We’re about a month out from the release of Adele’s fourth studio album, 30, and in addition to blockbuster pop songs, that means we also get the joy of another singular press run from the London superstar. To coincide with the release of lead single “Easy on Me,” Adele made the media rounds, and reeled off viral quips with the ease she usually reserves for No. 1 hits.
Talking to Heart, she coyly responded to a question about whether she was worried about Ed Sheeran dropping an album around the same time as she is. (His comes out October 29, and he’s previously referred to Adele as someone he strives against.) “I’m not panicking!” she said with a cackle. “He can panic!”
In her BBC Radio 1 interview, she revealed she’s been set on the November 19 release of 30 for six months, and joked about the level of precaution being taken at the plant where vinyls and other physicals are being printed. “Those factories are looking like Squid Game right now. They’ve got people with guns, I’m telling you, ‘Because if this album leaks…” she warned.
Artists of Adele’s stature are usually very selective about who gets to hear their music before it’s finished, and during another interview with Capital FM she said the only big name she played the album for in advance was Drake. The Toronto rapper and noted Anglophile called Adele “one of my best friends in the world” in an Instagram post about her new song.
“I played it to Drake maybe last year when he was in town. I was like ‘Do you think this is what people want or not want?’ And he was like, ‘Absolutely,’” she said. “Drake’s obviously incredible and amazing, but I don’t send it around to various people being like, ‘Can I get your thoughts on this?’”
Speaking to the BBC, Adele also opened up about “Easy on Me,” talking about how the song was inspired in part by her split from husband Simon Konecki. “There’s something that’s really hopeful about it as well as sad. But I obviously bawled my eyes out when I was writing it and when I was singing it for the recording,” she said.
But Adele said that the close friends she shared the track with weren’t exactly fans off the bat. “I sent a snippet of me singing it as I was writing it to three of my closest friends here and one didn’t like it, the other one was like ‘Well yeah, maybe. Keep trying though!’ and the other was like, ‘I’m busy working.’ So that was the perfect response for me.”
The Capital interview also touched on one of music’s most dangerous beefs, Adele vs. Peppa Pig. During an Instagram Live, a fan asked Adele if she would collaborate with Peppa, and she said no. Peppa responded, asking “Don’t you like me?” and Adele eased her stance, offering to sing with Peppa and jump in some muddy puddles.
But don’t think Adele spent the day in the back of an Uber going from station to station. Like the A-lister she is, she took the interviews from her L.A. office, where eagle-eyed fans spotted a copy of Beyoncé’s Lemonade vinyl on her shelf. (Stars, they’re just like us).
Adele’s media appearances are always newsworthy because they’re usually pretty sporadic. When she’s not promoting new work, she manages to lay pretty low, although perhaps her newly official relationship with sports agent Rich Paul will keep her in the public eye even more (and get us some more hall of fame-level quotes).