Billie Eilish may have a song titled, “Bad Guy,” but that doesn’t mean she has any intention of stepping into that role in her personal life. However, the online narrative that she is has forced her to walk away from social media although. The singer and her brother Finneas, whose also a frequent collaborator, discussed how becoming famous and being lied about made Eilish question how honest anything on the internet really is.
In the teaser clip for Eilish and Finneas’ upcoming appearance on television host, Conan O’Brien’s podcast Needs A Friend, the pair share how their outlook on social media has changed since their breakout success.
When asked by O’Brien about how she deals with everyone’s opinion of her on social media, Eilish replied, “I don’t look at it anymore. I deleted it all off my phone, which is such a huge deal for me.”
The singer later added, “…being a pre-teen and a teenager on the internet, those were my people, I was one of them. I’m a person who goes on the internet and to change nothing about the person I am or the life that I live just keep doing what I do over the years, and slowly the videos that I’m watching and the things that I see on the internet are about me. ‘Eww, stinky.’ I don’t like that.”
The songwriter was clear to emphasize that she’s not upset with others voicing their opinion, rather, “It’s these definitive statements that THEY know are right. Somehow they know, somebody told them — God came down and said this is the truth about Billie, and you know it for a fact. You don’t know her, but you know that this is the truth and you have to tell everybody about it. That’s the other thing that freaks me out about the internet is how gullible it makes you.”
However, Eilish did express empathy, saying, “Anything I read on the internet, I believe. Me. I know for a fact that’s stupid, and I shouldn’t do that because I have proof it’s not all true. Almost none of it’s true. Small white lies.”
Conan O’Brien’s Needs A Friend podcast episode featuring Billie Eilish and Finneas is set to drop on March 27. For more information, here.
Listen to the interview clip above.