When Chappell Roan joins me on a Zoom call, she’s fresh out of the shower, giving formidable pop star vibes even without the pink fringe and rhinestones. As she chats about needing to paint on her eyebrows, I see that I was correct in my assumption that the artist I’ve been obsessed with ever since a gay friend turned me on to 2020’s “Pink Pony Club” is as authentic as I thought.
“I just decorated my grinder, and I got pink rolling papers,” Roan shares.
She uses cannabis to relax, preferring sativas over indicas, and has a taste for edibles. Currently, she needs to take the edge of settling into stardom.
“It helps me zen out,” Roan, born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, says. “I play [The Legend of] Zelda like every fucking day.”
At the time of our interview, her first full-length album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, was just over two weeks away from its release date of Sept. 22, 2023.
To gays and strippers of big cities and her home state of Missouri, Roan became a favorite thanks to “Pink Pony Club.” You must see the music video. Like, stop what you’re doing and open Roan’s YouTube channel right now. As queers and strippers already know, it’s a track that makes you happy to be alive while the world falls apart.
The song narrates a small-town girl’s journey to West Hollywood to pursue a career as a stripper, inspired by Roan’s visit to The Abbey, an iconic gay club in West Hollywood. She once said she wasn’t confident enough to follow the protagonist’s escape plan in real life (fans may disagree; Roan resonates boldness), so she wrote a song about it.
“Won’t make my mama proud, it’s …
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Author: Sophie Saint Thomas / High Times
