US pop sensation Chappell Roan’s career has reached unprecedented heights this year, thanks to the viral success of songs such as Red Wine Supernova and Good Luck, Babe!
However, while she may appear to have it all together on the surface, Chappell has now opened up about struggling with mental health behind closed doors and how severely her journey to fame impacted her.
The 26-year-old star – real name Kayleigh Rose Amstutz – signed her first record deal in 2017, having been snapped up after releasing an original song on YouTube.
From there, she initially had a steady rise before her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, dropped in 2023 and garnered a cult following by early 2024, being ‘branded a sleeper hit’.
As of September this year, the Missouri-born songwriter has toured with Olivia Rodrigo, topped the charts, and acquired almost 45million monthly listeners on Spotify.
But just two years ago, she contemplated taking her own life.
Speaking to Rolling Stone for her cover story, Chappell recalled struggling with hypomania, a common feature of bipolar II that involves elevated mood and hyperactivity.
‘I wasn’t sleeping,’ she said of the period in 2021. ‘I was on the incorrect meds. I had the energy and the delusion and realised that this app is fueled off of mental illness. Straight up.’
The following year, she entered outpatient therapy.
While she’d felt suicidal at other points in her life, this was the first time she actually planned how she would end her life.
Thankfully, the singer was able to realise she needed help, forcing herself to go back to treatment straight after a gig in front of 9,000 people in San Francisco.
‘I realised I can’t live like this. I can’t live being so depressed or feel so lost that I want to kill myself. I just got my s**t together,’ she said.
Grateful for the support she received before her stardom became overwhelming, she added: ‘I would not have been able to handle any of this even a year ago today. It would’ve just been too much.’
Despite her mental health battles, Chappell has remained consistently on top of things with regard to her career.
At the end of 2022, she had booked and sold out a full headline tour – but was keen not to rush into a decision with a new label.
‘I put the labels through hell,’ she declared. ‘Hell. I was like, “Give me a [pitch] deck on how you would market me. Give me a deck on what you would do with my career. What do you see in five years? If you can’t even do it in a hypothetical situation, you don’t know how to figure it out. I’m definitely not signing to your a**”.’
The highs of fame come with lows, though, as she discovered in recent months.
The HOT TO GO! hitmaker went viral when she shared a TikTok video detailing her boundaries, having had experiences with stalking and intense fans asking her for pictures.
Detailing just one incident, she told Rolling Stone about the time fans got hold of her flight information and met her at the airport in Seattle in July.
One man lambasted her for refusing to sign an autograph before airport police intervened.
The same individual was with a group of paparazzi when she landed back in Los Angeles.
‘I got home and dropped to my knees,’ Chappell confessed. ‘I have a hard time crying now because of my meds, but I sobbed and was screaming.’
In the months that followed, Chappell was given unsolicited kisses after being grabbed by fans, while another called her dad after his phone number leaked on social media. The latter was the final straw, leading to her divisive video.
She hasn’t been alone, though, having praised a plethora of fellow artists for reaching out and offering support.
The likes of Charli XCX, Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, Sabrina Carpenter, and even Lady Gaga have reached out a helping hand, with the Bad Romance hitmaker sending Chappell her phone number.
‘It was just good to know someone else feels that way,’ she said after confiding in Espresso hitmaker Sabrina, 25.
Even Sir Elton John has admitted to being ‘protective’ of Chappell, describing her as ‘one of those people who I felt like I have known for a long time’.
Chappell is currently in preparation for her VMAs performance, having attracted backlash when she cancelled a string of European tour dates to rehearse for the big gig.
Some branded her ‘disrespectful’, despite Chappell saying she was ‘heartbroken’ to scrap the concerts at such short notice.
What followed was intense debate online about artists’ relationships with their fans, as the likes of Donald Glover and Catfish And The Bottleman have also pulled out of concerts at the last minute in recent weeks.
Read Chappell Roan’s full cover story for Rolling Stone here.
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