My guest tonight is a Grammy-nominated
singer-songwriter who has written hits
for Macklemore, Rihanna, Beyoncé,
and just wrapped a festival tour with Eminem.
Please welcome Skylar Grey.
(cheers and applause)
-Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
And congratulations coming off the successful tour with Eminem.
Is Eminem one of those people who is, like, super, like,
hard-core whenever we see him, but then he's-he's just like
a softy and a sweetheart in real life?
-Kinda, yeah. -Yeah?
He's really fun.
I feel like Eminem's, like, in the booth, and he's like,
(mimics rapping)
and then he comes out and he's like, "Hi."
He's, like, he's one of the funniest people I've ever met.
You always dreamed of working with Eminem,
which is, which is-- what I find amazing about your story
is you talk about how you were first introduced to the idea
of maybe, like, singing on an Eminem song
when "Stan" came out.
Yeah, I heard that song when I was, like, 13,
and it was kind of my first experience loving hip-hop.
And then it kind of-- I deep down had this dream
of wanting to work with rappers even though I was a folk singer.
So it was a little odd.
But, then, I ended up working with him, so...
-How does that story begin? -Total dream come true.
Let's go, let's go to the beginning.
So you get into folk singing,
-and this is-- is this a family thing, -Yeah.
or is this just the music you...?
My mom and I had a folk duo,
and I started performing with her when I was six years old.
And then I went solo when I was 14.
She wasn't too happy about that.
Mom, I am leaving you,
but I still need you to drop me at all my gigs.
Exactly, exactly.
And then I moved to L.A. when I was 17, got a record deal.
Things fell apart, I went broke.
And I left L.A. for a while.
And I had a bad taste in my mouth
about the music industry in general.
And out in the woods in Oregon, I fell back in love with music
and decided I had to figure out a way to make a living at it,
-'cause I wasn't good at anything else. -Right.
I was a high school dropout,
and all the jobs I tried I sucked at.
So I was like, music has to work.
And so I reached out to my publisher,
and I was like, how can we do this?
And she had just signed a guy named Alex da Kid, a producer,
and she connected us on e-mail,
and that's how "Love the Way You Lie" happened.
It was, like, the first song
after this soul-searching experience.
Now that you've worked in hip-hop,
is that like, is that where you see your home now?
Is that something that we could, we could see is, like,
a folk hip-hop new genre that comes to light?
Um, no, you know, I've had so much fun working in hip-hop,
and working with rappers, and I'll continue to do that,
I think, forever, but I think what my forte is
is just sitting at a piano or a guitar and playing a great song.
And so, um, that's what I'm gonna do with my solo stuff.
If you were to meet someone in your position
who is starting out, and they say to you,
"Hey, Skylar, this is what I want to do,
these are my dreams, this is where I want to get to."
How do you tell somebody the story and then tell them to,
like, power through the failure part?
Because how did you know
that you would make it out on the other side?
'Cause, you might say to someone
-just keep doing it. -Man...
For a minute, I thought I wasn't gonna do music anymore.
But it's in my blood and I can't get away from it.
So what do you tell people? Do you go like,
-"Hey, you're gonna fail a lot." -Yeah.
You just have to be able to deal with rejection on a daily.
And then once in a while, something great will happen.
-I like that. -And that has to, you know,
keep you going through the rest of it.
It's like an inspirational but very realistic speech
that you give to-- "You're gonna fail, kid."
-Well, and also... -(laughter)
Also, you just have to love what you do
and not focus on the accolades
and, um, the success of a song.
-Focus on having a great time making the song. -Right.
And then you're gonna be happy no matter what.
Do you think that was one of the issues with going out to L.A.?
Because, you know, as an artist, you-you go out to Los Angeles,
and then-- Because it's such an industry place,
you can get stuck in that world of what does the industry think,
what do people think of you as an artist.
And then you go to Oregon and you just--
like you said, you're in the woods.
So it's like, the animals, they're just like,
"Yeah, we don't listen to music."
-Is-is that-- is that what you're gonna do now? -Exactly.
-Is that-- Are you gonna find a way to keep-- -No, I was talking
to myself in the woods.
I was my only-- Seriously,
I was my only feedback.
So, it was-- I was my only opinion out there,
-which-- -Did you-- 'Cause now I'm-- now I'm picturing you
as, like, one of those Disney princesses
who, like, sing to the animals
and then they-they, like, stick their heads out
and you're like... (high-pitched singing)
And then the animals are like,
"Yeah, that was, uh-- that was pretty good.
-That was pretty good." -(sighs)
I think I definitely had some Snow White moments
-like that. Yeah. -Yeah? Yeah?
So, looking at your career now--
because, I mean, now you're just on the up.
I mean, like, to have Beyoncé and Eminem
singing your hooks and singing your songs,
songs that you've written, to-to have so much success,
do you now struggle with that balance
between going back to a place like L.A.?
Or-or do you go, like, "No, I am-- I am an Oregon person.
-I am in the woods forever--" -I live in Napa Valley now.
-I like with my fiancé on an amazing ranch. -Oh!
-Yeah. -So, do you have animals?
-Yeah, we have sheep. -The same ones from the woods?
Oh, there's-there's lots of wild animals.
Oh. I thought you, like, brought them.
You're like, "Yo, you guys were here from the beginning,
and I got to take y'all with me."
And then they all got in the car.
Like, "Yeah, road trip!"
And you guys went out-- That would have been, like,
-an amazing story. -Yeah.
(applause)
-Oh, my God. -So...
so, what are you looking forward to now?
I'm looking forward to creating my own,
you know, sound and-and music for the world to hear
-outside of the rapping collaborations. -Right. Uh-huh.
You should get them to collaborate on yours.
So now we need Eminem coming in and doing the hook
-on your album. -I have done that
-on some-some stuff. -Oh, you have?
Yeah. I have done that.
-But singing? -On previous albums.
-Um... -No, I'm-- no, I'm saying Eminem should come and sing.
Oh! And I should rap?
Yeah. You should just, like, flip the genre.
-That would be interesting. -I'm just saying,
it would be mind-blowing.
If Eminem comes in and then he's like...
♪ I walk on water. ♪
I'll ask him about it.
You ask him.
But don't tell him I said that.
Thank you so much for being on the show.