I’VE GOT chills, they’re multiplying. And I’m losing self-control.

Why? Olivia Newton-John is set to Skype me, and the idea of interviewing the lady sets the heart racing, for two very different reasons.

The first is I’ve adored this blonde Australian with the voice softer than Koala fur for forty five years.

Will the reality match the illusion?

There’s another reason for worry. Olivia is guarded, reserved. And although the reason for the interview is her concert tomorrow alongside pals Amy Sky and Beth Neilsen Chapman, will she talk about the grief she so easily sings about in her album Liv-On?

Seconds to countdown and I find myself panicking. Any hope of morphing into the very confident Danny Zuko to her Sandy disappears.

Now she’s speaking. To me. The conversation begins with Olivia apologising for the poor line. “I live in the country,” she says of her home on the Florida coast, “and I have a little trouble with connections.”

She then adds, with a little throaty, cute laugh. “But we are on opposite sides of the earth after all.”

I can’t believe the words that then come out of my mouth.

“Yes, but I’ve always felt we’ve been connected, spiritually, Olivia.”

Amazingly, she doesn’t press the delete button on her laptop. In fact, she laughs.

And I think she’s laughing in a nice way, not mocking at all. I think. I’m on a roll.

But then she adds, apropos nothing really, “You know my sister was born in Scotland, in Edinburgh.” And that’s her way, as I hear it, of saying we are connecting.

What’s also possible is it’s her way of leading into her arrival in Glasgow. We go through a conversational gear change. We’re now talking about her concert, the live show of her album.

“It’s songs to make people feel better,” she says, the giggles now gone from her voice.

“The idea started when I lost my sister (Rona, an actress, from brain cancer) three years ago. I was writing a song in my sister’s memory and was talking to my dear friend Amy (Sky, the Canadian singer) and asked if she would help me record it and put it together.

“It got a really great reaction from my friends and I realised there really isn’t music for people who are going through loss. Then we thought about the album and invited Beth (Neilsen Chapman) to join us, who lost her husband fourteen years ago.

“Anyway, we became a trio and decided to make an album all about our personal experiences.

“It’s about realising there is no quick remedy for it but we live on, and we should be grateful for every day we have.”

The songs are cathartic. “When someone dies, for example, people don’t know what to say to you. So we wrote a song called You Don’t Know What to Say.”

Didn’t writing the album also open the gates of emotion that bit wider? “Yes, but I think that’s healthy. You see, people don’t share their feelings of loss and grief, which I think can lead into depression. They become depressed, but don’t really know why.

“It’s when you share these stories you find other friends will share. It’s only human to get it out there. It’s a great release.”

Olivia Newton-John hasn’t always opened up in the past. When her partner went missing from a boat off the coast of California she only spoke of it in the briefest terms. (Sighting were later claimed in Mexico.)

She didn’t speak of her divorce to actor Matt Lattanzi, the father of her daughter, Chloe.

“Yeh, I’m pretty private,” she admits. “Except in areas that are common denominators.

“When I had breast cancer in 1992 I talked about that because I thought it might help other women. And now I have my Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Centre in Australia and created a wellness programme.”

She pauses; “I try to keep my life private but it’s very hard being in the public eye. But if I can help by talking I will.”

What emerges is that Olivia Newton-John may have sold 100m records, and starred in Grease and become a national treasure but none of that offers a force field against sadness.

“I feel very privileged for my life. I’m grateful I’ve been able to live a normal life when I’m not working. I live in the country, I have the animals. I like to feed my horses and my dog and cat and my husband. It’s pretty normal stuff.

“I don’t take my (professional) life too seriously. I don’t believe the press handouts.

“I think that’s how I’ve managed to survive. I don’t hear the good and the bad.”

The singer adds; “And I think it helps being raised in Australia. The tall poppy Syndrome really exists there and I didn’t get praised unless I really worked hard.”

Olivia Newton-John was born in Cambridge, her dad was an Enigma Code scientist who became a university professor. The family moved to Melbourne when she was five.

Her singing voice and natural beauty saw her a natural for Australian television, films and pop groups.

Coming to Britain aged 17 she toured, worked hard, landed the Cliff Richard Show and had a string of hits.

But did she hold it together during Grease?

“Yes, because I’d been around for a while. (She was 30 when she played Sandy.) And I had my friends and my animals. But the invasion of privacy was nothing like young people have to deal with today, with social media.”

Olivia, at 68, is relaxed about the ageing process.

“Since my breast cancer I’ve considered every year a gift.”

“And apart from when my daughter (Chloe) was born I’m having the best time of my life right now.”

Bright, funny and warm. I know Olivia Newton-John is still the one that I want to see at Celtic Connections.

• Glasgow Royal Concert Hall; Celtic Connections, Liv On, An Acoustic Evening With Olivia Newton-John, Beth Neilsen Chapman and Amy Sky, Tuesday at 7.30pm.