In a recent interview with The New York Times, Olivia Rodrigo revealed that Jack White, St. Vincent, and Kathleen Hanna mentored her while making her upcoming album, GUTS.

Although she is often referred to as a pop star, Rodrigo has been very vocal about her love of rock music. In 2022, Rodrigo shared a photo of herself and White, saying that she got to “meet my hero of all heroes”.

 

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In the interview, Rodrigo shared that White helped alleviate the pressure she felt writing the follow-up to her debut album, SOUR. “He wrote me this letter the first time I met him that said, ‘Your only job is to write music that you would want to hear on the radio,'” she said. “I mean, writing songs that you would like to hear on the radio is in fact very hard.”

But Rodrigo’s music taste goes beyond just radio hits, revealing her love of Bikini Kill. Vocalist Kathleen Hanna feels the mutual love, saying in the same interview that “[Olivia]’s a revelation. To be my age and cry at something that someone so young wrote – like listening to ‘Drivers License’ for the first time and sobbing in my car.”

Hanna praised Rodrigo for condemning the overturning of Roe vs. Wade at her Glastonbury set last year. “It’s a fascinating thing to watch these young women – and especially Olivia – because she seems to be so advanced as a songwriter, expressing themselves in these really complicated ways. That’s so great, to see this underground musical style being graphically referenced in the mainstream by a person who’s actually a music lover.”

In the same interview, St. Vincent’s Annie Clark – who just accompanied Rodrigo to a Tori Amos concert – echoed Hanna’s sentiments. “I’ve never met anyone so young and so effortlessly self-possessed,” Clark said. “[She] knows who she is and what she wants – and doesn’t seem to be in any way afraid of voicing that. And just a really lovely girl too… I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone.”

Rodrigo also shared her appreciation for Rage Against The Machine, Joni Mitchell, and Snail Mail.