It’s been a whirlwind year for Billie Eilish. When she dropped her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? back in March, it immediately shot to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and stayed there for three weeks. It spent the rest of the year in the top 10, landed at No. 1 on the magazine’s year-end album charts, and has also gone double platinum. Not bad for a debut.
When SPIN sat down with our Artist of the Year, she spoke warmly about some of her favorite cover stars from years past—the ones who paved the way, and the ones whose artistry pushed her to new creative heights.
“Green Day changed my whole life,” she says, before dubbing them her “favorite band, like, ever.” Asked about her favorite track, she initially pointed to “All By Myself” from Dookie, but decided to go with “Jesus of Suburbia.” “That video is so hard,” said the 18-year-old. “I remember my brother wouldn’t let me watch it for years, and I remember when I could finally watch it, it was like, the fuckin’ sickest thing ever.”
As for Amy Winehouse, “She changed a whole generation of music,” she said of the late performer. “You knew that she wasn’t doing any of what she did for attention, or in a weird, fake way.”
See the full video above. Read more about Eilish, our Artist of the Year, and her meteoric rise in our December cover story.
