Carly Simon - Carly Simon Conquered Stuttering With Singing

CARLY SIMON has revealed she grew up a stammering wreck, and she still can't read in public without stuttering. The music icon admits she had a stammering problem that plagued her childhood - and she conquered it by singing. In a new interview with Ladies Home Journal magazine, the You're So Vain singer says, "In retrospect, my stammering was an opportunity... (Stutterers) can't stammer when they sing. "There's something about the mind connecting differently to the vocal cords when you apply either rhythm or melody." And, though she had largely conquered her speech impediment, which affects one per cent of Americans, she admits she still can't read aloud. She adds, "I loved to read, but never out loud. I still can't read out loud. I almost always couldn't say H's. Then there were some days that it was S's and some that it was T's. "So I became this walking thesaurus. You learn to supply yourself with substitute words you won't trip over." Simon feels sure here stuttering secret has a large part to play in her legendary stage fright, which has hampered her career: "I'm almost positive it did. Because as a kid I was so frightened in class that when I was going to be called on, my terror would strike. And that became true later, onstage."