Chappell Roan may be becoming a household name, but it's not the moniker she was born with. The 27-year-old, who will headline the UK's Reading & Leeds Festival this weekend, created a stage name for herself several years ago following the death of her grandfather Dennis K. Chappell, who died in 2016.
Real name
Chappell was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, but she revealed during an interview with Cherwell in 2022 that she never felt a "connection" to her birth name.
The "Pink Pony Club" singer prefers not to be called "Kayleigh" and isn't a fan of the moniker, so she decided to adopt a stage name and honor her late grandfather at the same time.
"I have never felt super connected to my real name, Kayleigh," she confessed. "My grandfather's name was Dennis K. Chappell, so I took Chappell in his honor. Before he passed away in 2016 due to brain cancer, I told him that I was going to be Chappell for him."
She added: "Roan came from his favorite song, which was called the Strawberry Roan, an old Western song about a pinkish-red horse. It's a very sentimental name. I do still wish my name was not Kayleigh in real life, though."
© PA Images via Getty ImagesCareer
Chappell has earned herself a huge following since finding fame, which hit new levels when she won her first Grammy Award for Best New Artist in February.
She was born on February 19, 1998, in Springfield, Willard, a small town in Missouri, and began her career by uploading covers and the occasional original song to YouTube as a teen under her birth name, Kayleigh Rose.
© WireImageIn 2015, at the age of 17, after her covers attracted attention from record labels, she moved to Los Angeles and signed with Atlantic Records.
She released her debut EP with Atlantic in 2017 and began working with producer Dan Nigro. However, her lack of commercial success did not please her label, which opposed the release of her 2020 single "Pink Pony Club."
© Getty ImagesAfter being pushed by Chappell and Dan, the song was eventually released, and while it received acclaim, it did not fare well commercially at the time.
"I was so devastated," Chappell told Rolling Stone of the lack of support from her label. "It made me second-guess myself."
© Getty ImagesIn August 2020, Atlantic dropped a then 22-year-old Chappell, the same week she broke up with her boyfriend of four years. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved back to Missouri to live with her parents and was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder later that year.
© Getty Images for The Recording A1. Real name
As with most pop divas, Chappell Roan is her stage persona, and her real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstutz.
2. Dropped from label
Before her big break, Chappell was dropped from her music label, Atlantic, in 2020 after two of her singles were deemed not profitable.
3. Popstar friendship
She used to record her music in a studio adjacent to the Driver's License singer, Olivia Rodrigo. This friendship led to Chappell helping record backing vocals for Olivia's songs, and she was invited to be her opening act for the Sour Tour in 2022. Chappell was also the support act on the first leg of the Guts World Tour in 2024.
4. Church and Christian Youth Camps
Chappell was raised in the small, conservative town of Willard, Missouri. During her childhood, she went to church three times a week and spent summers at Christian Youth Camps. The singer, who is a lesbian, told Variety in 2023 that she grew up ''feeling very different'' and ''depressed''.
5. Bipolar disorder
She was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder at age 22 after dealing with periods of depression and mood swings. She told Vanity Fair in 2023 of the difficulty of balancing her career and diagnosis: "It's so hard with this job because there's no checking out.''
"It was devastating to feel so committed to my art and feel so betrayed by the system and dehumanized," Chappell said in her Grammy acceptance speech. "If my label had prioritized it, I could have been provided care for a company I was giving everything to."
© Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TheChappell soon moved back to Los Angeles and began working as a production assistant on an HBO show and as a nanny to make ends meet. She continued working on her music independently, but eventually reconnected with Dan in 2022, signing to his own label, Amusement Records.
They began putting out steady work until the release of her debut album in 2023, which became a sleeper hit and peaked at Number 1 on the US iTunes chart, boosted by her appearance as the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS World Tour.
