Beyonce’s First Love Reveals How She Was Obsessed With Fame At A Young Age

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Beyonce’s first love Lyndall Locke who dated the star for a decade revealed a lot about her including how she was fixated on fame from a young age as well as how her father, Mathew Knowles, masterminded her career.

Read excerpts from the interview

On how she started singing

‘She was focused and knew what she wanted. She’d started singing when she was five and her parents supported her. There was a Beyoncé train on the fast track to fame and you were either on it or off it. Some people fell off the train and others jumped.’

On how her father influenced her career

Mathew ‘Big Mac’ Knowles was the mastermind of ‘Project Beyoncé’, as it was known in the family. ‘Let me tell you, there was no messing with Big Mac. He gave me the third degree about who I was and what my intentions were. He gave me the talk about “not messing anything up.

Beyoncé’s parents invested every penny in hiring the top vocal coaches, dance tutors and managers. The budding star was pulled out of school and home-tutored to give her more time to rehearse – to the exclusion of almost everything else. ‘Beyoncé came to my high-school prom with me. It was a great evening. She laughed and danced and told me, “Lyndall, it’s so great to be normal, to be a kid.”

Every penny went into Beyoncé’s career. Undeterred, Beyoncé was able to ‘compartmentalise’ her life. ‘She kept her personal life separate from her career. We talked on the phone for hours, but I was never part of her music. I was an upbeat, positive kid. I made Beyoncé laugh. When she was with me it was downtime.’

On how Beyonce protected her image and wanted fame

In one incident, Beyoncé fled the scene of a minor car accident because she feared it would be ‘bad’ for her image… even though she was years away from becoming famous.

She was 16 and Lyndall was driving Beyoncé and her cousin Angie to the beach in a five-car convoy of friends. ‘A car suddenly pulled in front of me, crossed to the side of the road then flipped and fell right off the highway.’

Lyndall screeched to a halt and raced down the embankment to check on the occupants of the other car (who were unharmed). When he returned, Beyoncé and Angie had driven off. ‘When I finally got a lift home I was furious. Beyoncé told me, “I can’t be around a mess like that. I have to think smart and staying there would not have been smart.”

Describing another incident, Lyndall said: ‘She was promoting Destiny Child’s second album and I was back home smoking weed. I didn’t want that to somehow reflect badly on her. She was all about image and career, while I was directionless and having fun.  Once they started to hit big it was obvious she was changing. She became aloof. I told her she was becoming a whole new kind of person and she looked at me and said, “I am.” I told her, “I wish we could have a normal life” and she said, “I don’t want a normal life. I’ve been waiting for this since I was a kid.” ’

Is he surprised by her level of success?

No. She was always going to ride that Beyoncé train to the very top. That’s who she is. She wanted it so bad. She knew her destiny.’