Lana Del Rey opened up about her viral moment waitressing at an Alabama Waffle House — and the orders she filled while working the shift.
The singer, 38, made headlines in July when she was photographed in a Waffle House uniform serving customers. While the unexpected sight made fans wonder if Del Rey’s new gig was for a music video or part of her album promo, it turns out Del Rey took over the post solely because the employees asked her to after she and her siblings had been there for hours on end.
“We were on our third hour, and the servers asked, ‘Do you guys want shirts?’” Del Rey recalled to The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Wednesday, September 20. “Hell yeah! We were thrilled.”
As for what she gave out to customers, she took a special request from one Waffle House patron.
“This guy, a regular, comes in every day and orders two things, so they were like, ‘Just go get it for him!’ I brought him a Coke. No ice. And an empty cup. For dip,” she explained, referring to chewing tobacco.
The footage from Del Rey’s Waffle House shift propelled her to front page news — while her latest album, Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd?, released in March, did not get the same amount of online fanfare.
“I wish my album had gone as viral,” Del Rey quipped. “I woke up to, like, 10,000 texts the next morning — some from folks I had not heard from for 10 years. ‘Saw your picture at the Waffle House!’ I was like, ‘Did you hear the new album?’”
That’s not to say it either has to be one or the other. In March, Del Rey combined her love of greasy food and music and held a listening party for Ocean Blvd at California’s historic Mel’s Drive-In. She was also honored with her own milkshake at the chain of ‘50s diners: a chocolate syrup and Oreo-based delicacy.
While Ocean Blvd may not have been Del Rey’s most successful album to date — that honor goes to 2015’s Ultraviolence, which has been certified platinum — it still debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200. “Snow on the Beach,” her collaboration with Taylor Swift, also received critical acclaim and fan praise — thanks to the extended version featuring “More Lana Del Rey” that Swift, 33, dropped in May.
“The fact that I get to exist at the same time as her is an honor and a privilege, and the fact that she would be so generous as to collaborate with us on this song is something I’m gonna be grateful for for life,” Swift gushed about working with Del Rey in 2022 Instagram video. “Absolutely love her, and I really hope you love the song as much as I do.”
