{"id":562648,"date":"2026-07-22T14:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562648\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:16:14","slug":"taylor-momsen-interview-from-child-actor-to-ac-dc-approved-rock-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/562648\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Momsen interview: from child actor to AC\/DC-approved rock star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taylor Momsen doesn\u2019t have a lot of luck with potentially deadly critters. In May 2024, while her band The Pretty Reckless<\/a> were opening for AC\/DC<\/a> in Seville, she was bitten by a bat onstage, requiring a two-week course of anti-rabies shots. Then, in April this year, the singer was bitten for a second time, this time by a poisonous spider \u2013 once again while on the road with AC\/DC, but this time in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know whether getting bit twice means I\u2019m lucky or cursed,\u201d she says with a laugh.<\/p>\n

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The fact that she was even up there onstage with AC\/DC is something few could have predicted when she entered the public consciousness as a child actor, first as a button-nosed five-year-old softening a heavily-made-up Jim Carrey\u2019s heart in the 2000 movie How The Grinch Stole Christmas or later as one of the stars of glossy teen soap Gossip Girl.<\/p>\n

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Her reinvention as the black-eyelinered singer of The Pretty Reckless at the very end of the 2000s was one of the more unexpected career pivots of the last couple of decades. A string of grungy yet anthemic albums silenced the detractors a long time ago, though, as did the backing of the likes of Soundgarden<\/a> and AC\/DC, both of whom hand-picked The Pretty Reckless to support them.<\/p>\n

But her journey has been coloured by loss. In 2017, her idol Chris Cornell died while her band were on the road with the grunge legends. The following year, The Pretty Reckless\u2019s producer, Kato Khandwala, was killed in a motorcycle accident. The double tragedy sent her into a self-destructive spiral of substance abuse, binge-drinking benders and meaningless sex to numb the pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a while, I felt like, \u2018What\u2019s the fucking point? Everything I love is dead,\u2019 and that\u2019s a very dark place to be mentally,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI didn\u2019t care if I lived or died, until there was a moment where I had to make a choice between life and death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she made it through the darkest period of her life. Now 32 years old, and having just released The Pretty Reckless\u2019s fifth album, Dear God, she\u2019s finally living by her own script.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI live and breathe rock\u2019n\u2019roll,\u201d she says sincerely.<\/p>\n

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How are you recovering from the spider bite on your leg?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t caught it, I might have had to get it amputated. My doctor was joking that I should go and buy a lottery ticket because it\u2019s such a bizarre, one-in-a-billion chance. I got out of the hospital against medical advice; they wanted to admit me, and I went, \u2018No, I have a fucking show to play.\u2019 Even if it might lead to a poisonous leg amputation, I\u2019d literally die for the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why is rock\u2019n\u2019roll your top priority?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a love you can\u2019t outgrow. I resonate with the ethic of rock music so deeply \u2013 it\u2019s existential and powerful and everything I am always searching for in humanity. It\u2019s more than just loud guitars, but then, at the end of the day, loud guitars are also fucking awesome. So there\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n

How has music help you understand yourself over the years?<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a household where my father revered rock\u2019n\u2019roll, so I was very fortunate to be exposed to really, really great records. I was humming songs before I could talk; it was a language that always made sense to me. I started playing instruments and writing songs when I was about five or six, and it gave me an outlet from my very strange upbringing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t understand that I was working on The Grinch. It felt like playing dress-up.<\/p>\n

You rose to fame as a child actor. What was that life like?<\/p>\n

\u201cI booked The Grinch when I was five. At that age, it\u2019s fun, and it had always been a part of my life. I didn\u2019t understand that I was working, it felt more like playing dress-up. Then there was an element of moving around a lot for work, going in and out of schools and trying to make friends. It felt isolating a lot of the time, but that\u2019s also what made music so important for me. I loved it because it became my solace.\u201d<\/p>\n

When did you realise it was time to make the big shift from acting to music?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started working on the TV show Gossip Girl, it felt like my character became my identity. Rather than shooting a commercial or a movie, it was a regular part of my schedule, and it never went away. I was this character all the time to the public. And it was the first time the tabloids were interested, and that sort of fame can be cruel. It got to the point where Gossip Girl was almost overtaking myself and my identity. I wasn\u2019t a young girl coming into my own, someone with these grand ideas of what I wanted to do. So I quit, formed The Pretty Reckless and I never looked back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pretty Reckless – When I Wake Up (Official Music Video) – YouTube
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Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

How did you find the transition from acting to music?<\/p>\n

\u201cThankfully, the Gossip Girl writers made it a little bit easier for me \u2013 I couldn\u2019t get out of my contract, but they were gracious enough to write me out of the scripts. They understood that I just wanted to make music and said, \u2018You don\u2019t have to act this season, you can go on tour.\u2019 I\u2019m forever grateful to them for that. Then I was able to go and record [The Pretty Reckless\u2019s 2010 debut album] Light Me Up and live life on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Producer] Kato Khandwala and [guitarist and songwriter] Ben Phillips were the first two that really got me. They didn\u2019t try to change what I was doing or shape it in any way other than supporting and embellishing it. I always wanted to be the one telling the story, and I wanted to be the one in control, creating the vision, and they let me do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did the public react to the shift?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like being a rock star, like I\u2019d always dreamed \u2013 the fans were there, going crazy, identifying with the music. But when I looked at the grander picture of public perception, there was a lot to overcome. I understand how people must have seen it: a 15-year-old girl quit a teen soap opera to go on tour with a rock band, trying to be taken seriously as an artist. It\u2019s a fairytale I\u2019d forgive people for laughing at. But there was a lot of pressure to prove myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did that feel?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frustrating when people wouldn\u2019t take me seriously, even though I was doing everything the real way. I didn\u2019t try to take a shortcut \u2013 we toured in a small van, played small shows, really worked for it. But it was perceived as if I\u2019d taken a shortcut. People might\u2019ve known me from my acting, but in reality that was its own hurdle, because I had to overcome my youth. It was exhausting\u2026 I just wanted to be taken seriously. Eventually I just stopped caring what people thought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who were some of your earliest supporters who took you seriously?<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the band, but I\u2019ve also been supported by so many musical idols of mine. Being taken on the road to support Soundgarden was one of the craziest phone calls I\u2019ve ever gotten. Knowing that Chris Cornell appreciated my music\u2026 they\u2019re my favourite band in the world, and hearing that from him was huge for me.<\/p>\n

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Taylor with Soundgarden\u2019s Kim Thayil at 2019\u2019s Chris Cornell tribute gig. (Image credit: Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for The Chris Cornell Estate)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the same with AC\/DC. When Angus Young calls you and goes, \u2018Hey, I love your band!\u2019, you know you\u2019re doing something right. Before the tour I told my manager, \u2018I\u2019m making a new record \u2013 unless AC\/DC or The Rolling Stones<\/a> call, don\u2019t bother!\u2019 About two weeks later, my agent calls saying, \u2018Taylor, you\u2019re not gonna believe this, but AC\/DC called and they want you on their tour.\u2019 I felt like I was tripping. About a week after that, he calls again, and he goes, \u2018You\u2019re not going to believe this, but The Rolling Stones have also called…\u2019 I kind of manifested it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Cornell passed away in 2017, and your producer Kato Khandwala died the following year. How did that impact on you?<\/p>\n

\u201cRelationships like those feel so intimate that it\u2019s hard to put into words… but both of them played such an important role in my life in so many ways. Chris was an idol of mine, and I hugged him the night before [he passed away]. Kato was my musical partner and best friend \u2013 I talked on the phone with him every single day. Losing him felt like losing a piece of myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try to do my best to keep Chris and Kato\u2019s memories alive, but grief is a wound that never heals. The one-two punch of losing them made me enter a very dark period of my life. I shut down, lost a lot of elements of myself, forgot who I was. I didn\u2019t know what the point of life was any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

I hugged Chris Cornell the night before he died<\/p>\n

When I Wake Up on the new record hints at some of that period. When was the moment you realised that something had to change?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a dark story, but there was a there was a moment where I had to make a very conscious choice whether I was going to live or I was going to die. It wasn\u2019t subtle. After that, I chose life, got clean, and I wrote [The Pretty Reckless\u2019 2021 album] Death By Rock And Roll<\/a> to help process the grief. I\u2019d usually turn to music, but I couldn\u2019t even listen to music, because it all brought back too many emotions I was not equipped to deal with yet. It felt like a core part of my identity had been taken away.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did you rekindle your love for music?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe simple answer is, it took time. I had to look back and rediscover where the love began, and the answer was The Beatles<\/a>. They were the first band my dad ever played me, when I was coming home from the hospital. Then, almost in chronological order of bands I fell in love with throughout my youth growing up, I re-listened to all those records and trained myself to remember where the love stemmed from. Then, I could eventually listen to Soundgarden records again, and they brought me comfort instead of immense pain. Music was the path back.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Devil In Disguise, from Dear God, is dedicated to your Gossip Girl co-star Michelle Trachtenberg who died in 2025. Does your music help you reassess your relationship with death?<\/p>\n

\u201cLyrics will always be a way for me to process life, and life and death are two sides of the same coin. So it only makes sense that writing helps me process death, too. It\u2019s something I\u2019ve explored in my writing ever since the first record, and I\u2019m constantly coming to terms with it. A lot of this new record is processing things like that, wondering whether to let grief destroy you \u2013 which it almost did, in my case \u2013 or whether you can turn it into something that gives you power. To go back to Death By Rock And Roll, the record starts with Kato\u2019s footsteps. Having him with me became my superpower.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like you can let the people live on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like rock\u2019n\u2019roll transcendence, putting a person\u2019s memory into a track. That, and it allows you to process and move forward in life. But the grief never gets easier, it just transforms. Everyone I\u2019ve lost in my life is scarred onto my body forever, and they\u2019re a part of me that I carry with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

You were raised Catholic. How has that shaped how you view death?<\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised in the church when I was younger, but I\u2019m not involved in any organised religion at this point in my life. But there are some things that stick \u2013 like an awareness of those grand concepts of life and death. It gets you thinking about our physical being, our spirituality. I like to get a little existential and confessional. To me, Dear God is looking to something larger than yourself \u2013 you could even call it the universe \u2013 and wondering why life is how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On tour with AC\/DC in 2025. (Image credit: Frank Hoensch\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

The title track of the new album features a lyric about the neighbours looking over and thinking \u2018that little girl we knew has surely gone insane\u2019. Do you think anyone from your Catholic past thinks your career is some act of grand blasphemy?<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably some of them. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s some people from my childhood that are confused… but I could be totally wrong. They could be in the front row at a show for all I know!\u201d<\/p>\n

You had a real full-circle moment last year, when your Grinch co-star Jim Carrey inducted Soundgarden into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame and you performed Rusty Cage and Black Hole Sun. How did that feel?<\/p>\n

\u201cCrazy \u2013 talk about a universal alignment. When I got asked to sing at the induction, I didn\u2019t even know Jim Carrey was going to be there. When I found out, my head just about spun around on my body. I hadn\u2019t seen him in 25 years, and it was the 25th anniversary of The Grinch, and I\u2019d just released Taylor Momsen\u2019s Pretty Reckless Christmas album.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told my manager, \u2018Unless AC\/DC or The Rolling Stones call, don\u2019t bother!\u2019 Two weeks later, my agent says, \u2018AC\/DC called.\u2019<\/p>\n

On the 2016 single Take Me Down you sang, \u2018I gave my life to rock\u2019n\u2019roll.\u2019 How much have you sacrificed?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve given my entire life to music. So it\u2019s fair to say I\u2019ve sacrificed everything for it. But at the same time, I don\u2019t think that that\u2019s a sacrifice at all, because it\u2019s the only thing I love. I wouldn\u2019t change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Would the young Taylor be proud of you today?<\/p>\n

\u201cA young version of me would be really proud of me. I wanted to play in a rock\u2019n\u2019roll band, write my own songs and express myself openly, and so I\u2019m doing exactly what little me wanted to do. And I think she\u2019d be proud of everything I\u2019ve overcome, and the fact that I\u2019m still here, still alive. Every day I wake up and I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to be a mess again, or be absolutely fine. Against all odds, all obstacles, I\u2019ve bulldozed through to get where I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

This interview was taken from Metal Hammer issue 415, July 2026, available to order with an exclusive Pretty Reckless cover and cassette tape.<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear God is out now via Fearless. The Pretty Reckless are currently touring North America and will play across Europe from November to December.<\/p>\n

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