Olivia Rodrigo says she dated people she ‘shouldn’t have’ after ‘Sour’
- Grammy-winning singer spoke to The New York Times ahead of release of her sophomore album, ‘Guts’, which drops September 8
- Debut album ‘Sour’ launched at No 1 and spent 52 nonconsecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart
Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore album, “Guts”, debuts on September 8, 2023. Photo: TNSOlivia Rodrigo recently admitted that she made some big mistakes following the success of the release of her album Sour. (But we’re willing to bet her exes made the worst one look fine.)
In an interview with The New York Times published on Thursday, the 20-year-old musician opened up about how the public’s perception of her weighed on her psyche after she became a sensation thanks to her smash-hit single “Drivers License” and chart-topping debut album Sour.
“I had such a desire to live and experience things and make mistakes and grow after Sour came out, I kind of felt this pressure to be this girl that I thought everyone expected me to be,” she told the publication.
“And I think because of that pressure, maybe I did things that maybe I shouldn’t have – dated people that I shouldn’t have.”
(Rodrigo was linked romantically to music producer Adam Faze and DJ Zack Bia during her Sour era.)
The “Vampire” and “Bad Idea, Right?” artist added that she is actually “very tame” while reflecting on how those missteps influenced the making of her sophomore record, Guts.
Much of the forthcoming album is “about reckoning with those feelings and coming out of that disillusionment and realising the core of who I am and what I want to be doing and who I want to be spending my time with,” she said.
In June, Rodrigo announced that her highly anticipated follow-up to Sour would be arriving September 8. She quickly followed that announcement with the release of the LP’s lead single, “Vampire” – a scathing power-ballad about a “bloodsucker” and “fame f–“ who exploited her and bled her dry.
Less than two months later, the singer-songwriter dropped another banger of a Guts single, “Bad Idea, Right?” – a clever pop-punk anthem about reconnecting with an ex she allegedly thinks of only “as a friend.” (“The biggest lie I ever said,” she quips on the track.)
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Guts is scheduled to debut about two years after the arrival of Sour, which launched at No. 1 and spent a record 52 nonconsecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 chart. In the wake of Sour, Rodrigo collected seven Grammy nominations and three wins, including best new artist.
For Rodrigo, music is a vehicle for “expressing those feelings that are really hard to externalise, or that you feel aren’t societally acceptable to externalise,” she told The New York Times. “Especially as a girl.”