Frank Ocean’s Coachella performance last Sunday (April 16) was so bizarre, beginning with the fact that much of it took place backstage, that some critics assumed it had to be a deliberate, brilliant deconstruction of expectations for festival headliners. Or something. Then Ocean himself said it “wasn’t what I intended to show” and canceled his performance for Coachella’s second weekend, a move his reps claimed was made on doctor’s orders due to a leg injury. All in all, it wasn’t what anyone expected from his first performance since 2017, with the world still waiting for a follow-up to 2016’s instant-classic Blonde.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Tomás Mier (who covered the Coachella performance) and Simon Vozick-Levinson join host Brian Hiatt to discuss the performance, Ocean’s possible mindset, whether it’s OK to admit that even geniuses can have a bad night onstage (the answer is “no” according to Justin Bieber), and Ocean’s whole brilliant and confounding career so far. Find the episode here at the podcast provider of your choice, go directly to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above.
We also discuss new details that have emerged, including Rolling Stone‘s report that 100 ice skaters were set to join the performance before Ocean abruptly changed his mind (again, his reps blamed a leg injury for any changes.)
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