Billie Eilish has recalled the advice she was given by John Mayer at the beginning of her career.
The 22-year-old singer opened up about the moment during a new interview with Rolling Stone, where she described how she felt “afraid” when it came to going out in public.
“I’m afraid [and] for a fucking good reason. I’m afraid of people, I’m afraid of the world. It’s just scary for somebody like me,” she said, explaining how she finds it difficult to be recognised by so many people on the street. “Even if it’s not scary, it means being on and being vulnerable and being seen and being filmed and whatever.”
“But with that all in mind, I have been choosing to do the thing that scares me more. I am biting the bullet and existing in the world for once,” she added.
It was then that she recalled how she had felt the pressure of going out in public since the very beginning of her career, and was given some advice by Mayer when she found her growing fame to be overwhelming back in 2019.
“I remember him saying, ‘It feels like it’s going to feel like that forever, but it will go away, and in a way, you want to take it in because it will cool off, and people won’t act like [you’re] Bigfoot when they see [you],’?” Eilish recalled.
“That really stuck with me, because I was like, ‘No, it is going to feel like this forever, and everywhere I go, people are going to look at me like they just saw a ghost.’”
In the interview, she went on to say that she doesn’t feel like the guitarist’s prediction has quite come to fruition yet, but she does have hope that if she goes out in public more, people will be less shocked when they see her.
Finneas, her brother and co-writer, then referred to US store Trader Joe’s as an example of what she meant, saying: “If you go four times, somebody in the store is going to go, ‘Oh, my God, I recognise that person.’ And they’re going to say that to their friend, and their friend’s going to be like, ‘Yeah, they’re here all the time.’ You normalise yourself, which is the right way to do it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, the ‘Ocean Eyes’ singer explained why she isn’t sharing any singles from her new album ahead of its release, and also opened up about her body dysmorphia, sharing that “self-pleasure” had helped her feel “empowered and comfortable”.
Her new album, ‘Hit Me Hard And Soft’ is due to arrive on May 17, and following her comments about the lack of sustainability in the vinyl world, Eilish has confirmed that the physical copies of the LP will be made using 100 per cent recyclable materials. See the album’s full tracklist here and visit here to pre-order.
In other news, Eilish has opened up about her recent appearance at Lana Del Rey’s Coachella headline set, calling it a “hallucination”.
