Despite a high-profile record-breaking return to music this year, Adele is every bit as frank as she was when America first learned her name as a newcomer nearly a decade ago.
After selling 3.38 million copies of her surprise third studio album, 25, Adele redefined possibility with the highest-selling first week album in music history. Still, the 27-year-old Grammy winner can't quite wrap her head around why Americans have gone mad for her tracks.
"It's a bit ridiculous. I'm not even from America," she said in an interview with TIME. "Maybe they think I'm related to the Queen. Americans are obsessed with the royal family."
As a very private mother to her 3-year-old son Angelo, the British beauty also finds the realm of celebrity social media equally as bizarre.
"It's ridiculous that high-profile people have that much access to the public," she added. "How am I supposed to write a real record if I'm waiting for half a million likes on a photo? That ain't real."
The "Water Under the Bridge" singer also sounded off on her own process for selecting musicians to support. Spoiler alert: her standards are high on a personal level.
"Some artists, the bigger they get, the more horrible they get, and the more unlikable," she admitted. "I don't care if you make an amazing album—if I don't like you, I ain't getting your record. I don't want you being played in my house if I think you're a bastard."
However, if a musician does pass the Adele Adkins quality test, the songstress will happily shell out a pretty penny for their record.
"I don't use streaming. I buy my music. I download it, and I buy a physical [copy] just to make up for the fact that someone else somewhere isn't," said Adele, who famously refused to share her latest album on classic free platforms like Spotify when it debuted.
"It's a bit disposable, streaming," she argued. "I know that streaming music is the future, but it's not the only way to consume music."