Billie Eilish Fans Think Jack Antonoff Just Threw Shade at Her Music Amid Taylor Swift Feud Rumors
A new Jack Antonoff interview is dredging up those months-old Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish feud rumors.
On July 4, Swift’s longtime collaborator—who produced many songs on The Tortured Poets Department as well Sabrina Carpenter hit single “Please, Please, Please”—recently spoke about his songwriting process in an interview with Today. “It’s hard to write unless you’re really compelled,” Antonoff pointed out. “And sometimes what compels you is way more serious things.”
He continued, “You don’t hear a lot of great songs about, like, one’s lunch order. So the things you don’t really understand and cause you pain are usually things worth writing about.” Pretty innocuous, right? Not to some Billie Eilish fans, who took this as a subtle jab at the 22-year-old artist’s song “LUNCH” on her latest album, HIT ME HARD AND SOFT.
“Jack Antonoff’s grown 40 year old self shading Billie? weirdo,” one fan wrote on X.com, while another posted, “Shading a queer artist right after pride month……..” Meanwhile, one Reddit user started a debate about the topic in a Billie Eilish subreddit.
But here’s the thing: As many fans have pointed out, “LUNCH” is not actually about lunch, so it’s unlikely Antonoff was referencing Eilish’s work. In response to one TikTok video about the alleged shade, one usre wrote, “I honestly dont think this was shade at all bc ‘LUNCH’ is not at all about lunch its about loving women.” Another replied, “this is actually the biggest reach ever omggggggggg.”
While many think it’s a “reach” to find fault in Antonoff’s interview, others say his use of the word “lunch” was “oddly specific.” After all, this interview comes a few months after Eilish drew the ire of Swifties while promoting her new album.
Feud rumors began percolating in March when Eilish shared some candid criticism about how the music industry’s effect on the environment. She particularly denounced vinyl varients, which help boost the album sales and effect chart rankings. “It’s so wasteful, and it’s irritating to me that we’re still at a point where you care that much about your numbers and you care that much about making money,” she told Billboard in part. “And it’s all your favorite artists doing that shit.”
While Eilish later denied targeting any specific artist, feud rumors grew as her album faced off against The Tortured Poets Department for a top spot on the charts in May. As Swift was accused of releasing remixes and bonus editions of TTPD in order to keep the album at number one, Eilish’s quotes got less and less broad. In one live fan discussion, she even described concerts over three hours as “literally psychotic,” adding, “I don’t even want that as a fan. My favorite artist in the world, I’m not trying to hear them for three hours.”
All this to say, there’s a reason some Billie Eilish fans are reading into Antonoff’s latest interview, though this particular controversy does feels like a bit of a stretch. Still, if there is beef between Swift, Eilish, and Antonoff, hopefully they can work it out on the remix.