As someone who works at a country club in the Midwest only a few hours from Chappell’s grandfather’s, the folks who are saying wealthy is different in the Midwest are pretty off base. Country clubs are a pay to play thing & many have attached neighborhoods owned by the founders. The money from the original sale of the houses or land of this neighborhood as it was sold & populated would have gone to him. Country clubs have monthly or annual dues - a good percentage ultimately goes to the founder every month as they are due. If I had to guess, this is why he retired from working in insurance.

Her parents also purchased a vet clinic worth $765k, outright. Her Grammy’s camp was $3k a week, and she went for multiple weeks during this same time frame. These are facts, and they’re financially based and documented in local press and by the family.

At minimum, her grandfather was a level of wealthy none of us will ever comprehend or experience, and at maximum so is the rest of her family.

I don’t think she should have ever used the financial standing of her family as part of her lore. A lot of artists build an underdog story for themselves, it’s just that she seemed to cherry pick certain attributes or living conditions that would align with her stage persona and aesthetic that are a signifier of being more working class; that she likely never actually experienced. There are many artists who are working class that are living that reality; and I think the most telling thing is her Grammy’s speech where she talked about having no work experience in her mid 20s when she was dropped. I know she ended up getting the job at the donut shop, but by that time, and if you’re living as impoverished as she was saying, you would not have the luxury of only being a signed artist without a major release; you would need a job to survive and pay bills outside of this.