Elon Musk Weighs In on Grimes’ Song About Him, ‘Player of Games’
It’s safe to say pop star Grimes gets to make up her own reality in ways others can only dream of. Now raising two children with Tesla co-founder Elon Musk, Grimes continues to turn social-media misunderstandings into fresh artistic endeavors, including futuristic tracks for her upcoming album, Book 1. Read on for more on the never-boring world of Musk and Grimes, including the real inspiration for the popular song “Player of Games.”
Grimes revealed her second child with Elon Musk in a dramatic fashion
Reporter Devin Gordon couldn’t have known quite what he was getting into when he recently sat down with Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, for the April issue of Vanity Fair. While Grimes’ unique lifestyle wasn’t especially surprising, he was nonetheless shocked midway through the interview by a sound he recognized: the clear cry of a baby.
Instead of an Instagram or Twitter post announcing the arrival of another child between Grimes and Musk, Gordon uncovered the well-kept secret seemingly by accident. Once the secret was out in the open, Grimes finally opened up about the details, telling Gordon that—after a rough first pregnancy—Grimes and Musk had a second child with a surrogate.
Their child’s name is also fitting for the offspring of two very different visionaries. Born last December, Exa Dark Sideræl Musk is the official name of their baby girl, although Grimes and Musk call her “Y” for short. Y also works very well with her brother X, whose full original name of X Æ A-12 didn’t comply with California law. According to Page Six, X’s name was officially changed to X AE A-XII to circumvent the restrictions.
Musk on ‘Player of Games’
The music video for “Player of Games,” launched the same month Y was born, created plenty of questions for fans and critics. While social-media speculators assumed it was about the couple breaking up, the song instead refers to Musk dropping a bombshell on Grimes. Fully pregnant with X at the time of the song’s inspiration, Grimes remembers being shocked when Musk said he planned to head out for Mars in about 10 years. “Could we make it 20?” Grimes recalls asking Musk.
Not a song about a conniving relationship killer at all, the song points to Musk’s mission to turn humans into an interplanetary species within our lifetime—a vision that includes colonizing the red planet. Musk added his own take on the song in an additional conversation with Gordon, an interview in which he phoned in a few minutes before midnight in a self-driving Tesla. “It wasn’t new information,” Musk said to Gordon, adding, “I’ve been saying since before she was pregnant that I was going to Mars.”
Providing a more literal interpretation of the song, Musk pointed out that he does in fact like playing intensely cerebral strategy games, although the song seems to have nothing to do with the couple’s initial breakup. Right after the Vanity Fair piece, however, Grimes tweeted that they did in fact break up again, though she still called Musk “my best friend and the love of my life” while remaining committed to Musk’s mission to Mars.
How her relationship with Musk has affected Grimes’ career
More than a typical boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, Grimes and Musk seem to have a totally unique shared experience that allows for personal space and time away from each other. For Grimes, that means devoting her attention to her two young children but also finding time for Book 1, a sci-fi-themed album set thousands of years in the future. The inspirations for the album are also extremely telling, as they seem to track her own personal experience at the side of the wealthiest man on the planet.
Although Book 1 is set in the future, Grimes’ inspirations include Anne Boleyn as well as Athena and Calypso of Greek mythology, pointing to her simultaneous passion for history. “These weren’t just hot girls,” she told Vanity Fair. “They were the smartest girls, some of the most educated women of their time.” And yet, she continued, “There’s this weird dismissal of them. These are some of the most interesting characters in history to me, and they’re so demeaned.”
It’s impossible to miss the parallels to her own experience; despite being a chart-topping musician, Grimes is often tossed in as the volatile add-on to Musk simply because of his extreme wealth and fame. But for Grimes, the backlash against her simply becomes fuel for her art. She even mentioned that her new album is likely to have an allusion to Amazon and Blue Sphere founder Jeff Bezos, who Investopedia lists as the second-wealthiest person in the world. While Bezos and Musk push forward into space and beyond, Grimes continues to use her music to travel to dimensions well beyond even their reach.
