Chappell Roan says she will ‘quit’ music if she can’t stand up for herself: ‘People assume you’re the villain’

Queer pop superstar Chappell Roan is reflecting on her meteoric rise to fame, and the “villain” label she was slapped with after firmly outlining her boundaries.

In a new interview with RuPaul’s Drag Race judge TS Madison and Roan’s drag mother Sasha Colby, the “Pink Pony Club” singer said she would “quit” the industry if she isn’t allowed to defend herself.

The chart-topping singer became a divisive figure in the pop industry last year following her huge star ascension, after she posted a video on TikTok to call out “creepy” behaviour from fans.

At the time, the Grammy Award-winning star revealed that she had been grabbed and kissed by a fan, harassed by other fans for her autograph, and her father’s phone number had been leaked online.

In an interview with The Face, she then compared the behaviour of some of her fans to an “abusive ex”, explaining that some of the incidents included “stalking, talking shit online, [people who] won’t leave you alone, yelling at you in public”.

She later went viral at the MTV Video Music Awards after telling off a photographer who had previously been rude to her.

Though some fans and fellow celebrities felt Roan was right to lay out her boundaries clearly, others suggested she was being ungrateful for batting away fan attention.

Speaking on Madison’s new iHeartPodcast podcast Outlaws, Roan explained that as she became mega famous aged 26, she had an idea of how adults should be treated by the public and in work environments, and hence felt it right to speak out.

“I’ve been treated better at my doughnut shop job than I have on a f***king [red] carpet,” Roan said. “People on the news treat me worse than how customers did. And I think when I started to say, ‘Don’t talk to me like that’ … That doesn’t mean that I’m a villain or ungrateful for what I have. It’s like, ‘Why is this customary?’ It’s so… abusive.”

The “The Giver” singer went on to compare her experience in the public eye to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, who were both hounded by fans and criticised by the press.

“I thought it was really interesting reading something about how there’s so much love in apologies for people like Britney [Spears] and Paris [Hilton] and how people were so evil to them and as a community we need to apologise to them,” she shared.

 “Absolutely, but also… people are still doing it.”

She continued: “Do you want me to just get to the point where I become agoraphobic? Or so stressed out, or so anxious to perform? You want me to get to that point? Because if I don’t say anything, I will. If I do not stand up for myself, I will quit because I cannot bear this. I cannot bear people touching me who I don’t know. I cannot bear people following me.”

Last autumn Roan, who has been open about living with bipolar disorder and depression, cancelled two festival performances in the US to prioritise her health after her rise to fame became “overwhelming”.

“I cannot bear people saying I’m something I’m not,” the star continued.

“That’s what’s really hard online. People just assume you’re the villain. I can’t do this if I’m not trying to protect who I am. Otherwise, I will either quit or just be so severely depressed that I have to go back to the hospital.”

TS Madison’s podcast Outlaws is streaming now on all major podcast platforms.

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