Adele on Her Upcoming World Tour: "I'm Not Just Going to Stand There!"

Updated on Dec 23, 2015 at 5:00 AM

Adele is the cover star for Time's December issue, and she's delighting us with candid quotes yet again in the accompanying interview. In the short month since her new album, 25, dropped, the singer has exploded onto the scene more than ever, leaving a trail of shattered records in her wake. Her new interview, of course, addresses the success of her third album and contains so many more amazing gems. In the same way Adele discussed her private life with Rolling Stone, broke down her new music with i-D magazine, and got real about sadness, this interview sheds new light on the icon, both in her personal and professional lives. Keep reading for the choice quotes.

On why people love her music so much: "The fact that I'm not shy or embarrassed to be falling apart. Everyone falls apart, I think. A lot of people try to be brave and not shed a tear. Sometimes when you know someone else feels as sh*tty as you do, or approaches things in a certain way just like you do, it makes you feel better about yourself. Even though my music is melancholy, there's also joy in that. I hope I do bring joy to people's lives, and not just sadness, but I think there's a comfort in it."
On breaking the US record for fastest-selling album: "It's a bit ridiculous. I'm not even from America. Maybe they think I'm related to the queen. Americans are obsessed with the royal family."
On the rumor that she turned down a Beyoncé collaboration: "Whoever started that rumor must have been having a laugh because anyone who knows me knows that my main priority in life outside of my child is Beyoncé. I really wanted to do a duet on this album. I spoke to someone about it who I wanted to do it with, and we got on like a house on fire, and then we just couldn't logistically really get it to work. I can't say who it is because I want to do it in the future. That's the only reason. It wasn't Beyoncé!"
On what her tour will be like: "I'm not just going to stand there! I really would like to fly through the arena for the beginning, but no one's having it."
On making a "brand" of her music and identity: "I don't like that word. It makes me sound like a fabric softener, or a packet of crisps. I'm not that. But there's personality in an artist, and if you're expecting people to let you in and give themselves to you, you have to be a whole package. I feel like some artists — and this isn't shading any artist, just me trying to come up with my own explanation — the bigger they get, the more horrible they get, and the more unlikable. And I don't care if you make an amazing album — if I don't like you, I ain't getting your record. I don't want you being played in my house if I think you're a bastard."
On her 3-year-old son, Angelo: "He makes me so proud of myself, and he makes me like myself so much. And I've always liked myself. I've never not liked myself. I don't have hangups like that. But I'm so proud of myself that I made him in my belly. Cooked him in my belly and then he came out of me! This human who's suddenly walking around and doing his own thing. I can't wait to know who his best friends are going to be, who his girlfriend or his boyfriend is going to be or what movies he likes . . . Whatever my kid wants to do or be I will always support him no matter what."
On turning off social media: "Privacy is key to being able to write a real record, whether people like it or not. My life has changed so much, but I've made the realest record I can make, and it's the real part of me. How am I supposed to write a real record if I'm waiting for half a million likes on a f*cking photo? That ain't real."
On Taylor Swift's decision to remove her music from Spotify: "It was amazing. I love her — how powerful she is. We'll get lumped together now because of it, but I think we would both feel the ability to say yes or no to things even if we weren't successful."