Olivia Rodrigo strikes an interesting balance with her career. On one hand, she’s a former Disney Channel star with an army of very young fans. On the other hand, her most recent album Guts is full of punk-tinged pop music influenced by 90s alt-rock heroes. Her songs are never what most would consider vulgar. However, she isn’t afraid to drop the odd f-bomb if the situation calls for it.
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Recently, Rodrigo sat down with the Los Angeles Times to discuss her career, Guts, and more. During the conversation, the publication asked her about cleaning up the lyrics of her songs for her younger listeners.
[Olivia Rodrigo Guts World Tour 2024: Get Tickets]
Many people, whether they’re fans or not have heard the clean version of Rodrigo’s Grammy-nominated hit “Vampire.” In the album cut, she sings Bloodsucker / Fame-f—ker/ Bleed me dry like a g—amn vampire. However, in the cleaned-up version, she exchanges “fame-f—ker” for “dream crusher” and eliminates the second swear word completely.
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With that in mind, the publication asked Rodrigo if there were any songs from Guts she’d think twice about performing in front of an audience of mostly children. “Lots,” she said. “Probably wouldn’t play ‘All-American B-tch’—‘All-American Chick’ would suck,” she added. “I guess I could play ‘Vampire’ with the ‘dream-crusher.’ But that in itself is a dream-crush right there.”
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Olivia Rodrigo Is Growing Out of the Songs from Sour
Rodrigo wrote the bulk of her 2021 debut album Sour when she was 17. Now, at 20, the singer/songwriter feels like she has grown out of some of her older work. This makes sense to anyone who can remember being that young. While three years seems like a drop in the bucket for the older crowd, so much changes between 17 and 20. Most individuals become completely different people in those three short years.
“Some of them I don’t really love so much anymore,” she admits about the songs from Sour. However, she didn’t reveal which ones she feels that way about. “I don’t want to tell you that. People get so sad because it’ll be their favorite song. But, I just feel like I’ve grown out of some of them,” she said.
She hasn’t grown out of her breakout hit “Drivers License.” However, she does see it in a different light now. She wrote the song after her first major heartbreak. When she released it, Rodrigo was still feeling the pain. “People would come up to me and say, ‘Wow, this takes me back to my first heartbreak.’ Now, I listen to it and I totally get it,” she said.
“It actually does transport me back to when I thought I was never gonna love anyone else. I’m like ‘Awww. That’s so cute.’”
Featured Image by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for iHeartRadio
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