LeAnn Rimes on the joys of making a chanting album and how she dealt with past scrutiny

LeAnn Rimes's new album, "Chant: The Human and the Holy," was the result of discovering the healing powers of chanting.

The singer spoke with Yahoo Entertainment about her mental health journey and how meditation and breath work have factored into her new music and her personal life.

"I would literally sit in meditation and just start singing," she said. "And as soon as I liked something, I would press record. And that's how the 'Chant' record was born."

She also discussed her marriage to Eddie Cibrian, which began as an affair that attracted intense media scrutiny.

"I feel like I was constantly testing him, like, 'Can you do this? Can you deal with this?'" she said of developing trust with Cibrian. "And so he held my hand through that whole journey and I'm so incredibly grateful."

Video Transcript

LYNDSEY PARKER: It's good to speak with you again. And you mentioned a little bit the last time I talked to you about the chant record you were working on, which now I know is called "The Human and the Holy." So I guess the obvious first question is, how did you get into this chanting?

LEANN RIMES: Chanting, for me, was really just a tool in my toolbox, I guess, that I have come across of-- you know, through meditation and breath work. And chanting has been something that really helped me come home to my own voice and use it for my own healing. I've utilized my voice for the world my whole life, and it's the last thing I think of when I think of my own healing, to utilize it for myself.

[SINGING] I will change, I will change whatever I can.

I was thinking, I want to meld, like, my spiritual world with my music. And I started thinking, well, I write choruses which are basically chants, because they're repetitive, all the time. So maybe there's a way to intentionally create chants that really, I feel like, touch the soul and people and remind them of who they are innately. And that's-- the idea morphed into creating a chant record.

And I would literally sit in meditation and just start singing. And as soon as I liked something, I would press record, and that's how the chant record was born.

[SINGING]

Be still and know.

LYNDSEY PARKER: When you say it was important in your healing, in your journey, how did it specifically soothe you when you started doing it?

LEANN RIMES: My voice has always been a point of entry for emotion for me. Even when I sing, you know, my own music, like, there's sometimes where all of a sudden, like, an emotion will be touched so deeply because of a lyric or just because of the actual vibration and the freedom of singing that it's always been a very pinpointed entry point for me for true emotions. So I think for me, it was emotional release. It was a way for me to stop performing around my voice, which is, you know, my voice has been utilized for performance my whole life.

LYNDSEY PARKER: You started off so young in the business, and I'm wondering if there was a time, especially with all the things you've gone through, where you lost the joy of singing, lost the joy of using your voice?

LEANN RIMES: Yeah, absolutely. That's completely it. I think anybody, you know, when you find the thing that you love, and then the thing becomes a job, and then you can lose the joy and really the original passion that started it all off-- and yeah, there's definitely been moments of that, not in just music, but in everything where I lost some joy.

And I think it's been about reclaiming that joy for myself and being able to live from that joyous place, you know-- my voice being the most joyous thing, I think, that I have always had since I was a kid. I think that was probably the first place that I felt it the deepest is that that became a job, and that joy was stripped.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Last time I talked to you, we talked about when you went into a mental health facility around the time of your 30th birthday voluntarily because of all the things you were going on-- you were at a low part in your journey. And obviously, that wasn't that long after you got married, right-- maybe about a year or so. I've always had such empathy and sympathy for you because none of us are perfect.

And I feel like the media and fans were much harder on you during the Eddie situation. With all of that kind of backlash that you were getting in general, did that contribute to that dark period in your life?

LEANN RIMES: Absolutely. There was no way that, no matter who you are, that anyone can tell you how to handle that, especially when you know what's true. It's really tough to sit with to know truth and to be made out to be, like, something other than you are.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Is it because you started out young and they thought of you as this sweet 13-year-old? Is it because the country music audience is more conservative? Like, why were people so vicious to you?

LEANN RIMES: That's a good question. Well, I like to-- I like to think that it was part of my journey. I like to think that-- there was a lot of-- there was a lot there, as they say, you know, grist for the mill and of me learning so many things about myself. And also being-- I think there's a lot of people in this world that have a lot of hurt. Look, I've also been cheated on myself in prior relationships, so I know how it feels. There's no question about the pain of it.

There's a lot of people who haven't dealt with that pain and a lot of people that needed to project. And that's part of, I think, what in the spiritual frame of things of a piece of what I was here for. There's a lot of people who have a lot of hurt and unwilling to look at it. So hopefully now at this point of my life, I am the opposite for them. And hopefully they see me and they go, oh, I can look at that hurt. It's not going to kill me, and there's healing on the other side. And for me, that's been the journey. It's actually been really freeing. When you can finally sit back and go, whoa, like, not all of that was about me at all.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I'm curious, because as I mentioned, when you went in for treatment, it was not that long after you got married. And also, your whole courtship played out in the media in a stressful way. It's the kind of thing that could break up a lot of relationships, and yet here you are 10 years later. So how did you withstand as a couple all of that stuff? And you know, obviously, Eddie was there for you at a time when some men might have been scared and walked away.

LEANN RIMES: It's really interesting. My whole life, I've had some major trust issues, because I've been burned-- and very publicly-- many times. I feel like I was constantly testing him, like, can you do this? Can you deal with this? It's interesting. He's always been such a rock. And his love for me is pretty deep, and mine for him.

And finally one day, I gave in. I'm like, I know I can trust you. And you know, I think it's interesting the way our relationship did start. You know, most people are like, you're never going to be able to trust each other. And you know, it's like, that's actually completely the opposite. And he's just-- he's an amazing guy.

And you're right, there's many times when I expected-- I expected someone to run. You know, when you're in a lot of pain-- once again, there's a lot of projection, and a lot of things that you don't understand-- you know, not only are you in pain, but you're also-- you know, the people that you love that are around you, you can be causing that pain and projecting that onto them. So he held my hand through that whole journey. And I'm so incredibly grateful.

Without him, I truly don't think that without having that rock in my life, I would have been able to feel safe enough to dig deep into the pain that I've been through. That being said, in our relationship, my friendships, my business partnerships-- like, you know, this is-- it's still something that I'm learning, to be honest,. I think it's something we all are learning how to dance with being hurt and still loving unconditionally, you know?

LYNDSEY PARKER: Do you think that the media or the public in general has become more empathetic and just chilled out a little bit?

LEANN RIMES: Well, I think people are connecting to the true me, because I'm connected to that piece. You know, it's not like I'm trying to keep up a facade in any way. You know, I'm not trying to be LeAnn Rimes, the singer. It's just I'm LeAnn. And I think people have really started to experience me through that feeling, that lens, that energetic space.

And so yeah, I think people-- look, I can't change the way people think. If they want to hold on to the past, then so be it. There's a lot of people that live there. I choose not to, and I think there's a lot of people that are choosing not to also. So we'll just leave it at that. That's a good thing.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Yes, and being chanting sort of helps you to live in the present, right?

LEANN RIMES: Absolutely. Chanting definitely brings you into the present. And you know, once again, one of my daily practices is coming into the moment and truly being here, being embodied. There's so much fragmentation, I think, that happened in my life, and to now feel like I can be present and I don't have to live in an older version of me-- I'm not stuck there-- is a beautiful thing.

[SINGING]

Be still and know.