A Daily Mail writer has written an article about interviewing Jamie Spears in 2002, saying he was physically intimidating, drunk and threatened her indirectly with a knife. This interview took place shortly after his divorce from Lynne, who couldn’t cope with his alcoholism.
Certainly the Spears I met seven years ago at his isolated bungalow on a dirt road in rural Kentwood, Louisiana, didn’t seem the most sensitive of souls. In a terrifying encounter that lasted four hours, Britney’s father subjected me to a hostile drunken monologue while refusing to let me leave.
Every time I got up to go, he picked up a large carving knife and theatrically stabbed it into the wooden table at which we were sitting.
You can sleep here,’ he said. ‘You said you wanted to know what it was like being Britney.’
Two growling alsatians, a rottweiler and a man Spears claimed was a ‘bodyguard’ prowled the creaky back porch, which had been converted into a makeshift redneck bar complete with illuminated Budweiser sign, beer and whisky. An airgun lay in front of Spears.
He had been drinking heavily and was chewing Kodiak tobacco and showed me round the little house where Britney grew up while his ‘bodyguard’ cooked a huge iron pan of crayfish outside on a camping stove.
Surprisingly, the inside of the house was immaculate, almost as though no one lived there. It was also a rather spooky shrine to his famous daughter, with framed pictures, magazine covers, platinum records, concert posters and even used ticket stubs covering almost every available inch of space.
Spears told me: ‘There’s not a man on earth could be happier than me. I have got the most famous daughter in the world.’ But he admitted: ‘I squandered my money on wild women and beer.
‘Britney is focused. She’s been a star since birth. I still build but I do it when I feel like it.’
Spears then attempted to give me a drunken hug. He confided that he was all but broke, but added that Britney had bought him the smart white pick-up truck parked outside and had bought his wife Lynne, from whom he was then estranged, a Mercedes.
My bizarre encounter with the man who controls a pop empire took place in March 2002. Britney was still a fresh-faced 20-year-old but already a pop phenomenon.
I finally managed to escape after Jamie and his ‘bodyguard’ escorted me to a local bar, where he said they needed to buy more beer.
In the Daily Mail archives (or elsewhere) I can’t find the original article that the reporter approached Jamie Spears for, but the writer may not have worked for the Daily Mail at that point or their archives may not go back that far. Either way, this seems a weird time to reveal the details of the interview – surely it would have made more sense to speak up when Jamie was first appointed conservator of Britney’s world. The general article is on whether this man should be allowed to have control over his daughter. Clearly the judge believes that someone has to, and it seems to be working out thus far.
The reporter recently returned to Louisiana and approached other members of the Spears’ family who say that Jamie has been sober for five years, and is an inspiration to Britney.
The article talks about how Jamie manages Britney currently, saying that she is kept in a bubble, separated from boys, junk food, alcohol or drugs, to maintain her image. Given how hard Britney is working currently to maintain any semblance of a career, I think being in a careful bubble maybe isn’t the worst thing for her.
Britney and Jamie Spears are shown in the header at the airport on 11/24/08, Credit: ODuran/Fame Pictures. He is shown below on 3/18/08. Credit: Fame
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