Since she started making the album "about a year-and-a-half ago," Simpson says it came during difficult times in her life, as she divorced husband Nick Lachey."
"Of course," she told Storm, "I went through a lot of emotional changes, a lot of stuff in my life, and I wanted to be in a place in my life where I could share music from my heart and where I was at that very moment. So, you will hear a lot on my album about just needing my friends' support, going out and having a good time, but also you'll hear songs about heartbreak and inspiration and self confidence and loving yourself."
But Simpson says being a star can take its toll on one's social life: "I have not gone on a regular date yet. I've forgotten what that was like. That would be fun. It would be a little chaotic. You know the Sheryl Crow song, 'Are you strong enough to be my man'? Somebody's gotta be really strong!"
Asked point-blank by Storm if she's in a serious relationship, Simpson responded: "I'm not in a — I'm in a serious relationship with myself and all of my, you know, I have many loves. I love too much, love too deeply. I fall in love too easily, as Chip Baker says."
Simpson, who had a major role in the film version of "Dukes of Hazzard," has another movie on the way, a comedy called "Employee of the Month."
In it, she says, "I'm a clerk, a cashier. So, I'm just a normal Midwestern girl."
Simpson also plugged a line of boots she has coming out, one she works on with her mother, adding: "I'm kind of a clothes fanatic. Now that my mom and I are creating our own, I get it for free. I don't have to spend money!"
To see the Simpson interview,