Greyson Chance, the young musician who became famous after his YouTube-postedperformance of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral in April 2010 and wasinvited to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show said in a new interview thathe felt trauma over the way the host treated him.
“I’ve never met someone more manipulative, more self-centered, and moreblatantly opportunistic than her,” he told Rolling Stone in a storypublished Thursday, as he released his new album, Palladium.
Through a rep, DeGeneres declined to comment for the Rolling Stone interviewor Yahoo Entertainment’s story.
Chance, who’s now 25, was just 12 when he became the buzz of the internet.DeGeneres called a week later, and it took his first plane ride from Oklahomato Los Angeles, Calif. where he said that DeGeneres assured him and hismother, Lisa, that they were “going to do this together.” The A-list star, whowas making a foray into the music business, hooked Chance up with an entireteam of people and, most importantly, signed him to her new music label, whichwas distributed by Interscope Geffen A&M Records.
But Chance told the magazine that DeGeneres “became dominating and way too> controlling.” For example, she stipulated what he wore, and he didn’t; no> leather, since she’s a vegan.
“She would come in and look at a rack, yell at stylists, berate people infront of me and say, ‘This is what you’re wearing on the show,'” Chance said.”She was just relegating to people.”
In one instance, the performer and his mom both said that she scolded the twoof them over the phone, after he had failed to watch the Justin Bieberdocumentary that she had asked him to see, when he hadn’t watched it becausehe was tired from touring.
Some of Chance’s words echo what employees of DeGeneres’s former talk showalleged in a July 2020 report from BuzzFeed. they called Ellen a toxicworkplace, where fear and intimidation were the norm.
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Back in 2012, when it was still on the air, Chance’s second album bombed andticket sales declined. He was dropped by the record label and by his team.
That’s when he said that DeGeneres “completely abandoned” him and wouldn’teven return his calls.
“I couldn’t get ahold of her. Couldn’t talk to her,” Chance said. “Whenever Iwould come on the show, it was such a fake smile. She wouldn’t even ask, ‘Howare you doing? How are you holding up?’ It was just like, ‘Here’s what we’regoing to talk about. We’ll see you on there.'”
But someone from her show contacted him at some point, because he appeared onit after he left the label. (In all, he was on DeGeneres’s stage 10 times overthe years, twice after 2012, according to IMDb.) When he performed there in2015, he said the two didn’t speak at all backstage. Still, he went back in2019 to promote a new album, portraits.
A show source pointed out that Chance hadn’t made any complaints at the time.
He said he was unhappy, though, especially on that final visit.
“She came out during soundcheck and she looked at me, hugged me. And she said,’How have you been?’ And that just killed me inside,” Chance said, “because Iwas like, ‘What do you mean how have I f***ing been? Where have you been?”
He didn’t appreciate her saying during their interview that she was proud of> him for having come out as gay since they had last spoken.
“She had nothing to do with that. … [When I came out,] I hadn’t spoken to herin years,” he said. “That’s so messed up, that you’re now showing the world asif we’re so tight. We’re so good. And behind the scenes, you are this insanelymanipulative person.”
Afterward, Chance said that, while he’s grateful for what DeGeneres did forhim early in his career, he declined offers to be part of Ellen ‘s finalseason. He knew the move meant less publicity, but he had to make it for his