The Weeknd Recalls Taylor Swift Petting His Hair

The man of the moment, The Weeknd, is at the peak of his career thus far. With Beauty Behind The Madness still going strong on the charts and his tour on the way, the Toronto crooner caught up with Rolling Stone for a very candid interview, billed as Sex, Drugs and R&B: Inside The Weeknd’s Dark Twisted Fantasy. He used the occasion to touch on his first encounter with Taylor Swift, his success, drugs, working with Ariana Grande and much more.

Abel is known not only for his distinctive voice and sultry lyrics, but also for his weird hairstyle. He recalled Taylor Swift dared to pet his hair the first time both met. ”She actually schooled me on my own shit. She was like, ‘I’ve been listening to ‘The Morning’ [from House of Balloons] for years — it’s one of my favorite songs ever!’ I mean, she might have just Googled it. But she seemed genuine. But the whole time she was talking, she was kind of, like, petting my hair? I think she was just drawn to it — she must have been a little gone off a few drinks. And of course I‘m not going to be like, ‘Hey, can you stop?’ I mean, it felt good! But when she started petting my hair, that's when I was like, ‘I definitely need a drink.’”

The Weeknd also took it all the way to the beginning of his career and recalled heavily doing drugs, which eventually inspired his three iconic mixtapes – House of Balloons, Thursday and Echoes of Silence. “I never needed detox or anything, but I was addicted in the sense of ‘F***, I don’t want to spend this day without getting high.’ Like, ‘08 to 2010 — those are my hazy years. I have this lyric that goes, ‘I’m not scared of the fall / I’ve felt the ground before.’ And in this industry, I’m not really scared of failing, because I already know what it means to be on the ground.”

Further, the singer elaborated on his collaboration with Ariana Grande, “Love Me Harder,” and swtiching up Max Martin‘s original lyrics. “It was a great song but it was a little generic. I couldn't hear myself on it. So I changed it and made it dark... It was kind of like the label giving me an alley-oop. I think that's where the stars aligned for me. When I see an opening, I penetrate it.”

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