Q: You’ve avoided the pitfalls of partying that have caught up with Lindsay Lohan and Rihanna. Do you perform and go home?

A: Sometimes I do but, to be honest, when it comes to going out, if I feel like doing it I do. I think just growing up in the music industry, when I think I was 15 and 16, Destiny’s Child had chaperons when we performed and we went home because that was the proper thing to do. We had great parents around us who wanted to make sure we were shielded from all of that. I’m grateful that they did. It just taught us. I just remember hearing someone say, “You’re my role model,” and taking that really seriously. It was a great weight, but you still take it seriously because there are young people looking at you.

Q: You had the kind of parenting, I’m guessing, that wouldn’t have tolerated you bullying a school bus monitor the way New York’s Karen Klein was by those kids.

A: Oh nooo. There would have been a belt involved. [Laughter.] All I had to do was look [as though I was about to do something wrong]. Oh, my momma didn’t play that. My momma can look at me like that and I’m still scared.

Q: Who’s your boy in the beef: Drake or Chris Brown?

A: Oh, you can’t make me choose. The thing is that I love them both. They’re incredible artists. I don’t think that anyone should have to choose anyway.

Q: Beyoncé has blown up. Do you feel in her shadow, like Mary Wilson (or Florence Ballard, Cindy Birdsong) probably did with Diana Ross, or has Beyoncé included you in her success? Sometimes when your friends have really big careers, as most of my friends have, they still include you and you feel a part of their success …

A: [Rowland just smiled with those flawless teeth and waited for her assistant to jump in and say: "I'm sorry, we're not going to answer that." I thanked Rowland for her time.]