8 Questions with Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan answers some questions for TIME before embarking on the GUTS World Tour with Olivia Rodrigo.
Category
đ
NewsTranscript
00:00 I wish so desperately I would have been...
00:04 I just would have been on the internet more.
00:06 [music]
00:14 This is such an exciting time in queer music, but in music in general.
00:18 [music]
00:22 Like I think people are just getting a little bit more risky with pop
00:26 and that's always when great music is born.
00:30 No fear of looking raunchy or looking like you're going to make people upset.
00:36 [music]
00:40 I don't think the queer community has really ever been worried about what the straight community thinks about them.
00:45 I feel like we're just making music like on a bashably gay.
00:49 I love Troye's album so much and Renee Rapp is so sweet to me.
00:53 I saw her at a Grammy party and no one has ever squeezed my hand that tight when they met me.
00:58 But I was just like, "Oh my God, thank you for lifting me up."
01:03 [music]
01:07 Of course, I mean, Kim Petras just came out with "Sweat Pop Miami."
01:10 That's the horniest music I've ever, ever heard. I love it.
01:15 "Sweat Pop" is all five of my top songs on Spotify were all "Sweat Pop."
01:20 What was your number one? "XXX."
01:23 [music]
01:28 Immediately after, I had to get all that energy out of my head and shave my eyebrows off.
01:33 I was just like, "Something drastic needs to happen right now." I just talked to Elton John.
01:36 I was just like, "Hmm."
01:38 He has paved such a way for every queer person in art and he has sacrificed a lot for us.
01:46 He said something really sweet that was like, "LA Times says you are one of the most exciting up-and-coming queer artists."
01:55 And that's what they said about me and we have that in common.
01:58 [music]
02:03 Whenever I was 15, 16, it was the perfect time to be a teenager on YouTube because everything was happening.
02:10 Harlem Shake, high school lift-offs, "What Does the Fox Say?" massive for three hours.
02:15 And then the beauty community was the biggest thing on the internet.
02:18 And then whenever the empire started to crumble, it was just the best thing to wake up to.
02:23 It was an apology video every 26 hours, I feel like.
02:27 [music]
02:31 My mom wouldn't let me get on Club Penguin because you could chat.
02:34 When I was on Webkinz chatting, "Motion Monsters," don't know anyone else who was on that.
02:38 Barbie.com.
02:40 We were all got bullied, got called a lesbian.
02:43 They weren't wrong, but I wasn't ready to hear that.
02:46 [music]
02:49 I have two regrets.
02:50 One, not taking my full-ride scholarship to an arts high school.
02:55 Instead, I decided to stay at a hick-ass school.
02:58 Two, not pushing myself to use Tumblr.
03:01 How devastating!
03:02 I had no idea who Sky Ferraro was until I was 19.
03:06 I didn't have an Urban Outfitters where I lived.
03:08 What the f*** was American Apparel? Couldn't tell you.
03:10 Even like, Rookie Mag. I wish so desperately I would have been on the internet more.
03:17 Here's the thing, I ended up smoking cigarettes and listening to Lana Del Rey on my porch anyway.
03:22 So, it would have happened regardless.
03:24 But, I just found out in such a lame way.
03:29 [music]
03:34 There's a lot of value in the culture and fashion and music that maybe a lot of like,
03:41 the fashion world would not deem as valuable.
03:45 I really love the Midwest and the fashion of gas stations and...
03:50 I was born in a trailer park and I think like, that whole aesthetic,
03:54 you can't really get it if you're not from there.
03:57 H-O-T
04:01 Even in the teeny tiny, tiny towns, like, there are gay people everywhere.
04:05 I think that's what I realized doing small B-market towns.
04:08 Like, there are queens in every town.
04:11 Those girls feel the same type of passion for like, queerness drag as like, Chicago.
04:17 You know, like, New York.
04:20 Yeah, I think people just...
04:23 I think everyone in the Midwest agrees with like, a far-right viewpoint.
04:28 It's just not true.
04:30 [music]
04:35 I go to her for things like, how are you handling all the pressure, people online.
04:39 Because she has it like, way crazier than I do.
04:42 She just handles her career with grace, even though her career doesn't always handle her with grace.
04:49 She gives me really great advice about how no one has it figured out.
04:54 Every single person figures this out in their own way.
04:58 [music]
05:03 [silence]