📍Willard, Missouri, USA
1998 – 2016“Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz in February 1998 in Willard, a small town of a few thousand people on the edge of Springfield in south-west Missouri, in the Ozarks. She is the eldest of four children of Kara and Dwight Amstutz, who ran a veterinary clinic in Springfield, and she grew up in a devout Christian family. Church was the centre of life: she went three times a week, and spent her summers at Christian youth camps. Willard was conservative and quiet, with churches, fields, a Walmart and long drives into Springfield, and she has described feeling like an outsider there, a dramatic, imaginative girl who loved musical theatre and costume. She sang in talent shows and local competitions. At school she felt disconnected and emotional, and she has spoken openly about the struggles of those teenage years. In her early teens she started writing songs, and as a teenager she posted a song called Die Young on YouTube, which caught the attention of Atlantic Records. She signed with them while still a student at Willard High School. She took her stage name in honour of her grandfather, Dennis Chappell, whose favourite song was The Strawberry Roan, a cowboy ballad. In her twenties she moved to Los Angeles, where she found queer community and a camp, theatrical style. Her 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, includes songs like Pink Pony Club and Casual about leaving a small Missouri town behind, and yet loving where she came from.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today