EXCELLENT point Dan! I am pretty sure that my best performances come from singing for a specific purpose (could be for myself), even if I am in front of an audience. They are certainly the ones I enjoy the most, the ones that take it out of me the most, when (occasionally) I lose sense of time and place. They can occur in the shower, in the car, and on those few magical occasions, in front of an audience that is itself relaxed and "buying" readily into what I have to say - so that I don't feel any pressure to "persuade".

And such performances rarely go "to plan" as far as interpretation goes.