Role Model covered Olivia Rodrigo’s “Maggots for Brains” as part of his set at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge on Tuesday (Aug. 11), but the singer born Tucker Pillsbury seemingly wasn’t feeling too confident after his performance.
Ahead of the cover going live on YouTube, Role Model posted a message to his Instagram Story in an attempt to get ahead of his expected critics. “I covered olivia for BBC and im just gonna get ahead of the comments and let you know i botched it,” he wrote with two heart-eyes emojis.
Instead of tweaking Rodrigo’s lyrics, Role Model leaned into the pop star’s yearning for a long-distance lover on the You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love track. Fans in the YouTube video’s comments section seemingly expected worse based on his “botched” warning, and lent their stamps of approval. “Came from his Instagram Story. Not botched actually,” one commenter wrote.
During his Live Lounge stop, Role Model also performed “High Hopes 3000” and “Harmony” from his Chuck Timely & The Hourglass album, which arrived on Aug. 7.
“Maggots for Brains” is from Rodrigo’s most recent album, which arrived in June and topped the Billboard 200 with 485,000 total album-equivalent units earned. The song has so far peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Role Model isn’t the first to attempt a Rodrigo song in the Live Lounge this year: Sienna Spiro covered “Less” during her BBC Radio 1 stop in July.
Watch Role Model’s “Maggots for Brains” cover below.
