Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

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Harry Styles made his mark as a solo artist over two years ago with his rootsy, rock-leaning self-titled debut album. After nearly a year of touring theaters, then arenas, and a few deserved months off, he holed up in Malibu for six weeks to record his sophomore LP at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studios with producers Jeff Bhasker and Tyler Johnson as well as friends and collaborators like guitarist Mitch Rowland, drummer Sarah Jones and Kid Harpoon (a.k.a. Tom Hull). In Styles’ own words, his new album is “all about having sex and feeling sad.”

While recording, it seems like he has unleashed his inner rock geek. In the studio, he gleans inspiration from T. Rex’s “Cosmic Dancer” for the string section on an unnamed song. He has also become obsessed with Paul McCartney’s work as a solo artist and member of Wings. Styles also cites a rare David Bowie interview from the Nineties as his biggest emotional motivator for the type of work he’s doing.

“If you feel safe in the area that you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area,” Bowie says in the clip Styles played for Sheffield. “Always go a little further into the water than you feel you are capable of being in. Go a little bit out of your depth. And when you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Like many of the artists who inspired Styles, the singer-songwriter found himself getting really into psychedelics. “We’d do mushrooms, lie down on the grass, and listen to Paul McCartney’s Ram in the sunshine,” he said. “We’d just turn the speakers into the yard.” At one point, while recording, Styles bit off the tip off his tongue while on ‘shrooms and sang while blood gushed out of his mouth. He even jokes about naming the album Mushrooms & Blood. 

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Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Styles cites Joni Mitchell’s Blue and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks as lyrical inspirations. He became so infatuated with Blue in particular that he tracked down the woman who built Mitchell’s dulcimers in the Sixties. “She said, ‘Come and see me,’” collaborator Kid Harpoon recalled. The had located her in Culver City. “We turn up at her house and he said, ‘How do you even play a dulcimer?’ She gave us a lesson. Then she got a bongo and we were all jamming with these big Cheshire Cat grins.”

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Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Styles had the chance to meet Van Morrison in February. Their backstage hang was documented with a photo that proves that few people are immune from the Styles Charm: He elicits a rare smile from the often somber Irish singer-songwriter. “I was tickling him behind his back,” Harry revealed. “Somebody sent me that photo — I think his tour manager took it. When I saw it, I felt like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction opening the case with the gold light shining. I was like, ‘Fuck, maybe I shouldn’t show this to anyone.’”

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Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

As a male artist whose core fandom has long been majority female and young, Styles also knows how important it is to publicly identify as a feminist. “I think ultimately feminism is thinking that men and women should be equal, right? People think that if you say ‘I’m a feminist,’ it means you think men should burn in hell and women should trample on their necks. No, you think women should be equal. That doesn’t feel like a crazy thing to me. I grew up with my mum and my sister — when you grow up around women, your female influence is just bigger. Of course men and women should be equal. I don’t want a lot of credit for being a feminist. It’s pretty simple. I think the ideals of feminism are pretty straightforward.”

He also shows strong admiration for the women and femmes who support him. “They’re the most honest — especially if you’re talking about teenage girls, but older as well,” he said. “They have that bullshit detector. You want honest people as your audience. We’re so past that dumb outdated narrative of ‘Oh, these people are girls, so they don’t know what they’re talking about.’ They’re the ones who know what they’re talking about. They’re the people who listen obsessively. They fucking own this shit. They’re running it.”

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Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Currently, the 25-year-old feels “looser” and is learning how to be vulnerable with his friends and family. “I feel pretty lucky to have a group of friends who are guys who would talk about their emotions and be really open,” he said of how him and his peers are engaging with their own masculinities, sexualities and identities. “My friend’s dad said to me, ‘You guys are so much better at it than we are. I never had friends I could really talk to. It’s good that you guys have each other because you talk about real shit. We just didn’t.’”

Those conversations in his life are helping his songwriting. “For me, it doesn’t mean I’ll sit down and be like, ‘This is what I have for dinner, and this is where I eat every day, and this is what I do before I go to bed.’ But I will tell you that I can be really pathetic when I’m jealous. Feeling happier than I’ve ever been, sadder than I’ve ever been, feeling sorry for myself, being mad at myself, being petty and pitiful — it feels really different to share that.”

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Harry Styles on the Cover of Rolling Stone

Harry Styles loved being in One Direction. He also doesn’t understand artists who used to be in boy bands who hate their former groups. “If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t have done it,” he admitted. On tour, Styles even covered several One Direction songs. “It’s not like I was tied to a radiator.”

The boy band went on “hiatus” in 2015, but don’t count them out just yet. He wouldn’t say “never” to a reunion, but he’s aware that every member is doing something unique musically. If a reunion happened, it would have to be “for the right reasons,” noting that if they found themselves together again “it wouldn’t be the same.”

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