Sabrina Carpenter is as good as any current pop star at cultivating controversy and attention — the latest evidence was the now-subsided furor over her absurd Man’s Best Friend album cover, which seems to take cues from Spinal Tap’s Smell the Glove. “She’s leaning into it and laughing about it at the same time,” says Angie Martoccio, who profiled Carpenter for her recent Rolling Stone cover story — which revealed that image aside, the singer’s true obsession is music.
“I wasn’t aware that she was a full-on music nerd,” Martoccio says in the latest episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, which takes a deep look at Carpenter’s career so far and previews her next album, Man’s Best Friend, out Aug. 29. (To hear the whole episode, go here for the podcast provider of your choice, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.)
“She’s obsessed with the Seventies and spends her off-time watching Saturday Night Fever and really studying the discographies of her favorite artists,” Martoccio adds. Carpenter’s ABBA fandom runs so deep she’s named her cats Benny and Björn, attended the ABBA Voyage show multiple times (taking wardrobe inspiration from it), and scored a personal museum tour from Björn Ulvaeus himself.
The episode digs into just how far Carpenter has come from the moment when she seemed in danger of being seen as just “the blonde girl” from Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Driver’s License.” The publicity around the two artists’ teenage love triangle seemed to send Carpenter into artistic overdrive: She wrote great songs inspired by it all — “Skin” and “Because I Liked a Boy” — as she began the work of redefining herself on her own terms with 2022’s E-Mails I Didn’t Send. When Martoccio asked if Carpenter ever thinks about that period now, she got a Don Draper-worthy response: “I don’t think about it at all.” Later, Carpenter was spotted watching Rodrigo’s Glastonbury set from the wings.
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Martoccio’s interview also touched on Carpenter’s relationship with the world’s scrutiny. The artist admits to reading everything written about her online — from body-shaming comments to criticism of her show’s sexual content — to the point where she’s “numb” to much of it. Her feelings about being picked apart ended up on the vinyl-only “Needless to Say,” a song she told Martoccio is close to her heart.
Download and subscribe to Rolling Stone‘s weekly podcast, Rolling Stone Music Now, hosted by Brian Hiatt, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts). Check out eight years’ worth of episodes in the archive, including in-depth interviews with Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, SZA, Questlove, Halsey, Neil Young, Snoop Dogg, Brandi Carlile, Phoebe Bridgers, Rick Ross, Alicia Keys, the National, Ice Cube, Taylor Hawkins, Willow, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Dua Lipa, Killer Mike, Julian Casablancas, Sheryl Crow, Johnny Marr, Scott Weiland, Kirk Hammett, Coco Jones, Liam Gallagher, Alice Cooper, Fleetwood Mac, Elvis Costello, John Legend, Donald Fagen, Charlie Puth, Phil Collins, Justin Townes Earle, Stephen Malkmus, Sebastian Bach, Tom Petty, Eddie Van Halen, Kelly Clarkson, Pete Townshend, Bob Seger, the Zombies, and Gary Clark Jr. And look for dozens of episodes featuring genre-spanning discussions, debates, and explainers with Rolling Stone’s critics and reporters.
