She's A Country Girl At Heart

thanks to Kay

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While Cliff Richard ponders the possibility of failure in the U.S., Olivia Newton-John-her single Don't Stop Believin' is released this month - is established as one of America's first ladies of country and western song after only modest success in Europe.

Now 27, she enjoys an enviable life-style, which includes a five-acre ranch in the hills above Malibu in Southern California. I'm a home-loving country girl at heart, she says. I don't lead a mad social life, I much prefer to stay at home.

Gold and platinum discs (in one year she was awarded nine), three Grammies (the pop industry's Oscars) and twice winner of the Country Music Association's Top Female Vocalist of the Year awards in 1974 and 1975, Livvy is a sell-out wherever she performs.

But at home her audience is four-legged rather than two and includes her horse Judgeable and three Great Danes... that's Zargon, in our picture with her above.

America has taught me to loosen up, says Livvy, relaxing on her sun-drenched patio. I've gained a great deal of confidence here even though it's very much a place of overnight success and overnight flops. I've found that I can cope because I've discovered a level-headed quality within myself. Most of the time I've been fortunate to associate with people who have let me develop in my own time and at my own pace. And that means getting away from the glamour and forced glitter. It's wonderful up here in Malibu and there's plenty of space for Judgeable, Zargon, my Red Setter Jackson and Domino (right). I really don't know what I'm going to do next... which is kind of exciting. I suppose I'll go on until I get sick of this business. Or it gets sick of me.