Adele’s chart-topping album 30 has been out for a few weeks now. True to the singer’s previous releases, the LP features a mix of empowering and heart-tugging songs. This time, however, her songs were about her 2019 divorce. The album was supposed to arrive in 2020, when all her feelings about her marriage were still fresh. But because of COVID, 30 was delayed for nearly a year and the singer now says that if she had waited any longer, she would have decided not to release the LP altogether.
Adele recently sat down with Rolling Stone UK for a cover interview, where she talked about her album’s delays. “If it wasn’t coming out now, I think I probably would never put it out,” she said. Because the music was about her divorce, the singer was nearly ready to put those emotions behind her before it actually dropped. “I know I would’ve changed my mind and been like, ‘It’s moved on. Let’s start the next album,’” she said. “And I couldn’t do that to this album. I feel like it deserves to come out.”
One major reason why she went ahead with the album’s release was due to a conversation she had with her good friend Drake. The rapper had been in a similar position as Adele, sitting on his album Certified Lover Boy for quite some time. “I had that conversation with Drake,” Adele said. “Because he kept having to push his album back. Suddenly he just announced that it was out and was like, ‘I feel like I’ve been working on it for so long because I’ve been sitting on it.’ I feel a bit like that.”
Based on how wildly popular her album has been, Adele is likely glad she decided to heed Drake’s advice and go ahead with the release. The LP became the best-selling release of the year just three days after it debuted. This week, 30 also hit a major milestone: The album became the only release of 2021 to reach one million sales in the US.
Read Rolling Stone‘s conversation with Adele here.