Why Taylor Momsen Finally Stopped Shunning Her ‘Grinch’ Past

Taylor Momsen has opened up on why she finally stopped shunning her role as Cindy Lou Who in the 2000 film How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

The rocker was just a little girl when she was cast as one of the lead roles in the movie alongside Jim Carrey. Less than a decade later, she formed The Pretty Reckless and spent years trying to distance herself from being the girl in the Grinch movie.

This past October, The Pretty Reckless shared a collection of Christmas songs as an EP (titled Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas). One of the songs is a revamped version of “Where Are You Christmas?” — which Momsen sang for the Grinch movie soundtrack when she was just five or six.

Why Did Taylor Momsen Finally Stop Shunning Her ‘Grinch’ Past?

So what made Momsen decide to embrace her past as Cindy Lou Who all these years later?

“The long and short of it is that I formed The Pretty Reckless when I was 14 and as soon as we started putting out music, every Christmas fan made the connection that I played Cindy Lou Who and now had this band,” the singer told Kerrang!.

“And so every year, fans would beg for a rock version of ‘Where Are You Christmas?.’ And for 15 years, or whatever it was, I would hear all this and go, ‘This is never going to happen. In no world am I doing this.’”

The Pretty Reckless endured a lot of tragedy and loss in a short timespan. They had just wrapped up their last show opening for Soundgarden in the spring of 2017 when Chris Cornell died by suicide. Less than a year later, their close friend and longtime producer Kato Khandwala was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Music ultimately was their medicine. During the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, Momsen was only able to see her bandmates in the studio. When Christmas time came around that year, she almost jokingly suggested that the band play a highly-anticipated version of “Where Are You Christmas?.” But it stuck.

“By the end of the song, four very, very miserable people had giant grins on our faces – stupid grins – and we were laughing and having a great time. We all turned to each other and went, ‘I think that might have been magic’,” Momsen recalled.

It was around this time that the singer was able to see the song as a “full-circle” moment and accept Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch movie as part of her overall story, especially because recording the song as a kid was really the first step in her musical career.

“I wanted to add things from now, to give it context as to who I am as a person, and tell the story,” she added. “It was interesting reflecting on my life and realizing all this. It was good to spend time with this and kind of come to terms with a lot of things that I’d shunned from my past.”

The Pretty Reckless, ‘Where Are You Christmas?’

Why Did The Pretty Reckless Release the Christmas EP Now?

The band’s fourth studio album Death by Rock and Roll came out in early 2021 and they’ve been pretty busy touring since then, especially with rock giants AC/DC. Those plans delayed their ability to get into the studio and actually record the Christmas EP, but it finally came out on Halloween this year.

READ MORE: Taylor Momsen Discusses Overcoming Grief + Substance Abuse on ‘Call Her Daddy’

They’d just shared a new single, “For I Am Death,” a few months prior. The song recently became their eighth No. 1 rock song.

“I feel like we’re in a really good place. I’m in a good place personally, we’re in a really good place as a band and I’m very excited for the future,” Momsen teased.

“There’s also so much more to come in the next 12 months that I can’t wait for and I can’t really talk about yet, but this is kind of just the beginning. That’s a really exciting place to be.”

You can order Taylor Momsen’s Pretty Reckless Christmas through the band’s website.