Rachael Ray is hosting her annual Feedback Music & Food Festival this weekend at SXSW in Austin. She’s been doing this for 11 years and the musical lineups she attracts are insane! New York Dolls, Blondie, De La Soul, Jimmy Cliff, George Clinton, Wanda Jackson, Jakob Dylan among others. You can read this year’s lineup here.

Unfortunately, not included in the musical acts this year are Beyoncé or Jay-Z, whom Rachael was linked to when a portion of the Beyhive mistook Rachael for Rachel Roy, who is believed to be Becky with the Good Hair. Whereas the thought of having the Beyhive descend terrifies me, Rachael had a pretty great response. She was flattered anyone thought she was hip enough to hang with the mega-duo.

On being mistaken for Rachel Roy aka ‘Becky with The Good Hair’
“I thought that was hilarious. I guess I looked at that as the most ultimate backward compliment – just the idea that anybody would think that I groove in a universe where I get to hang out with Jay-Z or Beyoncé or all that. To me it was like, ‘People think I’m cool enough to go to places where any of this would happen?’ It was so funny to me.”

She doesn’t judge or gossip
“Not judging any of what was going on within it. … I do not spend my time gossiping about people, because if I don’t sleep with you, and if I’m not related to you, then I truly don’t care how you live your life. I think it matters to the universe, but it certainly doesn’t matter to me. It’s none of my beeswax. No pun intended!”

On people who talk smack about her online
“I feel bad if anybody’s spewing hate anywhere. There’s just so little time on the planet; maybe we go around again, maybe we don’t. Why spend time putting negative energy out there? I believe if you put out negative, you will get negative ripples back; if you put out positive, hopefully you’ll get enough positive back to keep on going,”

“Some of my most loyal television watchers for years were literally in a website called ‘I Hate Rachael Ray.’ I never hated them back. Eventually they kind of came to say, ‘I guess we have to give up. OK, we kind of like her. OK, she’s not going away.'”

[From Yahoo!]

I really like Rachael’s comments in this interview. I could see her showing the tweets to her friends “I’m cool enough to be mistaken as Jay-Z’s lover!” That would be my first thought too. I agree with her that if I’m not in a relationship with someone I’m not passing judgement on them (although I am probably gossiping about it if they’re famous – that’s my job).

I remember hearing a lot of hate for Rachael, but I don’t know why that was. She’s so high energy, I assumed it was a ‘she’s annoying’ thing. But I also believe Rachael won over her haters by just not giving them any hate back. She tells a story about doing this to Anthony Bourdain, who lambasted her for years. As a matter of fact, it was the aforementioned New York Dolls, a favorite of both of theirs, that bridged that gap. Bourdain was so mad Rachael booked one of his favorite acts that he wrote “I don’t know whether to go out and shoot a puppy, or send Rachael a fruit basket. It just does me no good at all to think of Rachael as a Dolls fan.” He never did send her a fruit basket so she sent him a giant one instead and then he issued her an apology.

As an aside, the idea of Jay-Z and Rachael Ray in a passionate tryst makes me giggle:
JZ: “Hey baby – how about you and I make mad love all afternoon?”
RR: “All afternoon? I can bang this out in 30 minutes.”
JZ: “Okay, but go easy on the garlic this time, Bey smells it on me when I get home.”

Embed from Getty Images

Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images