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Chappell Roan just gave fans another taste of her country-inflected song “The Giver” — this time via a retro phone number stunt. Roan, who first premiered the country-tinged track during her Saturday Night Live debut last November, offered an invite to a quirky listening party over the weekend,sharing a now-dead phone number (629-468-8646, spelling out “Hot to Go”) in an Instagram story.
The number led callers through a menu of faux services, including dentistry and plumbing, and fans sufficiently dedicated to navigating the phone tree were rewarded with three snippets of the unreleased track.
“THE LAWYER ur ex’s worst nightmare + she gets the job DONE,” Roan wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself in a blue suit. “Ps keep ur eyes peeled, she may be on a billboard in your town.”
Roan accompanied the post by sharing a preorder link to a blue, lawyer-themed 7-inch vinyl of the single. She also reposted Spotify-sponsored billboards similar to those you’d see from Better Call Saul-like attorneys across the country. “Injured? I’ll get the job done,” one in Los Angeles displays. “Your ex’s worth nightmare,” says another in Nashville.
Roan’s SNL performance several months ago revealed a song that, aside from the sapphic lyrics, could’ve been a Shania Twain hit, complete with a recurring fiddle riff. “In this strip-mall town of dreams,” Roan sang, “Good luck finding a man who has the means/ to rhinestone cowgirl all night long.” In a spoken interlude, she added, “Only a woman knows how to treat a woman right.”
It’s unclear whether “The Giver” will be part of Roan’s upcoming second album or end up as a standalone single. “We’re just getting started,” Roan’s producer and co/writer, Daniel Nigro, told the Rolling Stone Music Now podcast in December. “We’ve written some great songs we feel really excited about, and more songs will come over time. Chappell has so much confidence in what she’s doing and that always shines through in the music.”
The teaser comes amid industry support for Roan’s “We Got You” campaign, which she launched with the nonprofit Backline after she took aim at major labels for not providing health insurance to artists during her Best New Artist Grammy acceptance speech. Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX, Lauv, and Noah Kahan have each donated $25,000, as have Live Nation, AEG, and other companies.
This story was updated on Feb. 18 at 6:20 p.m. ET to include mention of the new billboards and 7-inch vinyl.
