Lana Del Rey’s father Rob Grant has said that he is “happy to be the first nepo daddy” as he prepares to release his debut album.
As announced in February, Grant, 69, is due to drop the 14-track ‘Lost At Sea’ on June 9 via Decca Records. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
He’s already previewed the project with the singles ‘Setting Sail On A Distant Horizon’, ‘Poetry Of Wind And Waves’, ‘The Mermaids Lullaby’ and ‘Deep Ocean Swells’.
Del Rey – real name Lizzie Grant – will feature on the record’s title track and another song called ‘Hollywood Bowl’. Her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff is credited as one of the album’s producers.
During a new interview with GQ, Rob Grant – who is said to have had “no kind of formal musical training”, per an official blurb – responded to the online reaction to his new venture.
“The nepo daddy thing I love,” he told the publication. According to the article, Grant first encountered the concept – a play on the ‘nepo baby’ label – within his Instagram comments.
“I’m happy to be the first nepo daddy,” he continued.
Del Rey then claimed that Mitch Winehouse – father of the late Amy Winehouse – was actually the first ‘nepo daddy’, having tried to make it as a jazz artist following Amy’s tragic death.
Grant said that “they didn’t have nepo babies” back then. “It’s only because of the whole nepo baby thing. Who wrote that story?” he asked, seemingly referring to the 2022 Vulture article that sparked the debate.
Del Rey replied: “Someone without a brain. It’s just another way to rile simple folks up.”
Grant, who has launched his own ‘nepo daddy’-branded merch, said: “Nobody wants to give anyone any credit for doing anything. God forbid that you actually have talent. People don’t want to acknowledge that. They will find a way to undermine you and to really make you feel bad about yourself.
“So the nepo daddy thing, I love that. Hell, I’ll sell you hats, T-shirts, canvas bags, you name it.”
Other celebrities to have weighed into the ‘nepo baby’ discourse include Liam and Noel Gallagher, Lily Allen, Zoë Kravitz, Bono‘s daughter Eve Hewson, Diddy‘s son King Combs, and Jamie Lee Curtis.
In other news, Del Rey has shared a previously-unreleased single called ‘Say Yes To Heaven’, which was recorded back in 2013. Her ninth studio album, ‘Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd’, arrived in March.
Lana Del Rey is set to top the bill on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2023 next month before headlining London’s BST Hyde Park series in July.