STOCKHOLM - Swedish tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet has published an extensive interview with Marie Fredriksson today. In the interview, Marie – who is healthy again - tells about her life after the brain tumor and openly explains about the problems she has as a result of the operation she underwent to remove the tumor, "it is still hard to read and I cannot count at all, but who cares! There are computers that can do that for me. Micke and my children help me a lot. Sometimes I can feel like 'damn, I cannot manage this, what is it?' But it's getting better. I just have to practice," she explains, and adds, "I feel incredibly fine and I'm glad that I am alive." Marie's children sometimes tease her, "sometimes they are mean to me, they test me a bit and ask 'What is five plus this or that?' but it doesn't matter," laughs Marie.


  She has also changed as a person, "before I took everything for granted. Today I am grateful to be alive. I enjoy time in a completely different way. Before I became sick I worked too much, toured and traveled here and there. Now I take one day at a time," she says stressing every word strongly. "Every morning I wake up and I think 'Thank God I am alive!'."


  Marie showed how strong she is when she dared to go to see the Rolling Stones live at the Cirkus in Stockholm when she was still under heavy treatment which made her look totally swollen. "I went there even though it was a horrible time for me. I took a lot of cortisone and I was swollen in the face, it was hard when people looked at me. But at the same time, it was like 'I don't care! I finally got this far.' I just didn't care about that and I went to see the Rolling Stones because I love that band. I tried to put all thoughts about my illness aside and I went there."

• Aftonbladet's article

Marie releases her album, "Min bäste vän," in about two weeks, on June 14. The album features 11 covers of Swedish artists like John Holm and Pugh Rogefeldt. "I think it has to do with age. I am not 50 yet, but I am a 48-year-old woman," Marie says laughing, "there is some kind of longing, everything comes back and one wants to go back to those memories again. These are songs that meant something for me, which are linked to my teenager time. Pugh is one of my biggest idols."


  Micke has produced the album as well as played the keyboards on it. "He is great. Very strong. He is a fantastic person. Meeting him was the best that happened to me," explains Marie. They met in the beginning of the ‘90s, when Roxette was in Sydney, Australia, as part of Joyride tour. Micke was on a trip around the world and turned up at the hotel since he was friends with Pelle Alsing, Roxette's drummer at that time. "It just clicked. We met on a Monday and on Wednesday we were engaged. So fantastic and so romantic.   But then I had to go home to Sweden to record a solo album and Micke continued his trip. You meet the love of your life and then you have to separate after just a few days… But thank God for telephones! I tell you, nobody wants to know the phone bills we had during that time," Marie smiles.


  Marie and Micke married in 1994 in Östra Ljungby, the little town in Skåne where Marie grew up. It was in this town where one could clearly see where she would go as a world star. She rode a moped and smoked before she was 15 and she loved Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. "I was young and didn't know which way to go in my life but as long as I had music I felt strong. There was an enormous power. I just longed to be in a band myself. Jimi was the biggest of all, to experience such music when you are 10, it can change your life, it changed mine. Even today there is nothing that can match what he did. My parents didn't really understand it, but I am still grateful to them, I got to listen to it as loud as I wanted as long as I kept myself in the room up in the attic."