Chappell Roan Came This Close to Pranking Elton John When He Called Her 11 Times: ‘I Was so Mad’
Elton John calling. The Grammy winner and icon called one of the music industry’s rising stars, Chappell Roan, 11 times before the “Good Luck, Babe!” songstress finally answered. When she did, she came very close to pranking the caller before realizing it was John. Ahead, why Rran had been “so mad” and what the “Tiny Dancer” singer told her.
Roan kept getting calls from a random number before learning it was Elton John
In a Rolling Stone interview published shortly before her first-ever MTV Video Music Awards performance on Sept. 11, 2024, Roan revealed how she found herself on the phone with John.
According to the publication, she kept getting calls from a “random iCloud number” that she didn’t initially realize belonged to the “Rocket Man” singer. John, she said, called 11 times over the span of five days.
“I thought a f***ing fan found my iCloud,” Roan said with a laugh. “I was so mad and was about to hand my phone to my friend like, ‘Yo, let’s prank them.’”
She continued, saying: “I finally answered it one day, and it was Elton f***ing John,” she continued. As for what they talked about, “I was telling him I was struggling a lot, and he said, ‘If you need to stop, say stop,’” she recalled.
John’s phone call came after Roan’s social media posts
What prompted John’s call to Roan was the latter’s social media posts in August 2024 regarding “creepy” fan encounters.
“I don’t care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous or a little famous,” she said in a video (via CNN). “I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior, OK?”
Her comments led to a mixture of support and backlash from fans. In Roan’s latest interview, she opened up about what led her to make those posts. She detailed having a stalker, someone she met in her home state of Missouri, who has gone to her parents’ house and her own New York hotel room.
“So now I have to have security,” she said, calling it “so lame.” Other incidents have included being “berated” by a man about not signing an autograph until police arrived, and having fans track down her flight information only to wait for her at the airport, among other things.
“I am very protective of her,” John told Rolling Stone. “She is kind, innocent, and wonderful. She is not ‘Chappell Roan’ offstage–a bit like me,” he explained. Rather, “she is one of those people who I felt like I have known for a long time.”
Other musicians have also reached out to Roan besides Elton John
John is hardly the only celebrity to offer support to Roan in the wake of her TikTok and Instagram posts. According to the outlet, Charli XCX was the first to reach out to the 26-year-old, and many have followed.
Billie Eilish is “keeping tabs” on the “Pink Pony Club” singer. Paramore’s Hayley Williams DM’d her offering to talk “anytime.” Mitski welcomed Roan to “the shi*tiest exclusive club in the world, the club where strangers think you belong to them and they find and harass your family members” via email.
Lady Gaga passed along her phone number. Phoebe Bridgers visited Roan at home, and, on one occasion, her Boygenius bandmates got coffee and went for a walk with the singer.
Katy Perry gave Roan advice—don’t read the comments—and Lorde handed over a “helpful list of things to do at an airport to fly under the radar.” Sabrina Carpenter suggested they get together and talk about their “wildly successful-but-overwhelming summers,” per the outlet.
The “few” male artists who contacted Roan include John, Orville Peck, Troye Sivan, and Noah Kahan.
