Lana Del Rey finally explains the great Waffle House mystery
The "Paris, Texas" singer just really loves breakfast food, apparently
Music News Lana Del Rey
July 20, 2023 was a historic, confusing, and beautiful day for music fans, foodies, and the nation at large. As the night wore on, there was only one question on everybody’s lips: what the hell was mega-star Lana Del Rey doing working at a Florence, Alabama Waffle House?
After pictures of the “A&W” singer in full, powder blue uniform (name tag and all) started popping up on Twitter/X, fan speculation began to border on conspiracy. Was she recording new music? No, per AL.com, which contacted multiple studios in the area to check their schedules. Was she recording a new music video, perhaps for the song “Paris, Texas,” which mentions Florence? Was she “going Method” for a switch to acting or recording an orange juice commercial? Were royalties from streaming simply not cutting it anymore? For two months, Del Rey—as she is wont to do—left fans in the dark.
But now, like the concert-goer who didn’t know that there was a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard, we finally have our answer. And it’s essentially that the girl just really loves a good, small-town breakfast spot.
Del Rey had been sitting and chatting in the diner with her siblings for a while when an employee approached them, she told The Hollywood Reporter. “We were on our third hour, and the servers asked, ‘Do you guys want shirts?’” she recalled. “Hell yeah! We were thrilled.”
But Del Rey knows better than most that money is the anthem of success and even six Grammy nominations won’t stop you from being put to work. “This guy, a regular, comes in every day and orders two things, so they were like, ‘Just go get it for him!’ I brought him a Coke. No ice. And an empty cup,” she said, clarifying that the cup was “for dip” (chewing tobacco).
So… that’s it. Del Rey’s brief stint as a Waffle House employee wasn’t a sign of her exodus from music or any sort of elaborate easter egg. We’re talking about a woman who wore an $18 Shein dress to a red carpet event and a $35 Target dress to a photo shoot with Rolling Stone, after all. She means it.
“The secret to Lana is that she’s exactly who she is,” said producer Jack Antonoff in the same THR piece. “She’s really one of the greatest songwriters and vocalists who also likes to roll around in her truck and drink gas-station coffee. That can disarm people, but there’s no bit.”
20 Comments
Ha, had no idea this happened in Florence. My mom’s hometown, where I still have family. Absolutely beautiful place, and a cool small town Main Street drag with great food and shops. So…good choice, Lana.And for you music fans, Florence is adjacent to the legendary Muscle Shoals. A couple of my dad’s schoolmates (Jimmy Johnson and David Hood) founded Muscle Shoals Sound recording studio.
I try to see the Drive-By Truckers, David Hood’s son Patterson’s band, every time they come near me on tour. A lot of good rock, country and R&B came out of FAME Studios. I had wondered if it was that Florence, Alabama but the media being able to contact multiple recording studios in the area gave it away.
FAME was the original studio in Muscle Shoals, founded by a bit of a crazy man named Rick Hall. Hood, Patterson and a few other guys worked there and were studio musicians (collectively The Swampers, of Sweet Home Alabama fame). They eventually left and started MSS. Funny story, when I was a kid we were back in town for my dad’s high school reunion and he said some of his friends had a pretty successful music studio and a bunch of people were going over for a tour. I tagged along, knowing nothing about the place, and next thing I know I’m walking down the hall looking at gold records from the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Aretha Franklin,…Dad, where the hell are we???!!ETA: And yeah, Drive by Truckers are the shit.
All well-covered in the excellent 2013 must-see doc “Muscle Shoals”.
For sure. Can’t recommend it enough; one of the best music docs I’ve ever seen. Hearing Wilson Pickett blowing out a microphone diaphragm covering Hey Jude, 17 year-old Duane Allman hanging around trying to get a gig as a studio musician (and later laying down the solo on Pickett’s Hey Jude), there’s just so much music history that you’re not going to get anywhere else.
“For two months, Del Rey—as she is wont to do—left fans in the dark.”This is the problem, right here. Before social media, these weird parasocial relationships were rare, one sided, and mostly stalkers. Then, of course, social media became “newsworthy,” because normal online media was losing ad revenue to social media, so now social media somehow BECAME NEWS. This is at the heart of what’s helped kill sites like this.
The social media emulation is a symptom, not a cause. What is killing AVC and the G/M stable is sociopathic ownership. Wanting to emulate social media had nothing to do with the gutting of editorial standards, or the forced move from Chicago so that they could legally sack staff without payouts.
I’m sorry, I don’t agree. The downhill slide started with the “pivot to video,” and the merging of the old Onion sites with the toxic remnants of the Gawker cesspit. It was bad long before Herb and the move.
Yeah but I once got a lot out of The Root and Jezebel, sites I would never have thought to visit prior to the properties being merged with the Onion. Problem is that as low as things have gotten on AVC, those sites are absolute shells (especially The Root, which at this point should just shut down).
See, *I* remember when The Root was in the same media group as Slate, and it was even better then. IMO Jezebel never stopped showing its roots in trash gossip rags with Gawker. I wish the Hogan lawsuit would have actually meant the demise of Gawker; as it stands, Gawker deserved to die for that hypocrisy, but instead it ended up being merged with The Onion and infecting it with their “TMZ but ostensibly leftist” dumpster fire.
They haven’t criminalized main drags in Texas yet?
Hey, I saw Elvis working at my McDonald’s, so anything is possible!
Guy has to get out sometimes…
Is this like that time on Curb when Larry tried to become a car salesman just to see if he could do it?
It… it is not like that… so did you read the article?
by all indications Lana is the female Larry David so yeah that’s accurate
I love you, Lana.But as a long-time citizen of a formerly sleepy Southern beach town that is now being plundered by rich douchebags, if your stunt makes Waffle House trendy and inaccessible, I’ll burn my copy of NFR.
“We’re talking about a woman who wore an $18 Shein dress to a red carpet event and a $35 Target dress to a photo shoot with , after all. She means it.”
What, exactly, is this supposed to mean?
“The secret to Lana is that she’s exactly who she is,” said producer Jack Antonoff.Explain it to Elizabeth Grant.
OMG artists don’t always use their real names?!?!?! I am SHOCKED.