SZA has revealed she had second thoughts about embarking on a stadium tour with Kendrick Lamar.
In a new conversation with rising pop star Chappell Roan for Interview magazine, the Grammy-winning artist revealed that despite her immense success, she’s battled with her own nerves and questioned her own level of celebrity that eventually bled into her decision to go on tour with an artist like K Dot.
“I used to not show up to something because it was like, ‘I’m never going to win. No one cares that I’m here. Why would I go?’”SZA admitted. “But now it’s just like, ‘Fuck it. I don’t have anything else to do, and I want to see where this door is going to lead.’”
That curiosity, she says, is what pushed her to say yes to joining Lamar on tour—even with deep fears about how she’d connect in such massive venues.
“Everybody’s going to see Kendrick. I don’t even know if I have anything to show these people that’s exciting and new,” she said. “But I’m just like, ‘Fuck it. I want to walk through the door. I want to see what happens in the uncertainty.’ That’s the true magic.”
Despite her chart-topping status, SZA told Roan that she still feels like an outsider. “I always feel like the underdog. Literally always. But that could be an internal feeling.”
As she reflected on fame, she credited curiosity as the thing that propels her forward: “There’s so much fear. But I’m too curious about what it’s going to be like to go up in that harness and… to really give my best Tina Turner impression. I just have to follow the thread.”
