Macy Gray: I made bad choices

Macy Gray would be a criminal if she wasn't famous.

The 45-year-old R&B star is currently promoting her latest album The Way, her first since 2012's Talking Book.

She might be taking the charts by storm now, but the singer hasn't always had it that easy. Macy suffers from bipolar disorder and has admitted to drug problems in the past.

"I'd probably be a criminal!" she admitted to British magazine Star when asked if she had a Plan B.

"I didn't know what I was going to do, so my career and my kids saved my life. I was definitely no good before that. I had a lot of fun doing the wrong things [laughs]."

Luckily, her music took off and she has fans all over the world. But even someone as famous as Macy gets weak at the knees when confronted with certain stars.

"Oh yeah! I'm a huge groupie - I get really nervous around other celebrities," she giggled.

"I once spent two hours looking for Jay Z backstage at his concert, and when I met Diana Ross I stuttered through the whole conversation!"

But Macy's encounters with A-listers haven't always brought such good memories. In fact, one of her first was rather unpleasant.

"When I was a waitress in Beverly Hills, I served Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand," she recalled.

"Between them they ordered coffee and a muffin, and it came to $2.67. They left me the 33 cents as a tip!"