But when you talk to the ex-lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs a more robust figure emerges than the politically correct, socially aware, painfully sensitive creature who once made headlines for refusing to kill the grass by walking on it.
The woman who once declared Madonna to be her "ideological enemy" tells me: "Just because I don't caress my breasts in front of the camera doesn't mean I'm frigid. I can be a very passionate person but I keep my sexuality private because I have a lot of respect for the people I make love to."
One of those was by all accounts R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe who has also collaborated musically with 31-year-old Natalie. On her private dealings with Stipe she will not comment. On her old friend's rise to global stardom she says: "I think he handles it all really well, but to be honest I couldn't do it."
Indeed, during her 12 years with 10,000 Maniacs, Natalie was so wary of fame she did not allow her face to appear on any of their albums, a rule she has relaxed with Tiger Lily. It's a record which will find an appreciative audience among the millions who bought the Maniacs last album, Unplugged. More than ever, its subject matter is not what you'd expect in the pop arena. On Beloved Wife, she sings of the devastating loss her grandad felt when his wife died.