Sharleen Spiteri felt she never "fitted in" as a child.

Sharleen Spiteri has opened up about her childhood struggles

Sharleen Spiteri has opened up about her childhood struggles

The 55-year-old singer still remembers feeling like an outsider, after her family moved from Glasgow to Loch Lomond in southern Scotland.

Sharleen - who is the lead singer of the rock band Texas - told the Guardian newspaper: "My parents moved to Loch Lomond when I was 11 and we got a slightly bigger house.

"They were hoping that by leaving the city they’d give my sister and me a better life in the countryside. They were right to some extent - I did love the adventures in the national park. I’d be gone all day looking at tadpoles and the waterfalls, skimming stones, swimming in the loch and climbing trees. But that was just a momentary escape from the reality of school.

"I hated it. As we hadn’t grown up in Loch Lomond, we were the new faces in town. The name Spiteri was weird and we had different accents from everyone else. The general attitude in the playground was: 'Who the f*** are you?'"

Despite this, Sharleen never "retaliated aggressively".

The singer also believes that other successful musicians have been through similar experiences.

She said: "I was good with my mouth instead, and I have been since the day I was born. In just two seconds, I could put anyone down with words alone.

"Sometimes it would get me into more trouble than I was already in - I might say something like: 'Well done. Did that make you feel unbelievably in charge?' and before I knew it, whoever had picked on me would have me by the hair, dragging me around the playground. Not that it bothers me anymore.

"Nearly everyone who has achieved something in life has been bullied. Most musicians I know were geeks at school, whether they like to admit it or not."