Norman Fucking Rockwell, Lana Del Rey's sixth album, is almost upon us. This bodes well for the potential for happiness this purported holiday weekend. And, in a new interview, Lana goes deep on the inspiration behind the well-named album, including a reflection on that "The Greatest" lyric referencing Kanye West's embrace of Trumpism.
Asked by The New York Timesabout the "Kanye West is blond and gone" line, Lana—who previously performed at Kanye's wedding—said she has not received any sort of response to it. In fact, she doesn't write to engender such things.
"Here's the thing: I don't want to elicit a response," she said. "You never feel better for having written something like that. But Kanye just means so much to us. And by the way, I'm grateful to be in a country where everyone can have their own political views. I'm really not more of a liberal than I am a Republican—I'm in the middle. But it was more like the mood and the vibe around, Yo, this man is the greatest! Really? The greatest? It hurt me. Did I have to say anything? No. But it's more just a line that represents a lot of things."
For context, and simply as a shout-out to a great lyrical passage, here's the full "The Greatest" outro lyrics in question:
Lana also discussed what she now believes is an absence of protest music ("I think there was a great period of not being sure what was going on"), Moby's book, the Grammys ("Yeah, I care"), and more. Read the full thing, penned by Joe Coscarelli, right here.
Norman Fucking Rockwell is out this fucking Friday.