Meghan Trainor: ‘All About That Bass’ Was Written For Someone Else

Meghan Trainor never thought she would become a pop star. The 20-year-old singer of “All About That Bass” said in a recent interview that she had always aspired to a career in music — but as a songwriter, not a singer.

“When I got signed as a songwriter, I immediately thought, ‘Oh, no one sees me as an artist because I don’t look good enough.’ So I shut down the whole idea.”

So how did she happen to become a pop sensation with a number one song on the charts and an upcoming single in the works?

Between takes on the set where she was making the video for her new single, “Title,” Trainor told Rolling Stone the story of how “All About That Bass” came about, and how she never thought it would amount to anything.

“My producer Kevin [Kadish] had the title ‘All Bass, No Treble,’ but he hadn’t figured out what to relate it to. And I was like, ‘What about booty?’ At the time, my slang was that I’d say ‘I’m all about that’ about everything. Kevin grew up as a chubby kid too, so he totally related. We wrote it in 40 minutes, and we were just laughing while writing it. He was the one that wrote the ‘skinny b**ches’ line. And that’s when we said, ‘We’ll never make a dime off this. No one will like this, no one will cut this.'”

They were right – partially, anyway. Trainor never had any intention of singing the song herself, and they were looking for someone else to record it. She took the song to several labels, who loved the catchy little tune but had no idea what to do with it.

Their break came when L.A. Reid, head of Epic, said, “Who’s singing it? Go find that voice.”

Meghan met with Epic’s Paul Pontius and sang the song for him, and then texted him a week later when she was in Los Angeles to see if he wanted to have coffee with her.

“I was just making up stuff to get his attention,” she said.

He responded to her invitation by asking her if she wanted to play for L.A. Reid the next day.

“All I had was my ukulele. I was so nervous, but L.A. was doing the shoo-wop-wops and dancing with me. Then they made me wait in the conference room for 20 minutes with no cell phone, and I almost killed myself. I thought I had screwed up my whole career. Finally he came back and said, ‘We got you a record deal, girl!'”

Whether is it because people relate to the positive body image message, as this Inquisitr article suggests, or because it is just such a catchy little tune, the song became an almost overnight hit — beating out new releases by established artists such as Nicki Minaj and Jennifer Lopez.

Whatever the reason, “All About That Bass” has been number one on the Billboard charts in the U.S. for the past seven weeks, and number four on U.K. charts.

Trainor admits that although the limelight wasn’t her original goal, she is having fun with her new-found fame and getting to meet other celebrities – even though she is still a little star-struck by them.

“T-Pain called me on the phone: He didn’t know who I was, but he said he wanted to do the remix,” Meghan said. “I am such a big T-Pain fan; I was trying so hard not to cry. I’d love to write with him – I think we’d write a smash.”

And how does Meghan Trainor feel about being a pop star now?

“I hate that I ever doubted it,” she said. “This is what I’m supposed to do.”

[Image via New York Post]