TORONTO -- The strange career of Bif Naked has found her in some unlikely company, but perhaps none stranger than the songwriting session for her current single.

"I Love Myself Today," from her forthcoming disc "Purge", was co-written by Naked and two of the biggest hit-doctors in the music business: Eric Bazilian (Joan Osborne's hit "One Of Us" and a string of numbers for Cyndi Lauper) and Desmond Child (Bon Jovi/Aerosmith/Michael Bolton).

If you think that two of the music industry's most successful hit-makers teaming up with the diminutive, Winnipeg-bred punk firebrand made for a strange sight, Naked is quick to agree.

"I took my skateboard and showed up (for the writing session) and said, 'Hi, I shouldn't be here. Pretty soon someone is going to find out I have no right talking to you. Holy f--k," the singer told JAM! Music while curled up on the couch of a Toronto hotel room recently.

Writers of Child's and Bazilian's stature are often recruited to album projects by labels that are concerned the album needs their radio-ready touch. But Naked said there were no such concerns about "Purge," which arrives in stores Sept. 4.

"It was just kind of, Desmond was a fan for a long time," she explained.

"Very late in the game, Eric Bazilian, his name came up. I met him ... He and Desmond are acquainted previously. I don't really know how it came up for sure. I am glad it did, because I loved it.

"It was so fun. It was such a big drink of the water of life. Such a great experience. And to be ... I don't know, sitting down with them, all of us on the same playing field with that song.

"I mean, we sat down to write a song together. That was our purpose. The whole song was the three of us sitting at a table with three blank pads of paper and a guitar. We just banged it out."

Child produced "I Love Myself Today" for "Purge" as a thundering, quasi-metal track concealing a positive message about self-esteem.

"I'm looking in the mirror and I like what I see/I lost the fear in the heart that's been eating at me," Naked raps in one of the verses.

"I love myself today,

Not like yesterday,

I'm cool, I'm calm,

I'm gonna be okay"

Naked was scheduled to open a Toronto show Thursday for boy-pop phemons The Moffatts, and she said she relishes the opportunity to deliver that kind of message to that group's young, female audience.

"I want to encourage them all to say vagina in unison. Believe me they are not prepared for me to be on that show. I lose my head," she said.

"It is hard not to feel preachy when it comes to young girls," she said of the Britney/Jessica/Christina calibre of role models being offered to adolescent females.

"It is hard for me not to tell them: 'You guys don't know what it was like! You don't know Babes In Toyland! You don't remember the early Hole! L7! Seven Year Bitch. You gotta get into it'," she says of her own influences.

"It is a reflection of our culture now. It is so icon-hungry. They just love celebrity, in any way, shape or form. You can be in the society pages for being a f--king model, you know? That is a sign of the times."

When Naked, 32, was growing up, her heroes were the male frontmen of the punk bands she adored. And while some people say it's ultimately better to have same-sex role models, Naked says she's not so sure today's young women are better off.

"We had to forge our own roles as females. And we got to see bands that were very cutting-edge, like Tragic Mulatto out of San Francisco. The singer (who went by the name Flatula Lee Roth) was a big girl who took her top off onstage and she had big hanging, f--king watermelons, and she didn't give a s--t," she enthused.

"If it is only going to be me that doesn't get fake tits, GOOD! I am going to make sure I sit every 16-year-old in North America down and go, 'You know what? You like this in Teen People? Guess what? I didn't get fake tits! Don't do this! It's not healthy. Hold your eyes closed. Don't look'!"

Speaking of strange company, the singer's promotional duties for her last album, "I Bificus," brought her to -- of all places -- the Playboy Mansion, for a taping of "Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher." During the show, Naked was placed next to fellow Canadian (and "Star Trek" icon) William Shatner, who had only recently endured the death of his wife. Naked felt sorry for him but didn't expect him to bother to interact with her.

"He started offering me his jacket, because it was cold. Where do you live? Do you have any dogs? Yeah, I have dogs. He said your dogs miss you on tour, and that is why they have anxiety.

"I thought, f--k! You don't have to talk to me. It was great. Wonderful."