Given Olivia Rodrigo‘s penchant for using the “f-word” in her songs, it may surprise you to learn that her mother signs off on everything she releases. In fact, Olivia says the only reason one particular track made it to the final version of GUTS is because of her mom’s reaction to it.
Speaking to the British magazine The Face about GUTS, Olivia says, “I played all the songs for my mom. She’s very important and I have to get her approval on everything.”
When she played her mom a song called “the grudge,” she didn’t expect the response it got.
In “the grudge,” Olivia sings about receiving a phone call from someone that devastates her. She sings that this person “took everything I loved and crushed it in between your fingers/And I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did.”
“When we made it, I was like, whatever — I thought it could be a bonus track,” Olivia says of “the grudge.” “Then when my mom heard it, she was so moved that she bawled her eyes out, and she doesn’t get that way with everything.”
“She definitely has her criticisms, but watching her reaction to it made me see the song in a new way,” Olivia adds. “She’s the reason it’s on the album.”
Olivia also reveals that her mom isn’t the only one she listens to.
“I take it all with a grain of salt,” she acknowledges, “but I really love going to psychics. I hope my one is wrong, though, because she says that I’m not going to find a boyfriend until March. March! We’ll see. I’m just going to do me until then.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.