You’re campaigning for Hear the World, the hearing-loss awareness campaign. Do you worry about losing your hearing?

When I sat down to think about it I realised that I had taken my hearing for granted. I thought of my father who worked in the shipyards. At the age of 14 he stood in the hulls of ships holding rivets while someone hammered them in. He didn’t wear ear protection and he’d come staggering out at the end of the day. He suffered from what was euphemistically named industrial deafness.

Do you get your hearing checked?

Yes, I’ve always had my ears tested, but it’s only since being involved in the campaign that I have really realised the implications if I lost it. My entire art is created for those that can hear.

You support a lot of causes and campaign on many issues; what drives that?

It’s a simple thing for me. All I’m expected to do is to turn up. It’s a small thing I can do that might help to make a difference.

Do you think celebrity endorsements help causes?

I don’t view myself as a celebrity. I’m a performer, an artist, a singer and mostly, a mother. I have two daughters, Tali, 15, and Lola, 17. Being a mother informs me the most.

In what way?

As a mother you’re passionate about your child’s wellbeing. You desperately want your child to be healthy and safe. Then it occurs to you, surely every mother wants that and surely every child should have access to a safe environment with proper nutrition and an education? It’s motherhood that spurred me to campaign on the issue of women and children with HIV and Aids.

You once said you suffered from depression from the age of 14?

There aren’t many 14-year-olds who don’t.

But yours carried on?

Yes.

Is it part of the artistic temperament?

All creative people are highly tuned. They are the people who are bright and intense, usually with a high intellect, and that comes with a price. We feel the shadows as profoundly as we do the light.

Was your depression ever diagnosed?

I’ve never been carted off to rehab or to a psychiatric hospital.

Have you ever tried antidepressants?

I can cope with it. I’m a survivor.

Does it come with a stigma?

There is a stigma, without a doubt, though I haven’t suffered as much as other people.

Ever self-medicate?

I never got sucked into drugs and drink. I don’t have the capacity for it. It wasn’t my path. A lot of people around me were taking drugs in the Eighties and Nineties, but I found it too scary. I didn’t want to be out of control.

Do you have any vices?

If I did, I wouldn’t tell you. What would be the point? I just try to handle any vices I have privately.

Ever count calories?

I’m lucky. I don’t have a big fight with myself over my weight. It’s terrible that it has become such a preoccupation. I’d never heard of bulimia or anorexia until I was in my twenties. Now girls are preoccupied from the age of 4.

So is your trim physique all down to genes?

I drag myself hatefully to the gym a few times a week.

Hatefully?

Yes, I have a trainer who walks around with me and makes me do stuff I’d never do if he wasn’t there. I go because it makes sense. I need to be healthy to perform. It’s very physical.

Would you consider going under the knife?

I don’t think it’s a crime.

Never say never?

Well, yes, you think about these things. When Julie Christie let it out of the bag I thought: “It must be bloody hard to grow old gracefully and graciously.” However, I feel that if you do go for the surgeon’s knife too quickly, you can end up monstrous. You have to judge your self-worth, your own aesthetic, and then decide.

Are you in a relationship?

I’m in a relationship with everyone. It’s such a misnomer the idea that people are in a relationship with one special person. People have preconceptions about what a relationship is; life is bigger than being in a relationship.

So you’re a lone wolf?

No, but does there have to be another person? Definitely we get a lot of satisfaction from sharing love and life, but a lot of relationships aren’t loving and can turn hateful. I’m wary of this notion of easy love. It’s beautiful, but how about let’s start with friendship and honour that first?

Annie Lennox is an ambassador for Hear The World campaign. For details visit www.hear-the-world.com

Times recommends

• Are eldest children really a cut above?
• Peaches Geldof: censored
• Top 10 style-setting films of all time