Greyson Chance is getting real about his time in the spotlight.
The 25-year-old Palladium singer-songwriter went wildly viral when he wa 12 years old when he performed Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” in front of his schoolmates in 2010. He appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show shortly after going viral.
Now in an interview with Rolling Stone Greyson is speaking his truth about his experience behind the scenes. He revealed that things were not so positive when it came to Ellen’s involvement in his career at the time.
After he first appeared on her show in May 2010, Ellen gifted him $10,000 and a brand new piano, and co-created eleveneleven, a record label distributed by Interscope Geffen A&M Records. She signed Greyson as her first act. She also got him managers Troy Carter and Guy Oseary, a publicist, booking agent, and brand agent. Greyson dropped a mini EP in October 2010 and then started touring.
Greyson stated that she became “really invested” in him but also “domineering and way too controlling.” He explained:
“My whole week, my whole month, my whole year could change [with] one text message from her. That was horrible…if she had an opinion of any sort, the whole thing changed.”
He shared that at one point, when he did not immediately watch Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never documentary which Ellen sent him, she called his mother:
“I’ll never forget this. I just remember hearing on the other side of the phone, just yelling [and] beratement: ‘What type of mother are you? Do you realize that I went out of my way to get this for you, and he can’t sit down and watch it?’”
His mother, Lisa, recounted that there were many times Ellen “would go through his clothes” and be “a little controlling” about his outfits, and said he was not allowed to wear leather due to her commitment to veganism:
“She would come in and look at a rack, yell at stylists, berate people in front of me and say, ‘This is what you’re wearing on the show.’ She was just degrading to people.”
Greyson also revealed that when his music began to underperform and ticket sales dropped by the time 2012 rolled around, Ellen allegedly disappeared and became “completely removed,” adding that he felt “completely abandoned” by her:
“I’ve never met someone more manipulative, more self-centered, and more blatantly opportunistic than her.”
Of his appearances on the show after this happened:
“When I look at the interviews and I look at my eyes, I can see so much anxiety. I can just see so much PTSD because I’m there holding on for dear life going, ‘I need this TV gig.’ I was 100 percent faking it, and [I felt like] she’s 100 percent faking it with me, too.”
