Chappell Roan has reflected on setting boundaries with her friends and why she thinks “people are scared” of her.
- READ MORE: Chappell Roan: the pop supernova who feels like one of the ‘Drag Race’ girls
Last year, Roan’s feelings about fame consistently made headlines, with her comparing it to “an abusive ex-husband”. In an interview with The Face, the former NME Cover star vented about the normalisation of extreme fan behaviour including “stalking, talking shit online, [people who] won’t leave you alone, yelling at you in public.” She added: “I didn’t know it would feel this bad.”
Prior to that, she had taken to TikTok to share her thoughts on “weird” and “creepy” followers, calling out the “predatory behaviour” of so-called “superfans” that includes “nonconsensual physical and social interactions”.
Her statements have since been applauded by celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Rachel Zegler, and Daniel Craig, the latter saying he admires “the guts to say those things”. Olivia Rodrigo also revealed that Roan has been a key support figure in helping her deal with an “overwhelming” entertainment industry.
Now, Roan has appeared on the Call Her Daddy podcast, where she addressed the matter. Speaking to Alex Cooper, she said: “I think people are scared of me. I think I made a big enough deal about not talking to me, that people do not talk to me. I think that’s the truth of it all.”
She continued: “I’ve been with friends, like artists, and when they’re with me, they’re like ‘It’s a force field around us. People don’t come up to me when I’m with you.’ And I’m like ‘Damn, baby! You say it too. You say ‘Don’t touch me, don’t talk to me, I don’t know who you are’ and they won’t come up to you’”.
Chappell Roan also said that she knows her statements have “hurt” people and fans: “I know it really hurts people… they feel like it’s me disrespecting them or I owe it to them, or how dare I call it abuse. Or that I’m complaining about success, I get that a lot… but I’m not complaining about success, I’m just complaining about creepy behaviour… I just don’t want you to interrupt me when I’m having a fight with a girlfriend and I’m crying… that’s crazy.”
“Of course, it’s going to take a second for people to really look at themselves and I have to have grace for that. How would I know any better? If I saw Hannah Montana, I’d have to tell her I love her music so much and she means a lot to me. But in reality, no I don’t. Because that’s not Hannah right there, that’s Destiny Hope Cyrus.”
Her appearance on Call Her Daddy comes shortly after the singer released the country-tinged single ‘The Giver’. Released on March 14, ‘The Giver’ marked the singer’s first new music out since the hugely successful one-off single ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ last year. She had been steadily teasing the song for some time now, and debuted the song during her appearance on Saturday Night Live last November.
She has since shared an update on her highly anticipated sophomore album, on which ‘The Giver’ is expected to appear: “New album? Great question. We’re so beyond… so beyond far away from that, I could not even tell you.”
In a four-star review of her acclaimed debut album‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’, NME wrote: “These sharp pop moments shine brighter than some of the weaker ballads that pad out the lengthy tracklist. Yet ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’ is a display of Roan’s bold and brazen pen, where she places searing revelations alongside some deliciously cheeky choruses.”
In other news, Roan recently performed a duet of ‘Pink Pony Club’ with Elton John at his Oscars viewing party. She also recently dedicated her BRIT Award win “to trans artists, to drag queens, to fashion students, sex workers, and Sinead O’Connor,” and prior to that made headlines after using her Best New Artist speech at the 67th Grammy Awards to take aim at record labels and share her past experience as a struggling new artist.
Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe’ was also named as NME’s best song of 2024. “With ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, Roan set out to write a ‘big anthemic pop song’. It was an unqualified success: over subtly insistent synth-pop, Roan serves up home truths to someone desperately trying to deny their queerness,” the entry read.
