Barbra Streisand says Judy Garland once warned her about Hollywood

"My Name Is Barbra" is about how the star Barbra Streisand was born — literally and figuratively, tracking her journey toward fame.

In the memoir, out Nov. 7, Streisand reflects on her friendship with Judy Garland, and ominous advice the singer gave her about surviving in Hollywood.

Garland and Streisand are linked by their starring roles in two of "A Star Is Born's" four adaptations, with both taking the lead role of a singer on the rise to fame. Garland starred in the 1954 version; Streisand took over the part in a 1976 drama.

The two first met when Streisand appeared on "The Judy Garland Show" early in her career in 1963. Streisand was 21 at the time; Garland was 41, per her memoir.

Streisand writes that years earlier, she saw Garland perform live and was "magnificent." This time, during their duet, she seemed "frightened."

"She was shaking. She grabbed my arm, as if to steady herself, and then clasped my hand and held on to it tightly. She never let go of me until the end of the song," Streisand says.

Streisand guessed her nerves had to do with the pressures of fame. “The more successful you are, the more the pressure increases. There seem to be more people out there just waiting for you to fail," she writes.

During the sketch, Streisand says she read a scripted line that was twisted into rumors of a rivalry between the two singers: "Can I replace you?"

This, she says, was far from the truth. "People were looking for some sort of rivalry between us. And when they couldn’t find anything, they made it up. I found Judy to be completely generous," she writes.

Instead of rivals, Garland and Streisand became friends. At a party Garland attended at Streisand's apartment, she gave the rising star advice, which Streisand recounts in her memoir.

"And I remember her saying something I never quite understood: 'Don’t let them do to you what they did to me.' I should have asked her what she meant, but I didn’t want to appear too nosy," Streisand writes.

She follows up with what came of Garland: "Six years after we did that show, she was dead at the age of forty-seven."

Streisand never elaborates about what Garland might have meant — but the "Wizard of Oz" star's life has clues.

Garland wrote in an unpublished biography, included in the book "Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland," that she had been harassed and threatened by studio executives after signing a contract as a teenager. She had a history of addiction and depression. She died in London following an overdose on barbituates.

Streisand, now 81, uses the memoir to reflect on the long career Garland never got to see her have, becoming one of the best selling female artists of all time and attaining EGOT status.

"They say that success changes a person, but I think it actually makes you more of who you really are. Frankly, I think I’m rather ordinary. I just happened to be born with a good voice, and then I guess there was something about my looks, my personality, whatever talent I had that intrigued people (or annoyed them)," she writes.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com