Join Alex in the studio for a sit-down interview with Halsey. Halsey opens up about her volatile childhood, loneliness, the danger of using sexuality as currency, breaking the cycle of toxic relationships, and finally finding happiness with her fiancé. Halsey also discusses their health journey and their new album. This episode is so powerful and insightful...Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Who is Halsey and what is her real name?
I realize that some of the daddy gang may not know that your legal name is Ashley and Halsey is a stage name. Yeah. What do the people closest to you call you?
Ash.
Ash.
Everyone calls me Ash. My son just started calling me Ash. I was like, you better- Get it together. I'm mommy to you, okay? He's like, I'm going to have to make myself a shirt that says, call me mommy. I'm upset. He goes, Ash. I'm like, mm-mm. He goes, well, I want to call you Ash. I'm like, well, you can't. You can't. I'm mother. I know.
I don't know how to explain it to him in a way that doesn't sound so... Like, psychotically, like, you have to respect me and give me this name. Like, there's no way to explain it. Like, he's like, why can't I call you Ash if everyone else does? I'm like, that's a great question. No, it's true. But I just don't like it.
But I also think it's, like, the rite of passage, like, when you become a parent. You're like, give me at least, like, 10 years of calling me, like, mom and mommy.
Yeah, you're three. Right. You can call me Ash later. Like, it's, like, it's so funny. Yeah, it's crazy.
Is it weird if anyone in your life would, like, refer to you as Halsey? Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How does Halsey differentiate between her alter egos?
Some people do. Like I think it's kind of interchangeable at this point. I like answer to it the same way as if it was my name. It feels the same in my body. It does. You know, like it feels like it's like it registers the same emotionally as if someone says Ash or Ashley.
Have you ever looked at it like it's an alter ego?
um recently yeah okay i didn't mean to when i started it was just a name because my name is ashley frangipani and like you can't you can't be frangipani you know you have to say in your new jersey my name is ashley frangipani so you know there was no that wasn't happening so it was just supposed to be like an easy like moniker yeah and then yeah i would say like a couple years ago i started having thoughts like that were like oh that's very halsey or like
Well, I dress like this when I'm Ash, and then I dress like this when I'm Halsey. And then I kind of was like, whoa, when did I start differentiating between the two? Like, when did they become two separate things?
Was that, like, freaky or no?
Kind of, yeah. Because I was kind of like, how did it happen?
What is the difference between Halsey and Ashley? Like, give us an example.
Well, you know what's funny is I think Ashley is, like... Like, when I'm Ash, like, I'm definitely way more, I think, masculine than when I'm Halsey. And I'm not really certain, like, where that kind of started to divert. You know what I mean? Like, when I'm home, like, I'm like a boy clothes, short hair. Like, not to, like, gender clothes, but, like, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I'm definitely kind of... I think that Ash is like less provocative. Like I'm very like chill, very patient. You know what I mean? Like very like maternal. And then I feel like Halsey, a lot of people have this idea that I'm like really provocative. And like, you know, I'm like always like yapping. I'm a big yapper. Halsey's a yapper. Ash is not so much a yapper.
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Chapter 3: What is Halsey's relationship with fame?
You know what I mean? I do think like that's so important to have, though, because at the end of the day, like all these people that are famous, it you're famous for like something that you're really good at. Obviously, some people are just famous because they're famous. But like you are so talented and your talent has made you famous, of course.
But with that, like you are just still a human being that likes to sleep and likes to eat and likes to chill with friends. And so I think having those like friends around you must still make you feel like the person from New Jersey just growing up and like had a talent. I think that's helpful to have. When do you feel most like yourself? Like what would you be doing?
Well, I'm pretty boring. I didn't used to be. I got it out of my system. You know what I mean? I had a couple years where I look back on it and cringe into a black hole when I see those photos. But I'm also really grateful for them because I just did it in a contained set of years. And then I'll never have to do it again. So like now I'm just boring.
Like, no, you're not boring. But I know what you're talking about. I think we all have that where we're like, yeah, what was I doing? Like, what what would you say you did that was cringe?
Oh, my God. There's like so many pictures of me just like fucked up, like leaving a club, like like. paparazzi, it's like three in the morning, I'm like, what are you doing? But also I was like 22, you know what I mean?
So when I see that I'm gentle with myself about it, but like, or like times where I like, I don't know, there's stuff that's like maybe cringe, but also maybe part of me, I'm a little bit like,
go off like you know like I like I clapped back at someone or I like you know like I went off or something like that and like I see that and I'm like gosh you were so angry and so confused and so like overwhelmed and like you had no one to help you so I have like a lot of compassion for that version of me but then there's also times where I'm like girl shut up you know I'm like shut up no I think that's like no matter if you're famous or not like people can look back at old Facebook photos and be like what was I up to totally what was going on there Alex
But then at the end of the day, you're like, well, I was fucking young. And, like, I was having, I think, a good time.
I mean, I didn't go to college, you know what I mean? So I didn't have, like, those years. And it's funny, the same, like, I feel like the same people who will pass judgment for, like, photos of me in, like, my 20s. Like, not even in my 20s, like, at 20. You know, because I was 19 when I wrote my first album. And...
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Chapter 4: How did Halsey's childhood shape her perspective?
Yeah. Would you ever talk to your mom, like, about it since –
she I have okay yeah no I have my mom and I are super close okay yeah she's like my mom is like my my best friend and you know we have talked about it and like I think there's a couple stages of it right because then there's the first part where you have to be like hey why didn't you stand up for me and then there's a second part where you have to be like also I forgive you you were going through a lot and then there's like the third part of it which is like there's still stuff you do today that pisses me the fuck off but I understand why now because
you know you've been conditioned you know what I mean in a certain way and like you have to have just like so much grace and understanding and like at a certain point you have to just decide you have to decide what's forgivable right and some things are and some things aren't like I don't stand by the thing with people where it's like oh like they're your parents like whatever it is it's not that serious like you know
you have to you have to just like make sure you keep the relationship like i don't agree with that at all but then at the same time i also don't agree with the idea of like we should punish our parents forever for what they did to us it's like some things you forgive some you don't and that's up to you to decide that's a good point and it takes so much fucking time because like the resentment i feel like goes in and out like depending at where you're
at in life like you can be like okay we're feeling good now and then like something like triggers you and reminds you of something they did when you were younger and you're like oh my fucking god actually we're not done with this conversation there's more shit i just remembered and it's like an endless cycle but i agree like yeah it doesn't it can't just be black and white where you forgive or it's like all perfect like there's gonna be conversations that keep having to happen yeah
I think also something interesting that you were talking about was like going to all these different schools. Like when we are young, a huge part also of like what forms our personality and our tendencies is like our relationship with our friends and our peers. You going to new schools constantly, like how did you approach a new school?
Um, I was definitely like, this is an opportunity. You know, I was always like, if there's something I want to try out or someone I want to be like, I can do it here because no one knows me. Oh, interesting. You know, like when I was growing up, I was like, Ashley with a Y. I was like, Ashley with two E's.
Oh, there was like one school I was at for like a really short period of time where I was like, I'm Ashley, but everyone calls me Sky. It's like, not true. I made that up. I was like nine. And then like, it was like years later, I was like in a bar in New York and someone came up to me and they were like, Sky. And I was like, what? And they were like, Sky, like we went to school together.
And I was like, bitch, I don't even remember being that person. Which is ironic now because if you know anything about me as an artist, you're like, that tracks. You constantly look and seem and act different.
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Chapter 5: How does Halsey discuss toxic relationships and power dynamics?
real yeah like that's so fucking real it's not true because i'm very much in love now and i'm getting all yeah i mean all the i see that ring girl i i will say to anyone listening that's not true but i do think there's a period of time where like safety comes where you just kind of feel like it just doesn't hit the same right and like you can't go back i did i definitely was like oh i wonder if i'm just gonna be like what is it for me is it contentment is it settling
Is it settling for safety? Do I get to have that same intensity without all of the danger, you know?
And I feel like something I had to learn along the way, and everyone has to, like, take their time with it, is, like, you're right. The toxicity is addicting. But there's such a difference between, like, safe and boring or just not the same thing.
Totally.
And it can take you a really long time. But understandably, if you're on this fucking roller coaster ride and then you're slowly just like sitting in the little the like the game that you're just like riding around and it's slow. You're like, this isn't fucking fun. I want to be screaming my head off and I want to have my hair all over the place.
It's like, what if we told you that like 10 people died on that ride like last week? And you're like, well, it was fun, though.
You know what I mean? Keep going back. And it's like, why do we do this to ourselves? Because I was going to ask you about like you have written about these like volatile relationships that you've been in and like.
when you do get out of them i guess you just answered it of like what do you learn about yourself then when you get into new relationships that aren't as volatile and it's like i guess your answer was like kind of learning to be okay with peace a little bit yes and no okay because then what happened was is i was like okay i guess this is it i guess i'm just settling for contentment and then i realized that that wasn't true either that was me putting safety before my happiness
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Chapter 6: What role does sexuality play in Halsey's career?
You know what I mean? Because I was going to say, like, if you have any advice to maybe someone that's watching this right now, but is like fully in that cycle of whether it's with an abusive partner or a toxic partner and they just can't get out of it. And they're like, but I'll never find something that makes me feel this.
You will. You have to heal first. When you get out, it's not going to feel that way right away because you need to heal. And then like that new healed version of you is going to like, you know, I don't know. It's kind of like when you get a wound.
and then you know the wound hurts and it hurts and it hurts but at least you're feeling something and then it scars and the scar is numb and you're like i don't have no feeling here but then eventually new skin grows and you get to feel again but it's not it doesn't hurt you know what i mean no it's so it's so hard to tell people when they're in it we're like i'm
promise you if you leave and you get out of it and you heal it's going to get better I want to ask you like as an artist because I feel like a lot of people have these moments where they collaborate with someone they were in a relationship with and you've done that in the past and you have this like very famous song with someone that you have like talked about like not having a good relationship with can you describe the feeling of like having a piece of art tied to a very
like hurtful and not like positive experience?
I think the one thing I've been really smart about is they're never my songs. I'm always on their songs. And I'm like, that's your problem, not mine. I get to do my whole catalog and I don't have to deal with you. So like, sorry that some of your biggest songs have me on them. I don't know what to tell you.
But I tend to be sort of the gatekeepy about my art for that same reason where I'm like, yeah, I'll get on your thing. But like... Not mine. You know, like this needs to this. I need to preserve this for for myself. You know, I think whether I'm on a record with someone in our in like, you know, the relationship changes or not, or I just wrote a song about them, like songs just carry so much.
cellular energy but the good thing about them is that they do evolve you know what I mean like I've gotten on stage and sang the same song like over like I've I've been singing without me for fucking years you know and every time I sing it it feels different feels like it's about a different thing and like you know I have so many songs that are about so many different times in my life or like experiences and like I don't know I think that I think that
I'll never shy away from being honest, you know, it's like, and if you have to deal with the consequences of that later, then so be it. But like, I would rather regret, I'd rather regret being honest.
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