Chappell Roan Dana Jacobs/WireImage
Chappell Roan has become massively famous in just a few months, and she’s not afraid to admit that it’s been difficult.
“I’ve just gotten to the point where I have to stop lying to myself that this is … ,” Roan, 26, said during a chat with Bowen Yang for Interview magazine published on Monday, August 19.
When Yang, 33, supplied the word “easy” to finish Roan’s quote, the pop star replied, “Yeah. I was at Brooklyn Pride this weekend, and I was in a wig the whole time, and I was also on shrooms. I was like, ‘I need to stop lying to myself.’ So I ripped the wig off, and I was like, ‘This is me.’ It sounds so dramatic.”
Roan went on to add: “I was just like, ‘This is really weird and really hard.’ In the past, honestly, eight weeks, my entire life has changed. It’s been really emotional because I’m not just singing pop music, it’s automatically political because I’m gay.”
Chappell Roan Erika Goldring/WireImage
Yang’s interview with the “Good Luck, Babe!” singer transpired shortly after Roan told a Raleigh, North Carolina, concert audience that she’d been struggling with her meteoric rise to fame.
“I just want to be honest with the crowd. I just feel a little off today because I think that my career is just kind of going really fast and it’s really hard to keep up. I’m just being honest that I’m just having a hard time today,” Roan said during her June 12 performance at the Red Hat Amphitheater. “I’m not trying to give you a lesser show, it’s just, there’s a lot. Thank you for understanding. This is all I’ve ever wanted. It’s just heavy sometimes.”
Roan’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, dropped in September 2023. While the LP didn’t spawn any hits at the time, it has since climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, behind only Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department. In April, her single “Good Luck, Babe!” became her first song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 77.
Earlier this month, Lollapalooza organizers said that Roan’s daytime set at the Chicago festival was one of the biggest in the event’s history.
“Chappell’s performance was the biggest daytime set we’ve ever seen,” a spokesperson for the event told CNN. “It was a magical moment added to Lolla’s DNA.”
During her interview with Yang, Roan said that she does “appreciate advice” from other stars who’ve experienced a similar rise to fame.
“I don’t know anyone who’s going through this, personally,” she explained. “The biggest thing has been getting recognized, and just feeling not myself. And touring, it’s all-consuming. I’ve never given a f–k about the charts or being on the radio, but it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before. I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, bitch.’”