Skylar Grey Shakes “Debbie Downer” Label With ‘C’mon Let Me Ride’
Skylar Grey dropped by for an in-studio interview with the Bobby Bones Show recently. The pop artist, who formerly performed as Holly Brook, talked about how she recorded music with her mom as a kid, teaming up with Eminem on several projects before he agreed to produce her new album, how she had exited the music business before catching a huge break writing ‘Love The Way You Lie’, why she dropped out of music and how unexpected the new single ‘C’mon Let Me Ride’ is to listeners of her prior “Debbie Downer” material.
Talking about her start as a performer, Grey said, “I actually started performing when I was 6, and made three albums by the time I was 15. They were duet albums with my mom. It was pretty awesome actually. We sang kids songs. Kinda like The Judds. Then I decided at 14, I’m gonna go solo. This isn’t cool anymore singing with the mom. I kicked her out of the band.”
Asked about how she linked up with Eminem, Grey said, “I wrote the hook to ‘Love The Way You Lie’, and we hooked up after that to do ‘I Need A Doctor’, and recently we did a couple of songs for Slaughterhouse, his hip hop supergroup, and we just continued working together ever since ‘Love The Way You Lie’ and he wanted to be more involved as executive producer (on the album), which I am completely… I can’t believe that that’s happening. So I’m so grateful for all of his support.”
Discussing her penning of ‘Love The Way You Lie’ for Rihanna and Eminem, Grey said, “I just wrote it and didn’t really know what was gonna happen with it. I was actually kinda not in the music industry anymore. I was living in a cabin in the woods in Oregon, and connected with Alex da Kid, this producer, via email, and he sent me a beat, and I sent him back that hook, and a month later it was #1 on iTunes and Eminem had cut it and Rihanna had sung it. It was kind of crazy. My life just turned around within a month.”
Asked why she got out of the music biz, Grey said, “I was hating it. I was having a really hard time and I was totally broke. I was working really strange jobs.”
On the unexpected nature of the new single ‘C’mon Let Me Ride’, Grey admitted, “It was not what you’d expect from me, especially after hearing those three hooks. It’s much more sarcastic and fun and light hearted. I just wanted to do something different for a chance and not be so Debbie Downer.”
Watch the interview via YouTube below.
