Read This: Ellen DeGeneres slammed by former mentee, viral musician Greyson Chance
Greyson Chance, who was signed to Ellen DeGeneres' record label as a teen, calls the comedian "manipulative" and "self-centered"
Aux News Ellen DeGeneres
Remember the kid who went viral performing Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi in 2010? The one who went on to appear on The Ellen DeGeneres Show? He’s all grown up now, and he has some harsh words for DeGeneres, who at one time signed him as the first artist on her record label eleveneleven. “I’ve never met someone more manipulative, more self-centered, and more blatantly opportunistic than her,” Chance tells Rolling Stone in a new interview.
Being “discovered” by the powerful talk show host was, of course, a dream at first: he remembers her telling him, “I’m going to protect you. I’m going to be here for you. We’re going to do this together.” But her investment in his career “became domineering and way too controlling.” He describes her micromanaging his outfits and performances, and berating him and his mother when he hadn’t yet watched the Justin Bieber documentary DeGeneres sent him.
When Chance experienced a career lull, including poor sales of his EP Truth Be Told, Part 1 in 2012, DeGeneres “completely abandoned” him and stopped taking his calls. Yet even after the label dropped him she continued to invite him on her show to promote his work. Their conversations mostly took place on camera. “When I look at the interviews and I look at my eyes, I can see so much anxiety. I can just see so much PTSD because I’m there holding on for dear life going, ‘I need this TV gig,’“ he shares. “I was 100 percent faking it, and [I felt like] she’s 100 percent faking it with me, too.”
During his last appearance in 2019, “She came out during soundcheck and she looked at me, hugged me,” he recalls. “And she said, ‘How have you been?’ And that just killed me inside because I was like, ’What do you mean how have I fucking been? Where have you been?”
When Chance was offered a spot during DeGeneres’ final week of shows, he declined. “I turned down a national-TV gig on the eve of an album release, which is probably not a smart thing to do,” he says, “but I had to do it for my integrity.” Chance’s story can be read in full over at Rolling Stone.
42 Comments
Ellen said later when she didn’t see any money coming in. I also had no idea Ellen managed musicians? that girly honestly loves the green.
You think it’s cheap keeping a Portia di Rossi happy?
they do love gifting each other entire animal sanctuaries. Portia said lets not invest into human beings while making mad money off them, a Bluth fantasy.
You think it’s cheap keeping a Portia di Rossi happy?Worth every penny though.
What needs can she have that aren’t met by Stigmata residuals?
I believe the only reply to this poor boy is “bless your soul”.It’s Hollywood, being manipulative, self-centered, and blatantly opportunistic are pre-reqs.
I don’t think that’s ever the right response to a person who was manipulated and used up for money as a child.
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This is more like Ellen understanding the assignment. (Of the music business.)
Sounds like Ellen is more DeSelfish than DeGenerous.
*crowd pops*
Greyson took a chance on her and it didn’t pay off.
I’m curious whether this is who Ellen always was, even back in the day when she was scrounging for opportunities to do stand-up, or if money and fame went straight to her head and turned her into a garbage human being. Would someone please bankroll the Netflix documentary that will answer these questions for me?
I think the money ruined her. Go watch her two specials from the 90’s and 00’s and then go watch the most recent one from a few years ago and whew the humor just is very elitist and luxuriates in being imperious and pretentious. Total shift from the early stuff.
Sounds like a job for Olivia Wilde. She can get it done with a minimum of drama, I think.
While it hasn’t been covered very much by this site, I have some bad news for you regarding Olivia…
I get he was a kid and that sounds like a shitty experience, but I have to imagine that feeling of fakeness applies to like 99% of talk show interviews.
I mean she couldn’t even adopt a dog without abandoning it and making it about her.
She milked him dry and threw him away with a smile. Look, people reviewed working for her https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Ellen’s-Home/reviews
Threw him away by…continuing to invite him on the show? She doesn’t seem like the nicest person and she wouldn’t be the person that I wanted managing my music career, but she’s also not Colonel Tom Parker either.
“but she’s also not Colonel Tom Parker either” Who the hell is that? she is managing kids to get most of the money from them
Elvis’s manager who roped him into a series of unfair and manipulative contracts that allowed him to profit and run his career working him to the bone and an early death? Ellen had a record label for all of two years. They didn’t just drop Greyson Chance. The label folded in 2012 and only ever represented 6 people. She was involved in his career for less than 2 years.I’m sure she was aiming to make money, but he has released more music without her involvement than with it and is pursuing an acting career. That’s not exactly being milked dry.
So you know everything then https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Ellen’s-Home/reviews
I don’t know what you want me to take away from this to be honest. This is for a senior living facility in Port Washington. There’s about an even number of good and bad reviews, and flipping over to look at the family reviews through A Place for Mom and other sites, they have a 4.6 out of 5.I can’t see where Ellen has anything to do with a senior living facility in Port Washington. Does she own this place? I can’t find any proof of that.Looking at the Indeed for her show, which maybe is what you actually meant to send? It has higher ratings than the company I work for. Only one review specifically names Ellen and called her supportive. The worst review said that the bad rep was down to executives ruining her reputation with bad advice.
That was for her home, but whatever dude
What do you mean it’s her home? She funded it? She oversees it? It’s her literal home? Because this is the business your reviews are linking to: https://www.ellenshome.com/
Makes me wonder about those two British girls she kept parading around. Though maybe they kept making her money/views.
They were on the last week of shows and keep trying to make themselves influencers so they seem happy with what they got out of it.
Do you think we’re going to learn similar things about Oprah when all is said and done?
I don’t think Oprah ever pretended to be particularly nice so I think if you found out she was mean to someone, it would feel more like she was being a “boss.” The backlash on Ellen seems to be because she made her brand niceness.
Everyone already knows Oprah is an asshole
Read This…Make me.
Lost me at “Greyon Chance”. That’s not a real person’s name. Go back to to Days of Our Lives with that crap.
I have never heard of this person nor know what in the hell a “viral musician” is, but I’ve gotten the new multivalent booster so I hope I’m protected.
Toxic masculinity.
This is ridiculous. Ellen is no different than anyone in television, but it became popular to get your name in the press by saying she was SOOOO awful to work with. Right, and all of these allegations are “she said a thing, she said a nasty thing,” with no proof. And even if she did…..grow the F up.
Yet even after the label dropped him she continued to invite him on her show to promote his work.I get the whole common knowledge thing that Ellen is supposed to be not a very nice person, but I’m confused how this action fits into it. What possible motive would she have in inviting a failed musician onto her show other than because she was trying to be nice to somebody she once mentored? I’m not not seeing the profit part of this underpants gnome scheme.
So one thing that’s a little misleading is that Ellen didn’t drop him from the label so much as they dropped everyone and ceased operating. She might still have been super shitty to him, but the label failed. That doesn’t seem personal.
It’s not hard to believe Ellen is an asshole and maybe the RS article provided more meat, but there is literally nothing in this blog that supports Chance’s claims.
His claims seem to be skewed. Again, also believe she’s probably an asshole, but as far as I can tell, he was dropped from the label because the label failed. While Ellen seems to have been hands on, the label was ultimately an offshoot of Warner Bros. and he had separate agent and manager through William Morris. A lot of his claims sound like normal situations for singers to be in – she was paying for his videos and would say they needed to be reshot if she didn’t like them. She would tell stylists how to dress him. It might have crossed the line, but it doesn’t seem abnormal for a pop star.