Choice Excerpts From Adele’s Cover Story
Adele performs at the Brit Awards in London, February 15, 2011.
“All of her songs are based on real events and real people,” says her bassist, Sam Dixon. “It can be hard for her to sing them; that’s happened a few times now.” At the Brit Awards in February, she was close to tears at the end of her performance of “Someone” and had to turn away from the cameras. “It’s not a pose or a stance,” says Rick Rubin, who produced four of 21’s songs. “When you hear someone bare their soul, it resonates.”
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Unfeminine Products
Image Credit: Courtesy of Adele In person, Adele is just as unguarded. Walking through the park, she tells of once going onstage with “a tampon on my thumb. It was awful!” She says it was to cover up a broken nail. (“You make it hollow and put it on your finger. I do it all the time.”) She talks fast, uses different voices, and tells filthy jokes onstage (“What do you call a blonde standing on her head? A brunette with bad breath.”)
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The Canon
Image Credit: Courtesy of Adele Her mother is still her closest friend, and current roommate. Adele credits her with turning her on to Mary J. Blige, Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys – she calls The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and Songs in A Minor “life-defining.” The other big influence was Etta James, whose music she discovered in the bargain bin of a record store. “She was the first time a voice made me stop what I was doing and sit down and listen. It took over my mind and body.”
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Video: Adele Calls Songs on 21 "The Most Articulate I've Ever Written"
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Had a Dad
Image Credit: Courtesy of Adele Her father, Mark Evans – a recovering alcoholic who left Adele’s mother and her when she was three – sold a story to the U.K. tabloid The Sun, telling them that he felt guilty about not being there for Adele when she was growing up. Adele’s eyes narrow when she talks about the story. “I never knew my dad,” she says. “He has no fuckin’ right to talk about me.”
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An Education
Image Credit: Ben Rayner/Corbis Outline Adele, around age 18, in London circa 2006 – the year she graduated from the BRIT performing-arts school.
As a child, Adele loved singing and playing guitar and clarinet; by 14, she was impressive enough to successfully audition for London’s BRIT School, a public performing-arts high school that artists such as Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis and Kate Nash also attended. “It was like Fame,” she says. “There were kids doing pirouettes in the fuckin’ hallway and doing mime and having sing-offs in the foyer.”
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Fright Nights
Image Credit: Paul Bergen/Redferns/Getty Adele performing in Amsterdam in July of 2008.
“I’m scared of audiences,” she says. “I get shitty scared. One show in Amsterdam, I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit. I’ve thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels, I projectile-vomited on someone. I just gotta bear it. But I don’t like touring. I have anxiety attacks a lot.”
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Hard Core
Image Credit: ©2009 RAMEY PHOTO Adele meeting Lil Kim on the set of Dancing with the Stars in Los Angeles, March 24, 2009.
She loves shock rappers Odd Future. “They’re refreshing,” she says, but “my fans weren’t happy when I posted their video on my blog.” (Sample line: “I’ll stab Bruno Mars in his goddamn esophagus.”) Lil’ Kim once heard a rap of hers: “She said I was nasty!”
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Ms. Carter
Image Credit: Lunae Parracho/LatinContent/Getty (Beyoncé), Rob Verhorst/Redferns/Getty (Carter) She also has an alter ego she uses to pump herself up, called Sasha Carter – a composite of Beyoncé's Sasha Fierce and June Carter. “I was about to meet Beyoncé,” she says, “and I had a full-blown anxiety attack. Then she popped in looking gorgeous, and said, ‘You’re amazing! When I listen to you I feel like I’m listening to God.’ Can you believe she said that?” Later, “I went out on the balcony crying hysterically, and I said, ‘What would Sasha Fierce do?’ That’s when Sasha Carter was born.”
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Adele Opens Up About Her Inspirations, Looks and Stage Fright in Rolling Stone Cover Story
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Scalable
Image Credit: Photograph by Simon Emmett One thing that Adele says she isn’t anxious about is her weight. It’s fluctuated throughout her life, but she says she doesn’t diet or work out. “My life is full of drama, and I don’t have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like,” she says.
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Video: Adele Calls Songs on 21 "The Most Articulate I've Ever Written"
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Private Parts
Image Credit: Courtesy of Adele Adele with Katy Perry in 2009.
“I don’t like going to the gym. I like eating fine foods and drinking nice wine. Even if I had a really good figure, I don’t think I’d get my tits and ass out for no one. I love seeing Lady Gaga’s boobs and bum. I love seeing Katy Perry’s boobs and bum. Love it. But that’s not what my music is about. I don’t make music for eyes, I make music for ears.”
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Adele Opens Up About Her Inspirations, Looks and Stage Fright in Rolling Stone Cover Story