You’ve heard all about nepo babies — the derogatory time period for Hollywood offspring who magically wind up following of their celeb mother and father’ footsteps.
Now, meet the world’s first nepo daddy.
As a former promoting copywriter, it’s attainable that 69-year-old Rob Grant, piano man and father to Lana Del Rey, may need ultimately give you the time period as a approach to market himself and his debut album, “Misplaced at Sea.”
However somebody on social media beat him to the verbal punch.
And he beloved it.
“I first noticed it in my feedback, and I assumed, ‘Holy smokes, that’s a phenomenal model!’ ” Grant instructed The Publish.
“So I went out and registered the area nepodaddy.com, after which I referred to as the fellows at Decca [Records, his label] and stated, ‘We’ve acquired to do merch round this … I really like form of being the primary nepo daddy on the market.”
Grant has his 37-year-old firstborn — whose alt-pop attract has led her to six Grammy nominations, together with an Album of the 12 months nod for 2019’s “Norman F—king Rockwell!” — to thank for his new nepo-daddy notoriety. And with Father’s Day only a week away, he’s one proud papa about working along with his well-known daughter on his first LP.
“For over a decade, she has persevered,” stated Grant of his daughter, born Elizabeth Grant, who made her major-label debut with 2012’s “Born to Die.” “She’s stayed completely true to her personal distinctive type of music. And she or he’s now arrived at a degree, culturally, the place I believe she’s at her apex. You recognize, so many artists look as much as her. Her music is beloved world wide. In order that’s actually great for me as a father to see.”
Getting Del Rey so as to add her signature sultry vocals to 2 “Misplaced at Sea” tracks — the title tune and “Hollywood Bowl” — Grant made new discoveries about his daughter. “One factor that I actually realized and I actually admire about Lana is she is remarkably intuitive,” he stated.
Father and daughter first collaborated on “Sweet Carolina” — the ultimate monitor on Del Rey’s 2021 album “Blue Bannisters — whereas he was visiting her at her dwelling.
“That happened as a result of she had been listening to me taking part in the piano … and he or she yelled down, ‘What’s that?’ And I stated, ‘I’m simply improvising,’ ” stated Grant. “She got here down, and he or she stated, ‘Are you able to create a bridge?’ And I did. And immediately she started to sing. It was very spontaneous. And inside I’d say 30 or 40 minutes we had composed that beautiful piano ballad. And truthfully, that’s how all of our songs since then have been composed. It’s actually a outstanding course of the place she hears one thing that I’m taking part in, and he or she begins to sing lyrics actually on the fly.”
On the principally instrumental “Misplaced at Sea,” Grant shows a penchant on the keys for a similar form of moody melancholy as his daughter.
“It’s someplace in our DNA, method down deep,” he stated. “I really like the minor chords. I really like that haunting, melancholy sound. And so does Lana.”
The video for the new single, “Lost at Sea,” is much more of a household affair.
“My different daughter, Caroline, was a director after which Charlie, my son, was very concerned within the manufacturing,” stated Grant. “We discovered these previous VHS tapes that I had 30 years in the past with the youngsters rising up, and we determined to intersperse the video with these stunning, very nostalgic items of movie. It makes it so candy.”
With “Misplaced at Sea,” Grant has discovered a brand new profession as a retiree who has labored in promoting, actual property and area funding. And as a nepo daddy, he’s additionally standing up for the nepo infants of the world.
“The entire nepo child factor was, you realize, mainly an try and undermine all of these youngsters who had come from celeb mother and father,” he stated. “And that’s the issue with our tradition as we speak. We reside in a really cynical world, and no person needs to offer anyone credit score for doing something.”
