Adele Admits She Was 'Drifting Away' After Giving Birth – and Then Madonna Inspired Her

"I was so all over the place after having a child," Adele says in a revealing interview

Photo: Neil Mockford/GC Images

The Adele surprises keep on coming!

On the heels of breaking records with her impactful hit “Hello,” Adele debuted her new cover of Rolling Stone magazine via Twitter on Tuesday morning. True to form, the 27 year old is as candid in her interview as she is in song, touching on everything from becoming a mom to wanting Rihanna in her squad.

With all the attention placed on her after her last album 21 took off in 2011, Adele says she soon found herself connecting with old friends – “I needed them big time,” she explains – but her squad is not similar to Taylor Swift‘s famous group.

“I’ve heard about a squad,” she tells the magazine with a humorous snort. “I wish my squad was all supermodels. We are, in our brains. I guess I have my own squad. It’s not as interesting as some of the other squads that are around right now.”

She adds, “But maybe Rihanna can be in my squad! That would be really cool. Oh, God. She’s life itself, isn’t she? I love her.”

Adele also mentions Madonna, whose 1998 album Ray of Light partly inspired Adele’s forthcoming release 25, out Nov. 20. (Preorder here.) Now a mom to Angelo James Konecki, 3 – her son with partner Simon Konecki – Adele says she can relate to Madonna’s perspective from that specific era of her storied career.

“You know what I found so amazing about that record?” Adele says. “That’s the record Madonna wrote after having her first child, and for me, it’s her best. I was so all over the place after having a child, just because my chemicals were just hitting the f—— roof and s— like that.”

For Adele, giving birth in 2012 presented artistic challenges at first.

“I was just drifting away,” she explains, “and I couldn’t find that many examples for myself where I was like, ‘F—, they truly came back to themselves,’ until someone was like, ‘Well, obviously, Ray of Light.‘”

As for which songs may have impacted Adele the most, the songwriter mentions “Frozen,” saying, “I took that song as, ‘I’ve gotten my confidence to come and do me again.'”

Adele has found the buildup to the album has taken away her time with her son, which she says makes her feel guilty.

“He’s a little angel,” she says of her boy. “All the things I really like about myself, he brings out in me, and he’s the only person that tells me no. He completely rules me. He’s the boss of me, and it’s so funny for other people to watch, because I’m the boss of everything in my work life.”