Taylor Momsen KERRANG Magazine excerpts: You’re 17, do your parents have to go on tour with you? ‘No, I’m a legal adult. Whatever that means! (Laughs) I graduated high school two years early, so I’m responsible for myself under some weird New York state law.’
Who were your musical heroes when you were growing up? ‘The Beatles and a lot of the classics. I played a lot of old records growing up. Stuff like Bob Dylan.. I grew up listening to a lot of old vinyl and then my dad would record them onto cassette tapes for me, I was about 10 when I got my first CD player.’
What are your ambitions now? ‘I want to make great records. I want to write great songs. I want to do this for the rest of my life. I want to make records for the rest of my life and have each one better than the last, and making myself better at what I do. I’m my own harshest critic, I’m always telling myself I’m shit, it’s the only way to get better and better. I’m a perfectionist so is Ben and our producer Kato [Khandwala] who I wrote the record with.’
Best rumor you’ve heard about yourself? ‘There have been some fairly repetitive ones like ‘Her eyes are as black as her soul’ and ‘She worships the Devil’. One gossip magazine even interviewed a girl who claimed to have gone to school with me and she was like, ‘I saw her house and she has an altar to Satan in her closet’ (laughs). A lot of people try and make out like I’m this crazy psycho, but I’m, like, ‘Where are you getting this from? I have never met you’.’
