Nina Simone's Tragic Real-Life Story

In the late 90s, Nina Simone became adept at giving diva-ish, waspish interviews that were, by turns, hilariously combative or brutally honest. Simone had made the south of France her permanent home and gave wide-ranging interviews discussing her life and career to American journalists by phone.

In one interview with the American magazine Details in 1997, Simone, when asked about the recent release of a compilation of her recordings from the 1960s, claimed that she had no knowledge of the release, or of the revived interest in her discography in America at the time. "Maybe if you lived in America instead of the south of France, you'd have more knowledge of your current popular resurgence here," the interviewer suggests.

But at the age of 63, it seemed that Simone, despite the tempestuous life behind her, was experiencing her own personal resurgence. In the interview, she claims: "I had an intense love affair with a Tunisian boy last year, but I don't think I want to get involved for a long time again because he opened me up like a volcano, and it almost put me under." The relationship did not last, with Simone claiming that part of the problem was with the difficulty of her lover settling in France because of his nationality, but she later told BBC's HARDtalk: "It lasted long enough for me to never forget it, I'll tell you that."