Cyndi Lauper ''lives with the dead''.

The 'True Colours' hitmaker claims her late grandmother visits her whenever she does something ''really wrong'', and has also had visions of her deceased stepfather.

She said: ''Every time I do something really wrong, I get a visit from my late grandmother. It's a crowded universe.

''I also used to hear from my stepfather going, 'Cyndi, check on mommy, she's not doing so good.'

''I'm Italian and Italians - Sicilians especially - we live with the dead.''

The 64-year-old singer also confessed to being a ''scaredy cat'' but never lets her fears hold her back.

She said: ''I am a big scaredy cat, scared of everything, but I don't let that change me or stop me.

''I don't think about my fear if I'm afraid, I just say that it goes with the territory.''

And one of the things the 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' star is afraid of is death.

She told Stylist magazine: ''I've seen people dying and it's not an easy thing. From what I've seen it must be very difficult to die.''

Cyndi wishes she had a British accent because she thinks her own New York dialect makes her sound ''uneducated''.

She said: ''I really wish I could speak the Queen's English rather than Queens from New York.

''I hate my accent. It sounds uneducated.''