Because Olivia Rodrigo‘s debut single and smash hit “Drivers License” was released during a global pandemic, the singer was not able to share her music with a live audience until five months later when she took 2021 Brit Awards stage for her TV debut performance. The set went smoothly, but the same can’t be said about the days leading up to the event. Apparently, Rodrigo thought she accidentally had carbon monoxide poisoning before taking the stage.
Rodrigo sat down for a spicy interview on the acclaim hot sauce challenge Hot Ones. Her Twitter bio may read “spicy pisces,” but she apparently has a low tolerance for hot foods. As someone who thinks bell peppers are spicy, Rodrigo was visibly in pain as she was asked to taste increasingly hotter sauces. During the conversation, the singer told the story of how she was extremely sick ahead of her Brit Awards performance:
“We were quarantining in this little 18th century English cottage in the countryside. It was so cold and we couldn’t figure out how to turn on the central air and heating, but they had a fireplace. So we lit the fireplace all the time and that’s how we kept warm. I remember one day waking up and it was so smokey. I think I got mild carbon monoxide poisoning because the whole day I couldn’t stop throwing up in this English countryside house. I recovered, I don’t know if I had carbon monoxide poisoning but I was very sick for a day.”
Watch Rodrigo’s full interview on Hot Ones above.