Olivia Rodrigo gets candid about Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Paramore, and Joshua Bassett

Olivia Rodrigo is constantly keeping us guessing. Is “Drivers License” about Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter? Is “bad idea right” about Bassett again? Is “Vampire” secretly about a rift between her and pop idol Taylor Swift? She has a history of neither confirming nor denying anything.

But in the new Rolling Stone cover story, she sets the record straight, specifically about the online rumours that Taylor and Olivia fell out after Olivia was allegedly “forced” to give Taylor and Jack Antonoff writing credits on two songs from her first album “Sour,” and then Taylor invited Sabrina Carpenter to be the opener on the “Eras” tour in Latin America.

“I don’t have beef with anyone,” she plainly states in the interview.  “I’m very chill. I keep to myself. I have my four friends and my mom, and that’s really the only people I talk to, ever. There’s nothing to say…There’s so many Twitter conspiracy theories. I only look at alien-conspiracy theories.”

But writing credits are also at the heart of her alleged beef with iconic rock band Paramore. The band was given writing credits on Olivia’s hit “Good 4 U” after many people noted the similarities to the band’s 2007 hit “Misery Business.” In fact, many mashups of the songs can be found online, with influencers comparing and contrasting the songs side  by side.

When discussing Paramore being added to the writing credits, Olivia gets candid. “I was a little caught off guard. At the time it was very confusing, and I was green and bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Is that the phrase?”

“It’s not something that I was super involved in. It was more team-on-team. So, I wouldn’t be the best person to ask.”

However, when asked if she would make another artist give her credit for a song that sounded similar to hers, she frankly admitted, “I don’t think I would ever personally do that. But who’s to say where I’ll be in 20, 30 years. All that I can do is write my songs and focus on what I can control.”

While she has been super tight lipped about the alleged relationship-breakup-fallout with Bassett, she was asked in the interview her views on Bassett admitting that he experienced a mental health crisis due to the speculation over her song “Drivers License.”

“I mean, that’s a tricky one. I actually, genuinely did not read the article you’re talking about,” she says, referring to the Bassett interview. “But, yeah, all that stuff was really crazy. It’s all been handled privately.” 

She goes on, “Handled isn’t the right word, but it’s just not something I like talking about publicly. I take all that stuff seriously, but it happens in privacy. I’m not going to put out a statement.” She concludes. “That’s phony. We’re all just people at the end of the day. I deal with it on a person-to-person level that people on Twitter don’t see.”

On a more positive note, with Taylor’s absence in her life, she now has a new mentor in none other than Katy Perry, who is also interviewed for the profile.

“The first time I met her,” Katy states, “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.” 

 As Olivia talks about the pressure she felt to deliver massive success for her second album, Katy reflects, “There’s so much chaos in your head during second-album time. 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. 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.”

Katy’s second album was 2010’s “Teenage Dream,” and that album, plus her influence on Olivia, is seen in her second album “Guts.” First, Olivia gushes about how much she loves that album, saying, “She had five Number One hits off of that one album. That album is so iconic and so good.” 

Secondly, Olivia wrote a song for “Guts” called – you guessed it –  “Teenage Dream.” Olivia says it was pure coincidence. “We thought about changing the name,” she admits. “If someone looks up ‘Teenage Dream’ on Spotify, there’s no way in heck that my song’s going to pull up first.” 

However it doesn’t seem like Katy is going to ask for writing credits or start a beef about it any time soon, saying, “It’s nice to see it resonating through the years to different age groups.“She’s a craftswoman. It’s like when Fleabag really made a huge impression on people. She’s writing about all of our inner thoughts, outward things that we would never say.”

You can read the entire Rolling Stone profile here.