{"id":2445201,"date":"2026-06-04T19:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2445201"},"modified":"2026-06-04T19:24:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T19:24:25","slug":"role-model-interview-new-album-why-hes-ending-his-viral-sally-bit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/role-model-interview-new-album-why-hes-ending-his-viral-sally-bit\/","title":{"rendered":"Role Model Interview: New Album, Why He’s Ending His Viral ‘Sally’ Bit"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\u201cDoes love come around or does one come around to it?\u201d That\u2019s the question at the center of \u201cHigh Hopes 3000,\u201d Role Model<\/a>\u2018s just-released new single, and the singer-songwriter says the idea frames his entire third album.\u00a0Chuck Timely & The Hourglass<\/em> (Aug. 7) explores his journey after a very public break-up with Emma Chamberlain<\/a>, with its musical approach taking off from the rootsy, strummy, ultra-hooky pop of his breakthrough hit, \u201cSally, When the Wine Runs Out,\u201d from his second album, Kansas Anymore<\/em>.\u00a0He\u2019s been rumored to be in another relationship more recently, but he emphasizes that the album\u2019s songs are about an \u201cup-and-down period of being single.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRole Model (born Tucker Pillsbury) hopped on a Zoom to discuss the new album, the Chuck Timely character he\u2019s created in connection to it, and his upcoming film debut alongside Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo in Lena Dunham\u2019s comedy Good Sex<\/em>. Plus, he reveals that he\u2019s killing off a stage bit that went viral over and over \u2014\u00a0his nightly gimmick of bringing out a fan (or, often, a celebrity, from Portman to Charli XCX to Rene\u00e9 Rapp to\u2026 Al Roker) as a \u201cSally.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are you up to today?
<\/strong>I am packing. I\u2019m going to Primavera [in Barcelona] tomorrow, and signing way too many vinyls.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you sign the album cover over and over again, do you start second-guessing the artwork? Or are you appreciating your excellent choice?<\/strong>
<\/strong>No, I actually love it. It\u2019s growing on me more every day. I\u2019m sure maybe I\u2019ll get sick of it. We\u2019ll see. But I\u2019m proud of it.<\/p>\n

\n\tTell me about the concept of the photo, where you\u2019re hanging out next to newlyweds or whatever.
<\/strong>I had Chloe Chippendale, she\u2019s the photographer. And I brought her this idea without really showing her any of the music. But I had the album, and we had this Chuck character. And the album\u2019s themes\u2026 The common thread was about time and feeling a little bit stagnant in this two-year period of being single and dating and then not dating and feeling this pressure the entire time of, \u201cAll right, I\u2019m getting older. I think I need\u2026\u201d \u2014 feeling a pressure to find love and all the questions that come with it. And I\u2019m also now at the age where everyone\u2019s getting married around me, and I\u2019ve just started going to weddings as an adult for the first time last year. I wanted to represent this character that I came up with as well as the themes which he represents. He\u2019s a little bit pathetic in a charming way.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHow early or late did \u201cHigh Hopes 3000\u201d arrive in the process of the album as a whole?
<\/strong>That was close to the beginning. And I had that line, \u201cDoes love come around or does one come around to it?\u201d I was holding onto that forever, and I was like, this feels like the question I want to set up the album. And once the song came and I wrote the rest of it, I was like, I feel like this should also just probably start off the whole rollout. \u2018Cause I think that question sets up the album in a nice way and this journey that I go on to find the answer.<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s definitely a \u201cbeing single is not all it\u2019s cracked up to be\u201d-type song lyrically.
<\/strong>Yeah. It was a rollercoaster. You get sick of it a lot, and there\u2019s moments where you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I love it.\u201d But I think you really start to have these existential moments of, \u201cWhat am I doing with my life?\u201d Also, is finding love or falling in love going to fix whatever else is wrong here?<\/p>\n

\n\tI do have to say that there are people who\u2019d be like, \u201cBut being single as a young celebrity is probably awesome.\u201d
<\/strong>I like it not for that reason. I\u2019ve spent most of my life single. The part I like is being on your own time and really only having to worry about yourself selfishly. It\u2019s a nice thing, but also, that can only go so far. I think it\u2019s an important thing to learn how to take care of someone. And it felt like maybe it was a missing piece in my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a Springsteen line on the <\/strong>Tunnel of Love<\/em><\/strong> album where he goes, \u201cWhen you\u2019re alone, you ain\u2019t nothing but alone.\u201d<\/strong>
<\/strong>Yeah, exactly. And I think there\u2019s a thousand ways to write about it and I guess that\u2019s what I did on the album.<\/p>\n

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\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tSonically, what was the vibe you were going for on the single? In the verses I hear Jackson Browne<\/a>, and in the chorus I hear \u201990s country. And the Jackson Browne part is interesting, because one of your producers, Mason Stoops, has actually played with him.<\/strong>
Yeah, I love that. Jackson Browne was a huge part of the album, across every song on the album. But it\u2019s always riding a line and touching these musicians and bands that I love without someone easily being able to be like, \u201cOh yeah, this is just a cool new Jackson Browne song.\u201d We wanna split it up, and so it was like, I wanted some of those stabby, yacht rock, Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates keys, and I wanted the keys to lead it so that it wasn\u2019t too country on the nose, and then obviously bring in a little bit of the Georgia Satellites and a little bit more rock to the chorus.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, when I heard country, maybe I was just thinking of \u201cKeep Your Hands to Yourself.\u201d<\/a>
<\/strong>Exactly.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s interesting that you mention the yacht rock vibe. I\u2019m a fan of the new Charlie Puth album<\/a>, which has some of that same feel. Maybe that\u2019s in the air.
<\/strong>Yeah. I haven\u2019t heard that, but I love yacht rock. It was just taking little things. Those stabby piano hits always felt so pop to me in a way that people weren\u2019t bringing into modern pop, and I think there\u2019s so much genre blending you can do with that type of playing.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow much stress came in with the idea of following up a breakthrough album?
<\/strong>It really didn\u2019t. I think maybe because \u201cSally\u201d just taught me a lot. That song taught me a lot. I feel like I found a voice. I feel like that was the beginning of me finding this way to pull music I love and artists I love and turn it into modern pop music in a palatable way. And it just gave me a lot of clarity of how to move forward \u2014 not try and make a record of 12 \u201cSallys,\u201d but it just felt like I found a cool road to follow now.<\/p>\n

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