LeAnn Rimes speaks ahead of tonight's Birmingham show

Country star LeAnn Rimes has sold more than 44 million records during a stellar career. Her Patsy Cline-esque vocals and movie star looks have given her worldwide success and she's returning to the UK to headline Birmingham's Symphony Hall tonight on her latest global travels.

The vocal powerhouse has two Grammy Awards; 12 Billboard Music Awards; two World Music Awards; three Academy of Country Music Awards; one Country Music Association Award and one Dove Award.

And it all started so young. Rimes was just 14 when she won Best New Artist, making her the youngest recipient of a Grammy.

Her debut album Blue celebrates the 20th anniversary of its release this year and of the 42 singles she has released throughout her expansive career, her song How Do I Live ranks No4 on Billboard's Greatest of All Time: Hot 100 Songs list.

It also holds the record for being the second longest charting song ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

With so much success, life ought to be sweet. And yet Rimes has suffered from depression and hit rock bottom in 2012 when she was treated for stress at a rehab clinic.

She was publicly shamed after cheating on her ex-husband with actor Eddie Cibrian, and ultimately married him even though he was involved with ex-wife Brandi Glanville when they first began their relationship.

"I lost my mind in private," she admits. "I've gone through a lot, every transition and every feeling that goes along with being a child star...I can see now why things happened the way they did and all of these lessons I've learned. But it was hell at times."

Finding love, however, has put her on the right path. "I'm very happy. We've been married more than five years and I have my two stepsons, but the shaming thing, that's where I had severe anxiety and depression. It was a mistake but it led me to my marriage. I didn't know how to deal with that and it became this snowball effect."

Rimes quickly became tabloid fodder – better known for her relationship issues than for once selling out stadiums.

But she's keen to reboot her musical career following the release last year of her 13th album, Remnants, which featured the lead single, a cover of Brandi Carlile's The Story.

She said: "There have been three versions of that song. Brandi Carlile was the original artist that did it. How I found out about it was through Grey's Anatomy years and years ago. It's such a beautiful song, it really is. It's so powerful. It's interesting because all three versions are just so completely different and when I knew I was covering it I wanted to set everything apart." The album was launched in the UK rather than the USA. Rimes says there were good reasons for that.

"I was at a label for 20 years, since I was 11, and I took a couple of years to figure out if I wanted to do this anymore. I realised it was about finding the right partner. I knew there was this box around me, certain parameters that I fit into and the way people see me. They love to label.

"I just want to do great music and I want it to be about my voice so I went round to talk to labels. I know music now is worldwide and I could have gone to any country to work with a label. It just fit here.

Even being the artist that was making it, I didn't know this was in me fully and that it could come out of me. It's been such an exploration."

Music, however, isn't the be all and end all. Rimes would like to continue acting, when she finds the time. Everyone associates her with appearing as herself in 2000 hit Coyote Ugly. But she has appeared in series such as Anger Management and American Dreams, too.

"I would love to," she reveals. "It's interesting because I think the more authentic I am with my songwriting, I'm becoming that on stage as an artist. I saw myself being even more vulnerable in that situation so I think I would like to use that for something."