Billie Eilish spoke heaping praise for Rihanna in an interview this week, calling her fellow pop icon “the greatest of all time” while responding to Riri’s statements that she wanted to work with her on new music.
“I literally thought it was AI, first of all,” Eilish, who had the second-most-streamed album on Spotify this year, told Complex in a new interview published on Thursday. “I’ve never met Rihanna. She’s literally my idol. She’s the greatest of all time. She’s my complete dream collab.”
Whether or not that will ever happen remains unclear as Rihanna isn’t regularly releasing music these days, but expressed her desire to work with Eilish back in October, name-dropping her specifically when Access Hollywood asked her who her “dream collaborator” was. Eilish gave a stunned reaction on her instagram story at the time, and expanded further on her thoughts this week.
“I’ve never heard from her and I’ve never had any interaction with her, so why would I have ever even thought about it? Then she said, ‘If only I could work with Billie,’” Eilish said. “I was like, ‘Well, bitch, I’ve been sitting here this whole time!’ What the fuck is she even talking about? Honestly. What do you mean, ‘If only?’ It’s, like, as if I’ve been saying, ‘No.’ Rihanna! Riri!? I’ll literally do anything you want. That’s insane.”
Rihanna wasn’t the only artist Eilish commended in the new interview. She said that as she’s been on the road for her tour, she’s been listening to artists including Tom Odell, Sufjan Stevens, Patrick Watson, and Mitski. After previously telling Rolling Stone that Tyler, The Creator’s Goblin was an inspiration for Hit Me Hard and Soft, she also commended Tyler for his commitment to his albums.
“I always appreciate an artist who commits to it, because then I’m like, ‘OK, you might not even like the music, but you have to admit they’re committing to the bit.’ That’s awesome,” she said.
She also opened up about her unhealthy relationship with social media, comparing it to a cigarette addiction. “The issue is, I really love to interact with the fans when I’m on tour. I love seeing all the videos and all the angles. I love seeing how people are feeling and thinking about the show,” Eilish said. “So I go on the internet to see the videos that I want to see, but then I get sucked in. Then I get all fucked up, and I’m stuck. So I’ve been back on it, but I am trying to get off. It’s my cigarettes. It’s really a problem.”
