Chappell Roan Reveals What’s “Infuriating” About Her Overnight Success

Chappell Roan wants you to know that she’s been around for a while. In her new Rolling Stone cover story, published on Sept. 10, the singer opened up about her sudden rise to stardom, revealing one of the things that frustrates her about her overnight success.

“What’s so infuriating is how people are just now taking me seriously,” she said. “Like, ‘You know what, b*tch? I’ve been doing this sh*t and you’re just now catching up.’”

Indeed, Roan faced accusations of being an “industry plant” after her 2023 debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, suddenly grew in popularity this past year. However, she’s actually been working in the music industry for years, with “Pink Pony Club” just now becoming a sleeper hit after being released in 2020, the same year that she got dropped from Atlantic Records.

Three years later, Roan is finally seeing the rewards for her efforts, with Midwest Princess charting in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 all summer, and follow-up single “Good Luck, Babe!” becoming her first top 10 hit. But she didn’t allow herself to embrace the success at first.

“I was getting almost a hundred thousand followers a day,” she recalled. “At first, I was in severe denial. They would literally show me some stats and the only thing I could do is say, ‘No, no, no. It’s not like that.’ I couldn’t say, ‘I am gaining success.’”

The Downside Of Success

In the past few months, Roan has spoken out about dealing with invasive fan interactions and publicly drawn boundaries on the behavior she won’t tolerate in several social media posts. She specifically called out “predatory” actions and asked people to not to touch her, “[be] weird” to her family and friends, or make assumptions about her.

“I’m not afraid of the consequences for demanding respect,” she wrote in part in an Aug. 23 Instagram caption.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Roan gave insight on some of the incidents that prompted her to take a stand, claiming that a fan once grabbed and and kissed her without consent, another fan found her father’s phone number, and a man berated her at the airport for not signing an autograph until police intervened, then showed up again when she flew back home.

The latter incident brought her to tears. “I got home and dropped to my knees,” she recalled. “I have a hard time crying now because of my meds, but I sobbed and was screaming.” Oh, and she now has a stalker that she first met in her hometown. “So now I have to have security,” she added. “It’s so lame.”

Now, Roan is proactive about making sure that fans know her boundaries. “They need to see me as a random b*tch on the street,” she said. “You can’t yell at a random b*tch who’s on the sidewalk that you don’t know. It’s considered catcalling or harassment.”