Before dropping her 2020 debut album Heaven & Hell, Ava Max had been hard at work on her music career. Already boasting over a billion streams on Spotify, her singles “Sweet But Psycho” and “Salt” went No. 1 in several countries upon their release. But her music’s success didn’t happen over night. Speaking with Uproxx for the How I Blew Up series, Max describes being fired from a few jobs before her music career took off.
In the How I Blew Up episode, Max said she knew she had always wanted to be a singer. But she was briefly swayed by outside voices, who convinced her that becoming a pop star was a “one-in-a-billion” chance. “So I started getting a bunch of 9-5 jobs. I started getting fired — I wasn’t very good at any of them,” Max says.
The singer tried a brief stint as a nail salon receptionist, but she was let go after struggling with the math aspect of the job. “It was not my cup of tea,” she notes. Eventually, Max began selling hair straighteners at a mall kiosk. The singer describes the gig as “fun,” but said she quit after being reprimanded for showing up late with a cappuccino in hand every morning.
Eventually, Max’s song “Anyone But You” blew up on SoundCloud and led to a record deal with Atlantic. Thanks to the success of Heaven & Hell, it’s not likely that Max will have to go back to a 9-5 job any time soon.
Watch the latest episode of How I Blew Up with Ava Max above.
Ava Max is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.