Chappell Roan may be a pop superstar, but unleashing her inner rocker onstage last year was a huge thrill for her.
That’s what Chappell told Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Ann Wilson, lead singer of the band Heart, on Ann’s podcast, After Dinner Thinks. “Nothing has ever made me feel as powerful as when I sang ‘Barracuda‘ onstage at [the] Austin City Limits [festival]. I was like, ‘Actually, this is the coolest song ever and I feel like a real rock star!"”
“Pop is so fun and ‘la la la,’ but rock just is a different beast that I never really embodied before,” Chappell said. “So I was like, ‘Lemme channel “Barracuda”‘ and it was amazing.”
Chappell also told Ann, “I think you have the best voice in rock.”
“Barracuda,” released in 1977, is one of Heart’s signature songs. It was inspired by Ann and her sister and bandmate Nancy‘s outrage over the fact that their record company had invented a false, salacious story about them in an attempt to get them more publicity, and then they were asked about it as if it were true.
During their conversation, Chappell told Ann that the fact that she had done the entire first leg of the Heart tour in a wheelchair because she’d severely damaged her elbow in a fall was “punk rock.”
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