As she hits the promotional circuit for her latest album, Olivia Rodrigo has been spilling all of her Guts. In a new interview with Rolling Stone published Tuesday (Sept. 12), the “Drivers License” singer revealed which pop star offered to be be her mentor as she continues to navigate the music industry as one of its biggest and brightest young stars.
The singer in question? None other than Billboard chart-topping artist Katy Perry. “The first time I met her,” Perry said, “I put my hands on her shoulders and was like, ‘Listen, I’m here. Whatever you need.’ Because I know exactly what these pop girlies are going through, and when I was growing up, no one really did that for me.”
Similar to Rodrigo, Perry had a breakout debut album — One of the Boys reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100 top five hits “I Kissed A Girl” (No. 1) and “Hot N Cold” (No. 3) — that demanded an equally successful follow-up. One of the Boys served as Perry’s first album under the Katy Perry moniker. According to the American Idol judge, all of these expectations exist under a very different set of circumstances compared to those surrounding the creation of the first album.
“You have your whole life to make your first record, and then maybe two years to make your second — while going through a real psychological change as well,” said Perry, who faced similar pressures around the time of 2010’s Teenage Dream, which Rodrigo names as one of her favorite sophomore albums. “Like, ‘Oh, my God, I can buy my mom a car,’ and, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t have to have the stress from my past.’ But it’s a mental jungle out there.”
In 2010, Perry released Teenage Dream, her Grammy-nominated sophomore studio album, which spawned five Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 singles: “Firework,” “California Gurls” (with Snoop Dogg), “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “E.T.” (with Kanye West) and the title track. Two years later, Perry re-released the album as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, earning an additional Hot 100 chart-topper with “Part of Me.” Perry has sent three total titles to the top of the Billboard 200 and earned nine career chart-toppers on the Hot 100, including “Roar” and “Dark Horse” (with Juicy J).
Rodrigo is already off to a good start with her sophmore era. While Guts will debut on next week’s Billboard 200, the album has already yielded a pair of Hot 100 top 10 hits: “Vampire” (No. 1) and “Bad Idea Right?” (No. 10). Guts serves as the follow-up to Rodrigo’s Grammy-winning debut studio album, Sour, which spawned the Hot 100 hit singles “Drivers License” (No. 1), “Good 4 U” (No. 1), “Deja Vu” (No. 3) and “Traitor” (No. 9).
On Tuesday night (Sep. 12), Rodrigo will perform at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards. This year, the “Traitor” singer boasts six nominations, including video of the year, song of the year and best pop (all for “Vampire”). In 2021, she won three Moonpeople, including best new artist and song of the year (“Drivers License”).
