After spending most of 2024 on the road, Olivia Rodrigo is back home. Her time off, however, has come with a gentle reminder that she needs to take it easy for the time being. “I’m sick as a dog,” she says between coughs.
Gen Z’s preeminent rock star is beginning a much-deserved break. Her world tour in support of sophomore album Guts was her biggest in every sense: She played arenas for the first time and hit new markets, including legs in Asia and Australia. Her 95 shows this year were attended by 1.4 million people and have crossed $186.6 million, making it the highest-grossing tour by an artist born this century.
To mark the end of the 2024 shows (she still has a few more to wrap up in South America and England next spring and summer), Rodrigo released the Guts World Tour film on Netflix this week. Filmed during her set at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome this past August, Rodrigo and Netflix bring one of the year’s most exciting tours directly into fans’ homes.
Ahead of the film’s release, Rodrigo spoke with Rolling Stone about what life after her longest tour yet — and what the future post-Guts looks like.
What have you been up to since you came back from Australia?
I have just been seeing all my friends. It’s been so nice. The road can get kind of lonely, and I’ve missed everyone so much. It’s been so good to my family and my friends and just chill out and drive my car. Everyone talks about how nice it is to sleep in your own bed after a while, but driving your own car is also very nice.
This has been your biggest tour in every sense and you finally got to do a truly global trek. What were the good and bad parts of that experience for you?
It was my first arena tour and I got to go to so many fun places that I’ve always dreamed of going, like in Asia and Europe. I just feel like I got to see so much of the world and got to get cultured a lot. So that was so much fun. But being on stage night after night for months on end is really taxing on the body and on your mind. You can start to go a little crazy if you don’t make a real effort to keep yourself grounded and talk to people and call your therapist and make sure that you’re taking care of your mental health. So, there were certainly some days that were harder than others in that respect, but I’m happy that I did it. I feel like I’m so much stronger an individual because of this experience. I’m just grateful for the whole thing.
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What did you do to take care of yourself on the road?
I would watch Sex in the City every day. I’m not even being hyperbolic. That was my comfort show.
I read a lot on the road to really try to be a good reader and learn some stuff. I was big on exercising just for mental and for physical [reasons]. A show is physically very draining, but I found that exercise really helps me stay kind of centered.
In the Billboard story on your tour, one of your managers mentioned that even arenas might’ve been an underplay given the demand. Are stadium shows on your mind for your next tour?
I’m undecided. I mean, that is so crazy to me that the ticket demand was so that I could have played stadiums. That’s something I can’t really wrap my mind around quite yet. The biggest venue that I played was in the Philippines, and I think it was like 55,000 people, which isn’t even a stadium. It’s a little smaller than a stadium. And it felt so different. So I’m not quite sure yet, but I really enjoyed playing arenas this time. It felt intimate enough where I could see people, but there’s so much energy because there’s so many people in the room. But I’m not opposed to anything! I’m excited for it all.
Of course the film is a great way for people who didn’t get tickets this time to experience the show from their homes. Did you always know you wanted to film your hometown shows in Los Angeles?
I did, although it made me a little nervous. I get really nervous for the LA and New York shows because all my friends are there, and so having it be filmed was also just another element of nerve-wracking. But it was really special to film that in my hometown. I think I wouldn’t have it any other way. I have such a connection to LA, and LA has served as so much inspiration for me over the years. It felt serendipitous.
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You recorded Guts with the live show in mind and had been plotting out the stage show for a long time. What aspects of the tour were you most proud of making a reality?
Making a show is so crazy because you can literally be like, “Yo, I see a moon in my head” and the next day you show up, and there’s just like this gigantic silver moon for you to sit on. It’s such a fun thing to do as a creative exercise.
I feel really proud of how the show was so interactive. I feel like even if you were sitting in the nosebleeds, you really felt like you were part of the experience and screaming along with everyone and as engaged as the next person. I’m really proud of that aspect, and I really loved some of the rock elements of the show, too. I really set out to kind of create my own version of a rock show, and so I think some of the rock songs are really exciting. They were really fun to watch back in the movie.
Are there any rock shows you’ve seen live or concert films that felt like inspirational touch points for how you perform?
I grew up loving rock music, but more specifically I love girl rock bands and riot grrl bands. I loved Hole, Sleater-Kinney, L7, Babes in Toyland. I was really inspired by them, and I think that’s why I wanted to have an all-girl band up on stage. It feels very feminine on stage, but we’re all playing power chords and screaming. There’s something fun about that.
For New York and LA shows you were able to get one of your favorite bands, the Breeders, to open for you. What was it like to watch this band that inspired you so much before you played your own set?
It was so cool. I grew up listening to them all the time, and the song “Cannonball” changed my life as a songwriter. I remember when someone was like, “Well, why don’t you ask them to open for you?” I was really scared to ask, and so the fact that they even agreed and showed up and played these shows is just so cool to me. I’ll never forget it. And they’re so kind and wonderful and such brilliant musicians. I’m glad that people appreciated it as much as I did
Watching the film back, I could see so much of Gwen Stefani’s performances with No Doubt in the way you carried yourself on stage. Having joined the band at Coachella back in April, was there anything that struck you about how she commanded the stage?
Oh my gosh, I love that girl so much. She is such an inspiration to me, just as a songwriter and as a creative person. After watching Coachella, I don’t know if this is necessarily inspiration, but I was so amazed by how fit she is. She is the fittest girl I’ve ever seen. Always has been. At Coachella, she was climbing the lighting on stage and running all around. She does push ups during her show. I was just looking at her like, “Wow, I need to go to the gym more.” She is epic and so powerful.
You mentioned your band and were backed every night by an incredible team of musicians of dancers that you seem to have gotten really tight with. Any great memories from running around the world with them?
They’re so awesome and so talented musically. It was so fun to get to watch them be stars in their own right in the movie. I just am so proud of them and love them all so much.
On tour, we took a surfing lesson in Australia. We got to go on a boat swimming in Switzerland and eat tapas in Spain.
Was there one song in particular that was the most fun to perform live?
I was really excited to perform “Obsessed” live. We started the tour not playing that song. It came out midway through tour. So that was a really fun one people got really hyped for it, and I wasn’t expecting that, because it was a deluxe track.
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Were you writing new songs on tour or were you keeping yourself immersed in the Guts world?
A little bit of both. Sometimes it’s hard to write when you’re constantly moving around, and you don’t feel very grounded. But I did find a chance to make a few songs on the road. Songwriting for me is a form of self-care. It’s like journaling or going to therapy. It makes everything seem so much less overwhelming. I definitely wrote some songs, but mostly just for myself. But I think that’s how all good songs start out as anyway.
Does the film officially mark the end of the Guts era?
Yeah, I think it’s the end of the Guts era! I love this era so much. It was so much fun to get to create and share with the fans. I’m so grateful that fans have embraced Guts in the way that they have. I felt so much pressure after Sour to make something that could follow it up, and that was a really daunting task. I’m proud of the album, and I’m really proud of the musical elements that we explored and so proud of it lyrically. The fact that people have embraced it the way that they have just means so much to me, and I’m really excited for a break and for what’s to come.
