Chappell Roan is one of the most outspoken artists of her generation, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t sensitive to the backlash she often receives when she speaks her mind.
While interviewing SZA for an Interview Magazine piece published Tuesday (June 17), the pop star — who has sparked heated public discourse on everything from toxic fan behavior to political endorsements in the past year alone — was candid when the R&B hitmaker asked whether she “gave a f–k about the backlash.”
“I didn’t until people started hating me for me and not for my art,” Roan replied. “When it’s not about my art anymore, it’s like, ‘They hate me because I’m Kayleigh, not because they hate the songs that I make.’ That’s when it changed.”
“When things are taken out of context, people assume so much about you,” she continued. “I didn’t realize I’d care so much. When it comes to my art, I’m like, ‘B—h, you can think whatever you want. You are allowed to hate it with all your guts.’ But when it comes to me and my personality, it’s like, ‘Damn. Am I the most insufferable b—h of our generation?’”
Fortunately, Roan isn’t alone. SZA shared that she also feels hurt when she comes across tough criticism about herself, telling the Missouri native, “Maybe everybody secretly gives a f–k … I tried to tell myself that I didn’t care what people were saying about me, but it was so weird that I was being misperceived so far from who I am.”
“It makes me cry,” Roan added. “I don’t know if it will ever feel okay to hear someone say something really hateful about me.”
Roan has spoken before about how difficult it can be to feel misunderstood. While guesting with Sasha Colby on TS Madison’s Outlaws podcast in May, she reflected on being labeled a “villain” at different points in her career, sharing that she “cannot bear people saying I’m something I’m not.”
She also hasn’t let it stop her from voicing her opinions or speaking up when she feels mistreated — like when she confronted photographers at not one, but two events in 2024. “I think that I’m doing it the way I want to, but not everyone likes that,” she told SZA for Interview. “I will yell at a b—h on the carpet. I think that right now in my career, I’m just trying to see if the way I’ve been doing it is sustainable. Am I okay with the backlash of speaking my mind? That’s where I am right now.”
