After nabbing the top spot on the Billboard Artist 100, The Weeknd is all smiles on the cover of GQ‘s February 2017 issue. The Canadian crooner, who shot back into the pop stratosphere with his third studio effort and Billboard 200chart-topper Starboy, discusses his new coif and the hard work that went into his latest album.
“I worked really hard on this album,” he said. “And I felt like I need to relieve a lot of stress. [Cutting off my hair] feels good, ’cause I get to blend in. If I want to go to a club, I can just go and I’m not there. I can go to a restaurant and I’m not there. I look like everybody else, which is boring, but maybe I just want to look like everybody else for a bit.”
While The Weeknd, real name Abel Tesfaye, may try to blend in now, his 17-year-old self moved out of his one-bedroom apartment shared with his mother to pursue his music career. “I don’t think I did it to make it. I don’t think I was like, ‘I’m leaving. I’m going to go become a star.’ It was more like, ‘I need to get the f— out of here and live another life.’ You know? Be somebody else. Not a star, just someone else.”
His songs may depict an incessant partygoer whose two hobbies are drugs and women, but he also doesn’t consider himself a sex symbol. While discussing groupie interactions, The Weeknd casually reveals that he personally knows Leonardo DiCaprio but asserts that he is no “f—in’ Idris Elba.” He explains, “You’ll probably describe me in this f—in’ thing. I’m not — look at me, this is who I am. I’m not gonna walk into the club and be like, ‘Oh shit, I’m the sexiest guy in here.’ The reason why they want to f— with me is because of what I do [in the studio]. So I’d rather just focus on doing that.”
Donald Trump’s viral “grab them by the p—y” quote also creeps into the conversation, when The Weeknd says, “I don’t know anybody that would do that. I know a lot of people in the industry, and I don’t know anybody — like, a random girl that, like, you just spoke to? No. I mean… No. How do you even grab a p—y? Like, is it even grabbable?”
The Weeknd also discusses the prospect of fatherhood after his split from model Bella Hadid (“I feel like I’m the kind of guy that would have kids before getting married”) and keeps it real about his current turn-on. “Right now,” he says, “I’m much more, like, self-regulating than I was four years ago, when I first started getting everything and enjoying life. I don’t focus on it as much as I used to. You know what I mean? Before, it’s like, ‘Holy f— — this is amazing.’ Right now, it’s like a good song turns me on way more. Like, that gets me horny, like, literally gets me horny.”
