Heidi Montag Gets Real About New LP, Correcting the Past, and Life After the Fires: ‘I’m Not Stopping’
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.
On a Friday afternoon earlier this May in Kentucky, Heidi Montag has some big weekend plans: The pop singer, reality TV legend, and former Rolling Stone cover star is getting ready to attend the Derby.
“I just watched the whole Netflix [docuseries] Race for the Crown, so I’m all in,” says Montag. But Montag isn’t really calling today to chat about the Run for the Roses — we’re on the phone to chat about some of her favorite picks that she curated for Amazon’s Mother’s Day shop.
“I, like most people, live off of Amazon. It is my entire life. I buy everything from there, from groceries to last-minute gifts to anything,” Montag says. Her Amazon Mother’s Day list features everything from massage therapy devices (the TheraGun Mini is her “favorite thing in the world”) to gardening tools to beauty essentials, like one of her go-to eyeshadow palettes from Urban Decay.
Montag’s Amazon collaboration arrives just weeks before she releases her next full-length project and kicks off a new era — and one very Heidiwood Summer.
Earlier this year, Montag reached the top of the iTunes albums and songs charts with her 2010 LP Superficial and its single “I’ll Do It,” following a surge in sales after Montag and her husband Spencer Pratt lost their home in the California wildfires. Celebrities from Flavor Flav to Emily Ratajkowski shared videos featuring the song on social media, and Montag says even stars like Avril Lavigne brought over wine.
Superficial [Explicit]
“It was so emotional and conflicting actually to have my song go Number One,” Montag says. “It was so amazing to see everybody really support and rally for us out of such a tragedy, and emotionally and physically dealing with being so displaced and losing everything and trying to figure out life for my two kids and my husband and myself, and also being at the lowest low and the highest high at the same time was very hard to fathom. It was such a blessing to have so much love and support — I get so emotional.”
Montag continues, “It’s incredible, and I’m just so thankful for every single dream, every single download, every time somebody has watched a video, made a video, just really rallied behind our family and having some of my deepest and longest dreams come true have been such a blessing.”
Montag’s chart success comes nearly 15 years after Superficial‘s release — and 17 years since she graced the cover of Rolling Stone.
“[The Rolling Stone cover] was framed in our house. So is one thing that I really wish we still had. That was such a moment of time and and it just spoke volumes to where the nostalgia of where we were at, you know, early 2000s — it was such a staple.
“Matthew Rolston was incredible,” Montag says. “He is one of the most amazing, as they say, iconic photographers in the industry. So to be able to work with him was great. It was a very hostile environment for me. I was, you know, on the outs with every single cast member [from the MTV reality series The Hills].”
Montag adds that she “just tried to enjoy the moment and kind of block it out even if it was kind of a hard situation to be in emotionally and appreciate the cover of Rolling Stone regardless of what was going on or any kind of turmoil or, you know, cattiness. But yeah, it was incredible. And that was such a milestone.”
In June, Montag plans to head to London to perform at the Mighty Hoopla music festival, which features a lineup including Kesha and Ciara, to name a few of this year’s acts. “Sharing the stage with them is going to be an achievement of a lifetime,” Montag says. “I’ve never done anything like that, so I’m really excited.”
From there, Montag is scheduled to play San Francisco Pride, New York Pride, and Seattle. “I’m excited to see where it goes,” she says. “It’s just been a crazy whirlwind having such a horrific experience launch so many of my dreams coming true and this new era of success. I definitely have a new drive and I need to be able to buy and create a new house and life for my children. So I’m not stopping, that’s for sure.”
Before that, Montag will drop her new LP Heidiwood on May 30. “It’s a little edgier,” she says. “It’s definitely very sexual and fun and empowering at the same time.” Montag teamed up with Chase Icon for the album’s title track, which includes a clip from an interview Montag did that’s since gone viral, including her quote “but that would be your path.”
“It’s really funny and interesting to see people gravitate towards that, and I think that a lot of people actually relate to that and kind of being outside of the box and outside of society and what other people are trying to force on them,” Montag says of the interview response.
“So it’s nice that it resonates with this generation … it’s nice to be able to have kind of the past corrected or looked at and reflected on in a different way. It’s very justifying and liberating for me personally, because I felt like I lived in an upside-down world at the time. I didn’t understand how anyone didn’t see what I saw or understand what I was going through in this new generation. They really get it and they resonated with it and they side with it and it’s been incredible to see that.”