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Finneas reveals the “consequence” of Billie Eilish’s fame

Tue 16 April 2024 9:58, UK

Finneas has opened up about the negatives of notoriety. While talking about his sister, Billie Eilish, he shared the “consequence” of success on her scale.

Even though Finneas acts as Eilish’s right-hand man and closest collaborator, co-writing and producing her songs, their fame levels certainly differ. Eilish is the face of the project and acts as a solo artist. Therefore, it’s her image plastered everywhere and her face that is instantly recognisable by a strong proportion of the world by now as her notoriety only seems to grow.

For her brother, that’s a problem, as he revealed during a new interview with Dax Shepard on the Armchair Expert podcast.

“Being as famous as Billie is a nightmare. I would never want that,” he said. However, the musician praises his sister’s ability to handle the pressure, adding, “She wears it really well and she is actually a rock star.”

However, watching his sister experience that level of celebrity status has solidified his desire to play more of a background role in order to protect his life.

“I see it at a function, and I don’t want to have that, and I don’t pretend to have it,” he continued. To him, it has one huge drawback that almost makes life unliveable. He stated, “The consequence of that is she can’t do anything. She can’t really walk around.”

That statement adds more poignancy when considering how young Eilish was when she first broke out as a star, and even now, she’s only 22 years old. The singer was only 13 when her breakout hit ‘Ocean Eyes’ was released. Astonishingly, she was yet to turn8 when her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?, came out and went stratospheric.

Finneas also noted the ways that gender contributes to how she’s treated. “I think that people interact with women differently in the public eye,” he explained.

“They’re not intimidated by them in the way that they should be and the way that they are respectful towards men,” he continued.

Throughout the interview, he mentioned several weird or uncomfortable encounters with paparazzi or fans that Eilish has experienced due to her success. “They have no compunctions about putting a phone in Billie’s face and being like, ‘This is my sister on FaceTime’”, he recalled.

However, he acknowledges that this is a largely unrelateable experience, reserved solely for the rich and famous. Nevertheless, that doesn’t change the way it makes him and his family feel as he stated, “ I know that it’s all a privilege and we’re all lucky, but it’s fucking rude.”

To him, it’s something that needs calling out more in order to protect people like his sister and allow her to live fully and safely rather than feeling so restricted by her success. “I don’t actually feel bad about saying that because everybody’s so checked out of common courtesy, and you wouldn’t do any of this stuff to your friend,” he said, “It’s just absolutely rude.”

Eilish is set to release her third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on May 17th.