Chappell Roan Says Cleaning Bathrooms Before Fame Was ‘Very Important’

Chappell Roan’s road to fame and success was not without its bumps — including a stint working at a drive-through donut shop in Missouri.

After being dropped by her label following 2020 coronavirus pandemic cuts, Roan (real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz) returned to her home state of Missouri to reset. While there, she learned a thing or two about hard work.

“It absolutely had a positive impact on me,” Roan told BBC’s Radio 1 in an interview published on Sunday, January 19, of her time working at a donut shop. “You have the knowledge of what it’s like to clean a public restroom. That’s very important.”

The singer used that year of experiences — which also included getting her heart broken — as the springboard to launch her career. (Roan was first signed to a label in 2015, but it wasn’t until nearly a decade later that her debut album hit airwaves.)

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When Roan returned to Los Angeles, she gave herself one year to make it — and make it she did.

In 2022, she released four singles, including “Naked in Manhattan,” as a prelude to her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, which dropped in September 2023.

Roan’s fame skyrocketed shortly after her record was released thanks to her 2024 single, “Good Luck, Babe!” which was originally supposed to be titled, “Good Luck, Jane!”

“I wanted it to be about me falling in love with my best friend, and then her being like, ‘Ha ha ha, I don’t like you back, I like boys,’” the musician revealed on Sunday. “And it was like, ‘OK, well, good luck with that, Jane.’”

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Roan, who is an openly queer artist, has never shied away from tough topics or strayed from being herself. While that has caused some backlash, the singer is sticking to her guns.

“I think, actually, I’d be more successful if I was OK wearing a muzzle,” she said with a laugh.

She noted that her choices to take a tour break for her mental health and to call out photographers at the 2024 MTV Awards for allegedly shouting abusive remarks at the celebrities have impeded her success.

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“If I were to override more of my basic instincts, where my heart is going, ‘Stop, stop, stop, you’re not OK’, I would be bigger,” Roan claimed. “I would be way bigger … And I would still be on tour right now.” (Roan refused to extend her 2024 tour to protect her physical and mental health.)

Her inability to quiet her own inner voices hasn’t derailed Roan from earning six Grammy Awards nominations at the upcoming February ceremony, including Best New Artist. But for her, the recognition isn’t all that matters.

“If I can look back and say, ‘I did not crumble under the weight of expectation, and I did not stand for being abused or blackmailed’, [then] at least I stayed true to my heart,” Roan concluded.