Chappell Roan Sparks New Crisis Hotline for Music Professionals

During last year’s Grammy Awards, Chappell Roan used her acceptance speech for Best New Artist to ask record labels to offer artists a livable wage and health insurance. The speech sparked a larger conversation, and in the immediate aftermath, Roan launched a fund with the nonprofit Backline Care to support mental health in the music industry.

Now, nearly one year later, Backline Care is debuting a new resource: A mental health and crisis support hotline, which the organization said was made possible thanks to the conversation that Roan started.

B-LINE, launched Tuesday, offers counselors who are trained to assist music professionals and their families around the clock. The number (1-855-BLINE99) and text line (254-639) is intended to offer confidential and quick support to music workers in need.

“This has always been the dream. We’ve supported thousands of music industry professionals in their mental health and wellness journeys, but one critical piece was missing: real-time access to care,” Backline founder and executive director Hilary Gleason said in a statement. “B-LINE changes that.” 

Backline has long aimed to provide a resource like the hotline, but Roan’s 2025 speech “helped set the stage for B-LINE” by offering “increased visibility,” Backline stated in a press release.

Spotify is the lead sponsor of the initiative, which is also supported by Noah Kahan, Live Nation, Adyen, AEG Presents, The Busyhead Project, Red Light Management and Wasserman Foundation. 

“Support for the wellbeing of the incredibly hard working artists and people that make the music industry function has long been neglected,” Kahan said in a statement. “A dedicated 24 hour hotline is the first step toward accessing critical mental health support.”

Backline has long focused attention on the critical issue of mental health in the music industry. The industry charity MusiCares has found that suicidal ideation is higher amongst people in the music business than in the general U.S. population. In its 2025 survey, MusiCares found that 15.4 percent of respondents said they knew a colleague who had committed suicide in the past year.

In the aftermath of her 2025 Grammys speech, Roan donated $25,000 to start the “We Got You” fund at Backline. Artists Kahan, Charli xcx and Sabrina Carpenter then matched her funding. In the wake of Roan’s speech, UMG and the Music Health Alliance also announced a fund to connect artists to providers and financial aid for mental health care.

“Many people we support do have health insurance. The problem is that it doesn’t cover, or they can’t afford the out-of-pocket cost for their preventive care services or their mental health services,” or regular or emergency services or prescription drugs, MusiCares vice president of health and human services Theresa Wolters told THR in 2025.