Billie Eilish is adjusting to life as a pop star in the public eye, and she’s speaking candidly about the scandals her predecessors faced.
Eilish, who swept all four major categories at the 2020 Grammys, opened up about the dark side of fame in a cover story for Vogue’s March issue.
The 18-year-old singer said she initially questioned why stars acted out, despite seemingly having everything.
“As a fan growing up, I was always like, ‘What the (expletive) is wrong with them?’” she said in the interview. “All the scandals. The Britney moment. You grow up thinking they’re pretty and they’re skinny; why would they (expletive) it up?”
But the “Bad Guy” singer said she’s growing to understand the actions of the pop stars she grew up listening to.
”But the bigger I get, the more I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, of course they had to do that.’ In my dark places I’ve worried that I was going to become the stereotype that everybody thinks every young artist becomes, because how can they not?” Eilish said. “Last year, when I was at my lowest point during the tour in Europe, I was worried I was going to have a breakdown and shave my head.”
The cover story also delved into how Eilish is dealing with the ramifications of fame.
Her father, Patrick O’Connell, sleeps in the living room of their California home “partly because Eilish has stopped feeling entirely safe here,” the article revealed.
Eilish is forthright about her fans, saying that while she understands the well-meaning intent, certain gestures and gifts can come off as “creepy.”
“They’re being nice, but there’s a line they just don’t see,” Eilish said. “Sometimes they’re like, ‘I know this is wrong, but I just wanted to leave this letter.’ And I’m like, If you know it’s wrong, then why do it?”
She said being covertly photographed while she’s out ”feels like if you were to walk into an empty room, and then you looked at your phone and you got a text of a picture of you in that empty room from inside the room.”
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