Chappell Roan has had a huge year. Her music has been omnipresent at nearly every major event, her performances garner huge headlines and tons of social media engagement, and Roan has now gotten so major, it feels like there’s a quiet backlash. “Industry plant” rumors abound, cultural conversations about “setting boundaries with fans” and public clapbacks on paparazzi and more. I went into her Rolling Stone profile having read some of the quotes out of context, and wanting to see the context and the larger portrait of Chappell. She’s 26, from a conservative Christian family in Missouri. She was diagnosed as bipolar when she was 22-ish. She still deals with bad moments, crazy highs and the lowest lows. I came out of this interview respecting her and understanding that she’s not an industry plant, but I also think she comes across (at times) as very immature and attention-seeking and very mixed up politically. Still, she’s genuinely talented. Some highlights from this RS piece:
Rethinking how she interacts with fans. She won’t respond to the name “Kayleigh” and says no to most photos. One fan asked for a photo while Roan was having a fight with her girlfriend and was clearly in distress. “They need to see me as a random bitch on the street,” she says to me, a sentiment that she will repeat in a pair of TikToks about creepy fan behavior she’ll post in August. “You can’t yell at a random bitch who’s on the sidewalk that you don’t know. It’s considered catcalling or harassment.”
She’s getting a lot of support from her industry peers: “I’m not trying to name-drop. I’m trying to tell you there are girls who are good people, who are helping other girls out. I’m name-dropping them because people just need to know that people are good people.” There has been a notable exception: “Not a lot of boys have been like, ‘Let me know if you ever want to talk about it,’ ” she points out. There have only been a few: Peck, Troye Sivan (an early fan of Roan), Noah Kahan, and Elton John. “It’s been sick to have artists that I’ve looked up to for many years, sometimes my whole life, reach out.”
The industry plant accusation: “Just because you don’t know someone doesn’t mean that they’re an industry plan. Did you ever consider maybe you’re just out of the loop?”
Empathy for Republicans: Roan carries more empathy for her conservative relatives and friends back home than people on the coast sometimes understand: “I have family that are very Republican, and they love me and I love them. It’s so hard for kids who grew up on the coast to understand why maybe I can … understand. And I understand all of it that was in me came from fear because I just didn’t know.”
Turning down an invitation to perform at the Biden White House: At Gov Ball, Roan revealed to the audience that she had turned down an invite to the White House’s Pride Celebration…she dedicated the song to the Biden administration, protesting its involvement in the destruction of Gaza and death of civilian Palestinians. “We want liberty, justice, and freedom for all. When you do that, that’s when I’ll come,” she said. At her house, Roan tells me she had something “way worse” planned. She was originally going to say yes, show up, and then refuse to perform; instead, she would protest with some poetry. “I had picked out some poems from Palestinian women. I was trying to do it as tastefully as I could because all I wanted to do was yell. I had to find something that’s tasteful and to the point and meaningful, and not make it about me and how I feel. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that close in direct sight of the president ever in my life. This is my shot.” She talked it through with her publicist, who was supportive but made a point: “You f–k with the president and the government, your security is not the same, and neither is your family’s.”
People were confused: “I saw a couple of TikToks where they were like, ‘So she’s pro Trump?’ ” Roan’s face contorts into disgust. “It is not so black and white that you hate one and you like the other. No matter how you say it, people are still going to be pissed for f–king some reason. I’m not going to go to the White House because I am not going to be a monkey for Pride.”
On Joe Biden’s reelection campaign (at the time): “I’m pretty, ‘F–k the government, and f–k everything that’s going on right now.’ I don’t have a side because I hate both sides, and I’m so embarrassed about everything going on right now.”
Now that Kamala Harris is the nominee: “Right now, it’s more important than ever to use your vote, and I will do whatever it takes to protect people’s civil rights, especially the LGBTQ+ community. My ethics and values will always align with that, and that hasn’t changed with a different nominee. I feel lucky to be alive during an incredibly historical time period when a woman of color is a presidential nominee.”
In a matter of weeks, she went from “Genocide Joe will hunt down my MAGA family if I scream Palestinian poetry at a White House Pride event” to “of course I will always support the pro-LGBTQ rights candidate, I was always on that side.” That’s what I mean about her immaturity – she clearly couldn’t align her ethics and values to the most pro-LGBTQ president in history, but hey, she changed her mind now that all of her friends are saying nice things about Kamala Harris. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that more young people are engaged and interested in the election. But VP Harris is a Biden Democrat and these younger people have no idea what that means. Anyway… I enjoy her music. Her interviews are a little eh.
Speaking of, this quote from Chappell was making the rounds over the weekend. She’s a both-sideser. Which means she’s a Republican.
Chappell Roan on why she hasn’t endorsed Kamala Harris:
“I have so many issues with our government in every way… There are so many things that I would want to change. So I don’t feel pressured to endorse someone. There’s problems on both sides.” pic.twitter.com/JrVU3G4Iyr
— Pop Flop (@PopFlopHQ) September 21, 2024
Photos courtesy of Cover Images. Cover courtesy of Rolling Stone.