Lauryn Hill "Excited" For Comeback

Reclusive R&B superstar Lauryn Hill is gearing up for a comeback when she'll play tunes from her classic disc The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill for three dates at this year's Rock the Bells Festival. Hill, who has largely shunned the press in recent years, also granted a rare interview with NPR that aired yesterday, opening up about why she stopped recording new music. "The support system that I needed was not necessarily in place," she said. "There were things about myself — personal growth things — that I needed to go through and experience in order for me to feel like it was worth it."

Go inside the making of Lauryn Hill's classic The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill .

As for any plans to record and release new music, Hill added, "I think that one of the things I'm trying to do is just open up my range and really sing more. I think that with the Fugees initially and then even with the Miseducation, there was still very sort of hip-hop oriented singing…in the context of hip-hop singing over beats. But singing — people have never really heard me sing. I think if I do record, next time, perhaps, there will be an expanded context. People can hear a bit more.”

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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