Badass Rocker Shirley Manson Likes Her Earl Grey with a Splash of Milk and a Side of BBC

When she's not on a tour bus for Garbage, that is

May 29, 2012

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Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people kick-start the day. And by people we mean celebrities.

After a seven-year hiatus, alt-rock band Garbage dropped a new album called "Not Your Kind Of People" two weeks ago. This means that the beautiful mug of Shirley Manson, the band's front woman, has thankfully returned to the covers of music and fashion magazines everywhere. When she's not kicking ass on tour (which she will be soon), the porcelain-skinned, redheaded Scot has a penchant for poached eggs and long dog walks. Read on for her morning routine. --Julia Bainbridge

I usually get up around 7:30. For whatever reason, round about 7:30, my dog sort of snipes at me, and that's a sign for me pull up the covers and let her slide in next to me. Then my husband, who is a wonderful husband, brings me a cup of Earl Grey tea with a splash of milk in bed. I do the cooking. He handles the tea making. I think that's a fair deal.

I tend to be on Facebook before I get up--between the tea and getting up to make breakfast. So I spend some time reading emails and Facebooking--you know, things that people have to do--on my laptop. And I love to read BBC news. Once a Brit always a Brit.

In the morning, I do either a Vitamix homemade shake or I make the Shirley Manson Special, which is a toasted English muffin on top of a bed of spinach with a piece of prosciutto and two poached eggs with a sprinkling of Parmesan, chopped spring onion, and red pepper flakes. And it's f*#king delicious. F*#king killer. We have it in our dining room, where there are French doors that open out to the garden.... It's the only civilized part of my life. The rest is chaos, but breakfast is always civilized.

Then we move onto an iced coffee and a walk of the aforementioned dog. After that, I go for a morning workout--a mixture of weight lifting and ballet and cardio. That's what I wanted to do with my life, actually--ballet--but I chronically sprained an ankle and that was the end of it.

I love dinner parties and I love entertaining. The love for cooking came from my mother, who was an amazing cook. And my grandfather was a master baker. You don't realize how much you learn by osmosis and then you have these weird memories of how to make a dough. You think, "How did I know how to do this?"

On tour, the eating goes out the window. It's really hard to eat healthy on the road. We have cleared out every piece of crap from our rider, otherwise you have chips backstage and you overly indulge in deli treats--it's too tempting. So, we have no chocolate, no biscuits, nothing.

You forget when you live on the coasts that you're spoiled. In the Midwest, it's hard to go into a restaurant and get something simple that doesn't have candied something on it or big lumps of cheese. But we'll survive.