Singer says mom stopped her from taking 'wild' stage name

NEW YORK -- If it weren't for her mother, Alicia Keys might have a radically different image.

Keys, who has a new album titled "As I Am," said that when she was trying to choose a professional name she went through a dictionary and stopped on the word "wild."

She tells Newsweek in the magazine's Nov. 19 issue that she asked her mother how Alicia Wild sounded to her.

"She said 'It sounds like you're a stripper,'" Keys said.

After that, she decided to use Keys.

"It's like the piano keys. And it can open so many doors," said the singer born Alicia Augello-Cook.