When Olivia Rodrigo started playing a custom purple Ernie Ball Music Man St Vincent Goldie signature guitar on her Guts tour, in 2024, it quickly became clear that she was giving a nod of appreciation to the artist who put her name to it.
As fans who were aware of Rodrigo’s musical backstory pointed out, she played the guitar during Obsessed, a song that she co-wrote with - you guessed it - St Vincent (AKA Annie Clark).
Now, in an interview with the Music Makes Us podcast, hosted by Kathleen Hanna of riot grrrl-era bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Rodrigo has offered a little insight into why she loves the guitar, and it turns out that comfort is a major factor.
“I read an interview about it, and she made a guitar that's specifically designed for women, because she plays her guitar really high up,” says Rodrigo. “And it's cut so that you can have boobs and play guitar, which is so awesome.”
As any player will tell you, though, how a guitar looks is also important, and Rodrigo thinks that the St Vincent model scores on that level, too. “It's such a, like, a fucking cool looking guitar,” she says, and it’s hard to disagree.
Writing on Facebook when the guitar was announced, back in 2015, St Vincent said: “I wanted to design a tool that would be ergonomic, lightweight, and sleek. So excited to be working with Ernie Ball. There is room for a breast. Or two.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rodrigo reflected on some of her many 2025 highlights, including the night she helped to induct The White Stripes into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with a performance, alongside Feist, of the band’s 2002 single We’re Going To Be Friends.
“I am the biggest White Stripes fan ever,” she explains. “It was my favourite band growing up. I feel like most girls were, like, super fanatic about One Direction. I was fanatic about One Direction too. But like, White Stripes was also, like, my One Direction.
“It was such a surreal honour to get to sing one of their songs while honouring them into the Rock Hall,” she continued. “Kind of very daunting to sing one of your favourite songs in front of the person who wrote that song. It's pretty scary, but I love Jack.”
Rodrigo also discussed the moment she brought out Robert Smith during her headlining set at the Glastonbury Festival, describing it as an “incredible experience”. She went on to reveal that, since then, she’s been diving deeper into The Cure’s discography, also giving New Order and Joy Division a go.
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