With her first #1 album, #1 hit and Grammy nomination, as well as a Taylor Swift co-sign and a worldwide tour, Tate McRae has had the best year of her career. She unpacks it all in her new cover story for Rolling Stone‘s January issue.
“It’s interesting to see where I’m at now, compared to when I started writing the album last September,” she says. “I don’t even recognize that person. I feel I’ve aged 10 years in the past year.”
One of the things that might have aged Tate? Her split with boyfriend The Kid LAROI, which she tells Rolling Stone happened in June. Fans speculated that her hit “Tit for Tat” was aimed at him.
“It was really scary and overwhelming,” she says. “I didn’t realize how much it would affect me, the public knowing my private life. … I also hate people painting a situation that’s worse than it is.”
“But what I’ve had to realize is that he’s going to write songs and I’m going to write songs, and that’s our way of expressing ourselves,” she notes. “That’s our art, that’s our job. And once it’s out there, it’s not mine anymore.”
Another thing she didn’t expect was the blowback from her #1 duet with controversial country star Morgan Wallen, “What I Want.”
“I honestly just got the opportunity to do a country song. … And I wanted to cross genres really bad,” she says, adding that the reaction “really shocked” her, but she doesn’t regret doing it.
So what’s next for Tate? Possibly a tour documentary or a book of poetry, but in the long term, she admits, “Hopefully there’s a cap and then I peace out, move to Italy, and just chill. I hope that’s what I do.”
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