Everything my mother taught me... Bonnie Tyler

She might have built a career around a belting, classic rock voice and big haired glamour, but Bonnie Tyler has always credited her parents, particularly her shy but gifted mam, for giving her the grounding she needed for success.

With a new album called Rocks and Honey due out soon, she tells Kate Clarke everything her mother taught her.

"My mam Elsie was wonderful. Such a sweet lady and we were very close.

"We lost her 11 years ago and I think about her all the time.

"I was thinking about her this morning as a matter of fact.

"And I keep her shoes and my father's shoes beside my bed as a memento. I just want to have something of theirs with me."

Bonnie says while a career in music was never on the cards for Elsie, as she was a typical, traditional, industrious wife and mother, she was a gifted singer whose voice turned heads.

"She had the most beautiful, operatic voice and she used to sing around the house all the time — when she was doing the housework, or whatever she was doing.

"You could hear her from the bottom of the road. And people would actually step outside their houses to listen to her. 

"She was a big opera fan, and she loved people like Mario Lanza.

"Now I think about it, she sang right up until the end."

She says while her mum was never pushy, she showed her children the kind of support and love that gave them a great start in life.

"In fact I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now if it wasn't for her. 

"I have a very different kind of voice and in my personality I am much more like my dad, Glyn Hopkins.

"But mam always encouraged me. 

"She always told me to believe in myself and to go for it.

"She wasn't the kind of person you would think might say something like that because she was so shy herself.

"So much so that if she was asked to sing at a party she would face the wall to do it.

"But she and her brothers and sisters used to put on shows in a concrete shed in my grandmother's garden when they were children, so the performing side was there."

Having parents who gave the Hopkins siblings a happy and a secure home life when they were growing up in Skewen was a lasting gift, says Bonnie, 61.

"One of the things that amazes us all when we look back, in fact we talk about it a lot, is how hard mum worked with such a big family, to get everything done.

"She used to do all of the washing by hand and there was always one of us saying, 'Mam, can I have this skirt or that shirt because I'm going out?' and it would be done, washed and ironed and a ready to go. 

"I don't know how she got everything done but she did."

And having brothers and sisters, all with their own musical interests, meant theirs was a home full of the latest sounds and full of the love of songs and singers, remembers Bonnie.

"Having three sisters and two brothers, my house was always full of different kinds of music. 

"One brother loved Eddie Cochran and Elvis Presley. I loved Janis Joplin, my older sister loved Frank Sinatra and another loved Motown, so it was all in the house when I was growing up."

And having the career she has had meant Bonnie was able to spoil her parents in some ways, she says, though Elsie and Glyn were pleased to be a part of all of their children's lives and progress. 

"One of the lovely things about having some success is that you are able to look after your parents, and we all took care of mam and dad. 

"I was able to buy them somewhere nice to live in Mumbles, and they would come out to my house in Portugal. 

"Mam never thought she would get on a plane but she started coming over in the '70s and she loved it.

"And she never had favourites among us.

"If I was out with mam and someone stopped us in the street and said, 'Mrs Hopkins, you must be so proud of your daughter', she would always say, 'Yes, I am. I am proud of all of my children'. 

"And she was."