{"id":915233,"date":"2026-10-04T00:18:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T00:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915233\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T00:18:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T00:18:15","slug":"ella-hooper-most-embarrassing-celebrity-encounter-i-said-the-classic-thing-you-dont-ever-say-to-billy-bragg-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915233\/","title":{"rendered":"Ella Hooper: \u2018Most embarrassing celebrity encounter? I said the classic thing you don\u2019t ever say to Billy Bragg\u2019 | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

What has been your most memorable interaction with a fan?<\/p>\n

When Killing Heidi first started playing again in 2016, after many, many, many years \u2013 we were kind of broken up, hiatus, call it what you want, but we didn\u2019t have any plans to play ever again \u2013 I was super nervous. It felt like the first time. It felt like a really big deal. And the response was fantastic. We had these big sold-out shows. I looked out at one crowd and there was a little girl holding a sign that said, \u201cI\u2019m Ella too, I was named after you.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh my god!\u201d That was not the last time it happened either \u2013 I\u2019ve met so many little Ellas where the parents said, \u201cShe\u2019s an Ella because of you!\u201d It is amazing.<\/p>\n

Do you feel some grand sense of responsibility to all these little Ellas?<\/p>\n

To lead them astray? Yes!<\/p>\n

Is it true you went solo after a conversation with Stevie Nicks?<\/p>\n

Big humble brag, isn\u2019t it? It isn\u2019t even humble, it\u2019s just a brag. It is true \u2013 though I was already thinking about what to do with myself musically. We were so lucky to be supporting Fleetwood Mac with our band the Verses, so we got to see them night after night and sit down and have talks with them. I just love Stevie Nicks. I was getting into her solo stuff at the time \u2013 Stand Back and Edge of Seventeen. She\u2019d done folk, she\u2019d done rock. I thought, she\u2019s not been afraid to try anything. So we were chatting and I think it just allowed me to allow myself to do that. As she said, you can always go back to bands. It doesn\u2019t have to be a closed door.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Your new album Overnight Success is Americana. Is there a musician who you wish had done an Americana album?<\/p>\n

How about PJ Harvey? She dabbles in folk and she digs right into some old English traditional and Celtic roots stuff \u2013 that\u2019s only a hop, skip and a jump away from Americana.<\/p>\n

For years I thought the chorus for Weir went, \u201cThrow a maggot in the air.\u201d What is the best misheard Killing Heidi lyric you\u2019ve ever heard?<\/p>\n

Oh, that\u2019s good! That\u2019s the first time I have heard that one. I\u2019ve heard \u201cflying naked in the air\u201d, which is great, too. I\u2019ve even heard \u201cwill you take it in the rear\u201d, but I think that person was just being funny.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Which song would you like played at your funeral?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty good at the old funeral playlists. I should probably tell people that I\u2019ve got mine ready. It\u2019s probably overdone, but I do love Sweet Thing by Van Morrison. It\u2019s the right mix of ethereal and hopeful and emotional. And then maybe something silly, I don\u2019t want everyone to be too emotional. That is when we need Lola by the Kinks.<\/p>\n

What is the most chaotic thing that has happened to you on stage?<\/p>\n

I got so into the moment one time at this outdoor festival in Darwin. There was something crazy in the air \u2013 there\u2019s always something crazy in the air in Darwin. I unzipped my big, beautiful silver boot that I was wearing and threw it as far as I could into the crowd. I never saw that shoe again and it was only halfway through the set! I had to hobble home in bare feet. That was a few years ago, I might be slightly less silly now.<\/p>\n

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\u2018I used to just try to make people jump up and down\u2019 \u2026 Hooper (R) in Killing Heidi, circa 1999. Photograph: Martin Philbey\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Do you have a post-show wind-down ritual?<\/p>\n

I do! I get so hyped up from shows. Sometimes I have to take steroids to sing on a big long tour, because I might be losing my voice towards the end. That\u2019s when winding down gets very tricky, because steroids are very activating. I basically work on my wind-down routine the second I walk off stage, so I can be asleep by 2am or 3am. I rug up and get warm. I\u2019m a big aromatherapy girly, I really love and need my scents. I travel with incense, lavender oil, a steamer and some scarves to cover the lamps. Lately I\u2019ve been making myself get off the phone and read a book. It does work. It\u2019s so annoying. I want the phone, the phone is so delicious! But no.<\/p>\n

What are you secretly really good at?<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a pretty good friend. I\u2019m good in a crisis. That doesn\u2019t seem like such a big claim to fame, but you wouldn\u2019t assume that lead singer energy would make you a good listener. But I am a very good listener and I\u2019m extremely loyal. I have kept my same friendship group since high school, since before the whole rock\u2019n\u2019roll experience. But I\u2019m a shit secret keeper! I\u2019ll listen, but I\u2019ll repeat it.<\/p>\n

Are there any songs you wrote when you were younger that you find harder to sing now?<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That\u2019s a hazard of the job. I used to just try to make people jump up and down. Honestly, it\u2019s taken me a while to give myself a bit of grace and not just go, \u201cOh god, I hate this shit.\u201d You have to focus on what worked about it, what you liked about it then, and what other people liked about it then \u2013 because they probably still do! Even though I\u2019m like, \u201cNoooooo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you ever had a cringeworthy encounter with a celebrity?<\/p>\n

I embarrass myself quite a lot. I\u2019m not cool. I\u2019m not chill. I said the classic thing you don\u2019t ever say to Billy Bragg<\/a>. I should have caught myself because now I get it, too. This was about 10 years ago \u2013 I ran smack bang into Billy Bragg as he was coming out of the Rolling Stone offices and I said, \u201cOh my god, my mum loves you.\u201d And he looked at me and said something like, \u201cIf I had a dollar for every time that a young lady said that to me \u2026 \u201d I was like, \u201cOh yeah, sorry. I love you too.\u201d Now cool young kids say to me \u201cmy mum loves you\u201d all the time. It\u2019s just part of the journey!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What has been your most memorable interaction with a fan? When Killing Heidi first started playing again in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-915233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}