Whenever stars do press, there’s always a chance of things going off the rails, and from there, it’s up to the fans to decide if it’s delightful or a disaster. For instance: Dakota Johnson‘s promo cycle for Madame Web, which plenty of folks enjoyed more than the movie itself.
The latest example came this week, as Janelle Monáe joined a slate of celebrities for Rolling Stone‘s annual Musicians on Musicians series. Monáe was paired with alt-rocker Lucy Dacus for discussion, and at some point, she decided to get all the way weird with it, telling the guitarist that she “traveled back into the 1970s” to watch David Bowie perform The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, calling it “incredible.”
Like Dacus, fans online have been thrown by the deadpan delivery of the mischievous Monáe, not sure whether to believe her or not. This is, after all, the same artist who released a long-running epic series of albums using androids as a metaphor for race and sex in America. Likewise, Monáe’s Bowie quote was also a metaphor for being inspired by her musical hero; she followed up with “[I realized] this is what I want to do. So I jetted back to the 2000s. And I was like, ‘I can have the musical, make the music, create the lyrics, and create community around transformation and being queer.’ And not even just in sexuality, but in how we see the world.”
Of course, the quote’s been taken out of context as such things are wont to be (sorry to be the Fun Police over here, but we live in some dark, dangerous times), and fans are having a field day online with the clipped conversation. Many viewers sympathized with Dacus, who appeared to be caught in a time warp herself trying to parse the confusing quote. Others went with the logical extremes of Janelle’s supposed temporal sliding powers. Meanwhile, I’m just hoping someone at Marvel, DC, or Image (preferably Image) has an editor who’s really into music interviews, because this will make one hell of a comic book.
You can watch the full interview above.