Britney Spears says she felt like a snake was going to “kill her” during her iconic but “terrifying” performance at the 2001 MTV VMAs.

Britney Spears felt like the snake she was performing with was going to ‘kill’ her during her iconic 2001 performance.

The 41-year-old pop star recalled the giant python ‘slapping’ its tongue and ‘hissing’ at her as she performed on stage at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In her forthcoming memoir The Woman in Me, she said she struggled to keep her head down while singing I’m a Slave 4 U because she felt it would ‘kill her’ if she ‘caught her eye’.

Just weeks earlier, Spears revealed she was ‘scared’ of snakes and less than thrilled about performing with the ‘scary’ reptile, although it remains ‘one of (her) favorite performances’.

This comes shortly after she took to Instagram and debuted a new red snake tattoo placed on her lower back.

Iconic performance: Britney Spears felt as if the snake she was performing with was going to ‘kill’ her during her iconic performance in 2001. The 41-year-old pop star recalled the massive python ‘lashing’ its tongue and ‘hissing’ at her as she performed stage at the MTV Video Music Awards

She said she would use a ‘snake as a prop’ as she sang 2001 hit single I’m a Slave 4 U on stage.

Everything was going as planned, recalled the Gimme More hitmaker – who recently went viral for playing with another dangerous prop after posting several knife-dancing videos – until her albino Burmese python named Banana started get too close.

“The plan was for me to sing I’m a Slave 4 U, and we decided to use a snake as a prop,” she wrote in an excerpt that came up People.

During her performance, however, she said the snake began to approach her face and hiss at her.

She said the reptile also started ‘shaking’ its tongue near her face and noted it was ‘terrifying’.

“It became an iconic moment in VMA history, but it was even scarier than it seemed,” she explained.

“All I knew was to look down because I felt like it would kill me if I looked up and caught his gaze,” she wrote in her bombshell ad.

After making it through the performance unscathed, she has now revealed what was going through her mind at the time.

‘Scary’: In her forthcoming memoir The Woman In Me, she said she did her best to keep her head down while singing I’m a Slave 4 U because she felt it would ‘kill her’ if she ‘caught her by the eye ‘

Crazy Inside: Although she made it through the performance unscathed, she recalled how at that point she went crazy in her mind but had to tell herself to keep singing and dancing

A penchant for dangerous props: The Gimme More hitmaker — who recently went viral for sporting another dangerous prop after posting several knife-dancing videos online — also recently spoke about how it’s still “one of of my favorite performances” despite how “terrifying” it was

The upcoming bombshell that tells it all: The Woman Inside Me is ready for release and will hit shelves on October 24

“I was saying in my head, ‘Just perform, just use your legs and perform,'” she recalled telling herself.

“But what no one knows is that while I was singing, the snake brought its head up to my face, right next to me, and started hissing,” she wrote.

‘I was thinking, “Are you fucking serious now? Put your fucking, fucking, snake tongue out at me. Okay. Now.” “I finally got to the part where, thank God, I got it back,” she explained.

The Woman in Me is set for release and will hit shelves on October 24th.