Phoebe Bridgers isn’t sweating the controversy.
The Grammy-nominated musician is on the new cover of Variety, and in the issue she responds to some of the criticism she got over her big guitar-smashing moment on Global’s “Saturday Night Live” last month.
“I stand by it! The fact that it made people so mad is kind of what’s punk rock about it. No thought whatsoever went into what it represented or meant: I’d never done it before, so might as well do it [on ‘SNL’], where it’s gonna be immortalized,” she says.
Bridgers also talks about Marilyn Manson and the sexual assault accusations against him.
“I had a friend whose parents worked on a TV show that he wanted to be a part of, and they knew I was a fan and brought me along to the meeting,” she says. “I heard him say racial slurs and rape jokes — and he was on his best behaviour! I am not one of his victims, but the fact that I can corroborate the stuff he’s being accused of in some way is really expository to me.”
She also addresses the controversy around Ryan Adams, who mentored her early in her career and helped release her first single “Killer”, and who she later accused of sexual misconduct.
“I think that song was the real turning point. It’s actually something that … Ryan Adams taught me, kind of,” she says. “I was like, ‘I don’t wanna record this song because I think it’s my best song and I’m saving it for my album.’ He said, ‘Why? Put out your favorite thing as fast as you can,’ and I’ve taken that into my whole adult life. I learned a lot from him — and then I learned a lot about how not to treat people.”
Talking about being nominated at the Grammys, Bridgers says, “One of my favourite people called me and was like, ‘If you hadn’t gotten nominated, the Grammys would be a bullshit establishment — but the fact that you are is the best thing to ever happen.’ Of course, it’s a dream, and the most special part to me is to be nominated this year, with so many artists who made the records that got me through the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Bridgers has seen her star rise dramatically at the same time as the COVID-19 pandemic, and she admits, “I’m slightly grateful for that, honestly. Also, a sense of community has grown in a way that it might not have if I was living in my own little world onstage every night. I feel like I’m a part of America living in a pandemic, the same as anybody.”
