Chappell Roan says she misses walking and being herself after becoming famous.
The 26-year-old pop singer opened up about what she missed about life before she made it big, appearing on “The Comment Section With Drew Afualo” podcast on Wednesday.
“[Doing] “Drugs in public, that’s what I miss…” Roan told Afualo. “Like making out with someone at the bar… I probably miss being in Forever 21 and not being judged… I’m in costume most of the time. But I miss walking around by myself. I guess being alone is what I miss.”
Roan also spoke about the invasion of privacy that comes with celebrity life.
“People are starting to act like weirdos, following me, knowing where my parents live and where my sister works, all that weird stuff,” he said. “A few years ago I said yes [it got to] Stalker vibes, like the family is in danger. [that] That's when I would give up. And here we are. … I have honestly stopped everything that has made me known.”
In a video posted to social media in June, Roan pauses her show to tell a North Carolina audience that she has struggled to adjust to her growing fame. The “Hot to Go” singer told the audience she was “having a bad day.”
“I just want to be honest with the audience… My career is going so fast and it’s so hard to keep up,” she said. “I’m not trying to give them a lesser show, it’s just that there’s so much. Thank you for understanding. This is all I ever wanted. It gets really heavy sometimes.”
Roan signed his first record deal with Atlantic Records at age 17 and then spent years building his career without immediate success.
It wasn’t until last September, with the release of her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” that she began to gain popularity. Her viral appearance on NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series in March and high-profile performances at Coachella and the Governors Ball music festival in New York cemented her status as a rising star.
But it's not all stress. In a video posted to TikTok in June, Roan spoke about the support she was receiving from other female pop singers amid all her troubles.
“I’m reflecting on my life and the last two weeks have been crazy,” she said. “What’s so reassuring and so fucking sickening is that the pop girls that you and I have loved our whole lives or been fucking fans of [of] In the last two or three years, many of them have come forward and are very supportive, and they are very young…
“Having people I look up to, that I can approach and offer my friendship or help, I don’t know, is just great and makes me believe in the world.”
