Chappell Roan wanted to “honour” herself by writing a country song.
The 27-year-old singer is known for pop hits like ‘Good Luck, Babe!’ and ‘Pink Pony Club’ but wanted to branch out in a different genre with her new single ‘The Giver’ and explained that she should be able to explore all aspects of performance within her work.
Speaking on Apple Music’s ‘The Kelleigh Bannen Show’, she said: “I smell hay whenever I listen to country music! I think I have a special relationship with where I’m from because of country music. So to kind of honor that part of myself by making a country song where it’s like ‘You know what? Yes, I’m gay, yes I’m ultra-pop, yes I am a drag queen’. That is also someone who can perform a country song.”
The ‘Hot To Go’ hitmaker – who is originally from Willard, Missouri – insisted that there are gay people working in music in whatever capacity and that it is not uncommon for drag queens to perform within the genre of country, so decided to make sure they were not “cut off” to the world through the medium of her new song.
She said: “Even if it’s not the artist that’s gay singing — girl, those backup singers, those girls on tour, the people playing banjo — there are gay people making the music.
“There are a lot of drag queens who do country music all over the world. Let’s not cut off the fans who are gay and love country.”
Chappell sings about a stereotypical country boy in the song, and claimed that she had to “unlearn” the habits of talking down to women that were just a natural part of her upbringing before she began the composition,
She said: “It’s different where we grew up
“I had to unlearn that, you are not going to make me feel inferior just because I’m a girl.
“I was not just born with that.”