If the name Greyson Chance sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you were a religious watcher of the Ellen DeGeneres show back in 2010 — but to be fair, who wasn’t a religious Ellen viewer back then? Greyson was the 12-year-old boy who rose to fame after a video of him singing a cover of Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi went viral. Soon after, Ellen invited him on the show and signed him onto her music label.
Now, 12 years after the pair first met, Greyson is speaking out about his mentor in a scathing tell-all interview with Rolling Stone magazine.
Greyson Chance, then 12, was one of the first kids to come out of the Ellen DeGeneres Show star machine.
Before Sophia Grace and Rosie, there was Greyson — a young boy who had gained massive recognition online back in 2010 after singing a cover of Lady Gaga’s hit, Paparazzi.
Greyson made his first appearance on the “Ellen” show in May 2010 and recalls that day in a new, tell-all interview with “Rolling Stone.”
“We just couldn’t believe what was happening,” he said, as per DailyMail.
“We were so unsure of what we were getting into, and the person that helped cure all of that skepticism and chaotic energy was Ellen.”
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Greyson, now 25, recalled that the talk show host vowed she was “going to protect” him and be there for him, saying, “We’re going to do this together.”
He added that at the time, Ellen “presented herself as a guardian and mentor,” and told his mother, Lisa, that she would “never have to work again a day in her life.”
Greyson was gifted $10,000 and a new piano after his first appearance on the show.
Greyson then explained how Ellen created a record label called eleveneleven in conjunction with Interscope Geffen A&M Records and signed the preteen right away.
In addition to the record label, she signed Chance with managers who had worked with the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna, as well as some of the best bookers and a publicist.
After releasing a mini EP, Greyson went on a tour across the US, Canada, London and Paris.
Everything seemed to be going perfectly for the preteen.
However, he recalled that as his career grew, so did Ellen’s need for control. “My whole week, my whole month, my whole year could change [with] one text message from her,” he explained to the publication. “That was horrible.”
He alleged that the comedian would make demands about his career, even going so far as to make him re-record a pre-taped performance for a television appearance because she wasn’t happy with it.
Greyson recalled how Ellen would “yell at stylists” and “berate people in front of him” adding that she “was just degrading to people.”
When his career took a nosedive in 2012, Greyson claimed that his former mentor “completely abandoned” him and “removed” herself from his life, and ignored his phone calls.
Despite being dropped from the record label, Greyson continued to appear on the Ellen show every few years, despite describing the TV set as a “place of active trauma.”
He claims to have refused multiple appearances since his final one in 2019, including one that would have taken place in the final two weeks of her show.
“I’ve never met someone more manipulative, more self-centered, and more blatantly opportunistic than her,” he told the outlet.
“The first part of my career, I owe a lot of thanks to her and to that team,” he told the magazine.
“But the reason why I’m here today talking about an album, I owe [expletive] nothing to her because I was the one that had to pull myself up. She was nowhere to be found.”
h/t: DailyMail
