Fans have been waiting for Olivia Rodrigo’s response to the supposed love triangle of Joshua Bassett and Sabrina Carpenter, and it’s finally here. The 17-year-old “Driver’s License” singer addressed the rumor in an interview with Billboard.
When recent theories about his supposed ex and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series costar, Bassett, came in the interview, Rodrigo had a timid response. “I totally understand people’s curiosity about the details of who the song is and what it is about, but for me, that’s really the least important part of the song,” she told Billboard. “It’s resonating with people because of how emotional it is, and I think everything else is not important.”
As for what she meant by * everything * else, here’s a quick explanation of the whole Rodrigo-Bassett-Carpenter drama. When Rodrigo released his debut single, “Drivers License”, on January 8, 2021, fans quickly started picking up lyrics that apparently suggested a love triangle between her, Bassett and Carpenter. In the song, Rodrigo sings how his ex is now dating “that blonde” who is “much older” than she. Carpenter – who was discovered with Bassett in recent weeks – happens to have blond hair and is four years older than Rodrigo. Coincidence? The fans don’t think so.
If that didn’t convince him, fans also noticed tips that Bassett taught Rodrigo to drive before she actually got her driver’s license. And in an early version of the song shared in July 2020, the lyrics about a “blonde girl” were originally “brunette girls”, which means that HSMTMTS The student may have changed her lyrics later to reflect Bassett’s supposed romance with Carpenter.
To be worth it, Rodrigo also revealed in an interview with Billboard that he was initially “terrified” to release the song. “It was like, my deepest insecurities in a four-minute song,” she said. Although the song is an ongoing success, it seems that his fears were not entirely unfounded: just a day after Rodrigo’s Billboard interview, Carpenter released his own (diss) track.
The song, entitled “Skin”, was released by Carpenter on Thursday, January 22. In it, Carpenter apparently addresses Rodrigo’s lyrics directly: “Maybe you didn’t want to / Maybe blonde was the only rhyme”, she sings. Later, she included what many listeners interpret as a joke with the title of Rodrigo’s song, singing: “Don’t go crazy / It won’t always be like this”.
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