It seems like everyone and their mom loves Olivia Rodrigo’s “Drivers License,” but the singer admits her own mom had some doubts about the tune at first.
The 18-year-old, who released her debut album SOUR Friday, revealed her mom’s brutally honest critique of the song to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.
“I actually never said this in an interview before, but I was thinking about it the other day, and it’s so funny,” Olivia said during Apple Music’s First Listen special live-stream listening party. “When I played ‘Drivers License’ for the first time for my mom, she goes, ‘The bridge is really weird. It’s too much; it doesn’t fit with the rest of the song.’”
But of course, the bridge — the “Red lights/stop signs/I still see your face in the white cars, front yards…” — ended up being the song’s most memorable part.
Olivia laughs, “In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t take that to heart but, she’s very honest. But, I mean, obviously, she’s my mom and would support me in whatever I did, but I just thought that was a funny little anecdote.”
The singer says her mom is the still the first person she plays every song for.
“She’s from Wisconsin, she’s a third-grade teacher, and she’s the sweetest, purest woman you will ever meet in your whole life,” Olivia says. “Her favorite music is punk music and metal music and really hard, gritty stuff, so she’s always been the one that has instilled in me that, ‘I don’t care about the technicalities — if it makes you feel something, then it’s good music.’”
“If my mom doesn’t like it, I know it’s not music that makes you feel,” she adds.
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