3. Carrefour kitchen
I never had a date – no one ever took me to one [expletive] date before! – but if I had to go on one, Crossroads would be the dream. It’s a vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, and it’s a bomb. It is the most delicious food there is. The meatball sub and chicken waffles are my must-haves. They’re both main courses, so every time I go they say, “What do you want?” and I’m like “The Meatball Sub” and then they want to move on to the next person, but I’m like, “Plus, the chicken waffles.” And I eat them both. I have no more leftovers afterwards.
4. “I’m in the mood for love”
The first time I heard this song was on “The Little Rascals” which was my favorite show when I was a kid. All I wanted was to be a little rascal; I wanted to kiss Alfafa so badly! There’s a scene where Darla sings “I’m in the Mood for Love”, and I remember thinking it was such a pretty song. Then years and years went by, until one day I was like, “What was that song that I thought was so pretty when I was little?” And I found a really nice, but shoddy, version of Frank Sinatra on SoundCloud, which I listened to while traveling around Europe on tour. And then recently I found this version of Julie London, and she just killed her. She has one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. It’s just a perfect love song. Every time I hear it, no matter how I feel, it makes me want love.
5. Cards
On tour we have a lot of waiting times – yes, tour, a thing of the past! – and I can’t really get out because the fans are lined up around the block. But we have things to do. Our favorite game is Speed, which is a card game that my assistant manager, Lauren Millar, taught me to play on that really long bus ride in Russia – we played it for about two hours in a row that day – the. And from there we played it nonstop. It started out as a sort of time-taking and ended up as something we would do when we had to do something else.
6. “We need to talk about Kevin”
This movie has the most beautiful cinematography I have ever seen – everything in it is perfectly done, from the framing to the colors. This has been one of my biggest inspirations for my own music videos. Every time I watch it I see something new that’s great about the way it’s been shot.
7. Driving
Once I learned to drive, that was all I wanted to do. It’s a place where I feel very free, anonymous and in control. I drive a black Dodge Challenger, which was my dream car growing up. I’ve saved my money for years and years, and I was like, “I don’t want someone to buy it for me because I want to buy it myself with my own money.” But then Justin [Lubliner], my label guy, a few months before my birthday was like, “What do you want on your birthday, Billie?” and I jokingly thought to myself, “A Dodge Challenger, in matte black.” And I was like, “Just kidding, obviously don’t understand me.” Then the day before my birthday, we did a photo shoot for my album cover, and at the end of the day Justin drove into my dream car – I cried for probably three hours straight.
8. Weighted blanket
My mom had one when I was 9 or 10 because she couldn’t fall asleep without a lot of weight – once when she was younger she woke up between her mattress and bed frame ! I had just used his, then I finally got mine. I sleep so much better underneath, and it’s a good tool for physical affection when you don’t have one.
