Moby also has a skeevy story about ‘dating’ Lana del Rey when she was half his age

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I wasn’t expecting yesterday’s Moby-Natalie Portman story, quite honestly. I don’t keep up with Moby gossip, so I had no idea that he has a book out, nor did I know it’s actually his second memoir. The first one was called Porcelain, and this second memoir is called Then It Fell Apart. Both titles are from Moby’s songs/lyrics. Anyway, Moby is 53 years old and he seems to think that he cut a wide swath through all of the attractive young women in his path. Natalie Portman shut him down completely in a new interview, saying that he lied about when they met (he said she was 20, she says she was barely 18) and that he came across as creepy and wanting an inappropriate relationship with her, given their age difference (he was in his 30s at the time).

Well, Moby has another story and I can’t wait for Lana del Rey to come out and piss all over it. Apparently, Moby met Lana when she was still Lizzy Grant, in 2006. She would have been at most 21 years old. Moby would have been 41 years old. So he was twice her age and using the old “oh you’re a singer, why don’t you come back to my place and sing for me” line.

With the memoir delving into the 53-year-old musician’s promiscuity following his rise to fame, its pages detail a brief romance with Lana Del Rey. As Stereogum points out, the pair had their first date at a vegan macrobiotic restaurant in 2006. A section of Then It Fell Apart sees Moby recall their evening together, which ended with Del Rey – known then as Lizzy Grant – visiting his five-floor New York penthouse.

Remembering his first meeting with Del Rey, Moby wrote: “We’d kissed at the bar at 4 a.m., just as the place was closing, and I’d asked her to come home with me. She’d smiled and said no, she wouldn’t go home with me after just meeting me, but she would happily go on a date if I called her and asked her out. I called her the next day, and we talked for thirty minutes about music and politics and growing up in the suburbs. She was beautiful, smart, and charming; making plans to meet up with her was both what I wanted to do and what my new therapist had told me to do.” With Del Rey telling Moby that she was a musician during dinner, he asked her to play something for him when they were back at his place.

“Sure, do you have a piano?”

“Yes, back on the second floor,” I said.

“Floors in an apartment.” She shook her head. “Moby you know you’re the man.”

“Ha, thanks,” I said.

“No, not like that. You’re a rich WASP from Connecticut and you live in a five-level penthouse. You’re ‘The Man.’ As in, ‘stick it to The Man.’ As in the person they guillotine in the revolution.”
I didn’t know if she was insulting me but I decided to take it as a compliment.

Moby described Del Rey’s early song as “haunting”, explaining that her “voice was dark but strong”. After asking if she had a record deal, he questioned whether she planned to release music under her real name. “I don’t know. When you say it like that it sounds kind of plain,” she replied.

“I think it’s a nice name.” I sat next to her on the piano bench and started kissing her. She kissed me back — but then stopped. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“I like you. But I hear you do this with a lot of people.”

I wanted to lie, to tell her that I didn’t, that I was chaste, sane, and ethical. But I said nothing.

“I’d like to see you again,” she said.

“Me too.”

I walked her downstairs to the twenty-ninth floor and kissed her good night at the bank of the elevators. This wasn’t how I imagined the night ending. I’d assumed that we would end up christening my new apartment with vodka and sex. But to my surprise, this was almost nicer.

[From NME]

Gross gross gross. I mean, maybe we should have known before now, but damn, Moby is really that douchebag predator who hides behind his WASPy hipster-neurosis as a way to skeeve on very young women. That being said, we stan a 21-year-old Lana del Rey telling Moby to his face that he’s a rich skeeve who deserves the guillotine. Props.

The British Fashion Awards 2018

Photos courtesy of WENN.

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67 Responses to “Moby also has a skeevy story about ‘dating’ Lana del Rey when she was half his age”

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  1. Beach Dreams says:

    He’s done a great job showing what a creep he is and he definitely thinks these anecdotes make him seem “deep”. It’s hilarious that someone who also comes from money mocked him so effectively.

    • Jadedone says:

      I think he uses these anecdotes to make himself seem more appealing to women, sadly for him it’s having the opposite effect

      • Amanduh says:

        Seriously…this sounds almost as if he’s humblebragging? Like he’s telling us he’s been sexual with a lot of people without outright telling us he’s been sexual with a lot of people.
        “I’ve heard you do this with a lot of people?” She said.
        I wanted to lie, to tell her that I didn’t…”
        Gross.

  2. Jennifer says:

    This makes Lana Del Ray sound like a real class act, to be honest. From her songs, I got this image of a lolita-esque seductress sugar baby type.

    • Janie says:

      Honestly, mad respect to her. She should teach a master class, honestly; she was playing him like a champ. It’s weird how men often seem to take girls dissing them as a compliment. Moby is a creep and a strange person. Remember when he said he had friends in the CIA who told him to spread the word about the Trump dossier? Bizarre.

      https://pitchfork.com/news/moby-says-cia-agents-asked-him-to-spread-the-word-about-trump-and-russia/

      Also, he’s a horrible writer. Jfc, he’s almost as bad as Sean Penn (Hamface will always take the bad celebrity writer crown, though).

      • olive says:

        remember moby’s blog post right after 9/11 where he suggested the US drop leaflets featuring cartoons of osama bin laden drinking or having sex into the middle east and that’s how we could defeat the taliban?? he was serious too. he’s always been a tool.

      • Janie says:

        @olive omg wtf I didn’t hear about any of that. What a bizarre creep.

    • elimaeby says:

      Right?! My takeaway from this whole story is that I think I like Lana Del Rey now? I never saw THAT coming. Moby has always creeped me out. Now I know, it was for a reason.

    • Grant says:

      My boyfriend is a huge Lana stan. I’m more of an Ari Grande guy myself but I will say that I’ve seen Lana live with the mister twice and she truly has a great voice. I mention that because I feel like Lana got a lot of flack at the beginning of her career for being manufactured but she really is legitimately talented. I think she sounds like a Disney princess on acid.

  3. Amaryis says:

    🤢🤮 is the only thing I can express after reading that

    • Sojaschnitzel says:

      Second that. I passionately hate people who kiss and tell. What a forking douchebro.

      • tealily says:

        Yep, tacky tacky tacky.

      • buensenso says:

        yeah. that’s the biggest problem here. he can like young women and be a creep, but to then publish a transcript of their conversations is just a sleazy.

    • Pix says:

      Totally Creepy. That Instagram post yesterday was also vomit-inducing. He’s clearly not self-aware of even aware of the cultural climate. He’s basically outed himself as a predator.

    • Carol says:

      +1 and LOL! I didn’t realize Moby was such a douche but that excerpt was gross. Does he actually think telling these stories about hitting on REALLY young ladies when he’s much older makes him look good? He just comes off as a creep. Yuck!

    • Carol says:

      +1 and LOL! I didn’t realize Moby was such a douche but that excerpt was gross. Does he actually think telling these stories about hitting on REALLY young ladies when he’s much older makes him look good? He just comes off as a creep. Yuck!

  4. LolaB says:

    He made a point of saying, “Natalie and I totally dated in 1999,” whiiiiich if you do the math, Moby, by looking at her birthday on Wikipedia, homegirl was 18.

    The sad thing is, he doesn’t realize he’s showing us he’s a predator. With all this doubling-down on who he’s “dated,” he clearly can’t see what’s wrong with what he’s telling us.

  5. Incredulous says:

    Well done her, you rule, Lana.

    Moby on the other hand… is that how he writes his books? It reads like every anecdote ends with “And then everyone stood up and clapped, for me, Albert Einstein.”

  6. TeddyPicker says:

    By all means, snaps for Lana for calling Moby out – this dude seems seriously creepy. But surely she’s the next in line for the guillotine? Didn’t her millionaire ‘the man’ father pay to have her transformed from Lizzie Grant to Lana Del Rey after her first album flopped?

    • Kk2 says:

      I don’t know but she was 21 and her comment (as recalled by Moby) seems very much like something an idealistic and self serious 21 yr old would say. But she does come off really well in this story- very self assured for her age at the time. I’m curious what her memory of it is.

  7. It’sjustblanche says:

    They say 50% of men over the age of 50 have a erectile dysfunction. I hope he’s one of them. In fact, he kind of looks like one of them.

    • Zapp Brannigan says:

      I guffawed at this!

      When you say he looks like one of them are you saying he looks like a middle aged man with erectile dysfunction or that he literally looks like a flaccid penis? Inquiring minds want to know.

    • Mabs A'Mabbin says:

      Lmao. He looks like a dysfunctional penis.

      • Esmom says:

        Lmao. *wipes tears*

        He really is clueless and it’s funny how he just lays it out there with so much obliviousness. Thinking her saying “you’re the man” meant “you da man,” lol. Priceless.

    • Amaryis says:

      LOL

  8. Mia4s says:

    My favourite tweet I saw in a few versions yesterday:

    “Eminem was right about Moby all along!!”

  9. Ashley G says:

    Lana consistently has lyrics about sugar daddies and liking older men with wives so I don’t think she’ll care.

    What does Christian Ricci think of all of this? They dated for a while. She must be in his book.

  10. Adrien says:

    Making moves to a 21 year old popstar wannabe. Eww, classic Ryan Adams move. Why would he even tell these stories? So much insecurities this guy have. Musicians dating younger models/celebs is the norm, even in the indie scene but Moby is the only one who seems to make his dating history known. Funny, not one of the ladies seems so proud of it. Lana would rather admit she slept with Harvey to advance her career in the song, “Cola” but never really heard her say anything about dating Moby. Is he really that uncool? Heard those Natalie Portman rumors in the early aughts but media were too disinterested to confirm that. NP always insisted they were friends.

    • Lizzie says:

      he’s delusional if he doesn’t realize someone telling you you’re “the man” and that you would be guillotined during a revolution isn’t a compliment.

      she kissed him to be polite and leave his apartment w/out incident. we’ve all been there.

      edit to say this wasn’t supposed to be in response to @adrien’s comment – just a general statement!

  11. Anne says:

    This reads like absolute fiction. And crappy fiction at that.

    • Esmom says:

      Yeah, there’s definitely a lot of embellishment, even if there are grains of truth. Lol. He’s just so awful.

    • lucy2 says:

      I agree. Poorly written fiction too.

      She’s not obligated to share her experience, but I kind of hope she makes a statement on this, and I kind of hope that statement is “ew gross no.”

      Also, is he trying to take credit for her using a stage name?

      • PleaseAndThankYou says:

        He is totally trying to take credit for her stage name. I can’t with this creep!

  12. Tiff says:

    Moby is every middle aged white guy I met in my teens and 20s (GenX). That saying “Lord give me the confidence of a mediocre white man” … that’s a real thing. Imagine confusing making a girl uncomfortable for dating… just imagine the confidence.

    • Lady Keller says:

      Amen. I cant tell you how many guys like this I met during my teens/20s.

    • Jaded says:

      Yup…we’ve all been there – older men creeping and drooling all over us, then getting pissed off when we wouldn’t go along with it.

  13. DP says:

    His ego and entitlement is incredible! The more he says, the worse it gets! He just keeps proving he’s a total creep!!!!

  14. Lady Keller says:

    I probably should not post this, but the rumor about Moby back in the day was that he had a certain recurrent std that he spread like wildfire. Apparently he wasn’t above having unprotected sex with fans during a flare up. It always clouded my view if him and stories like this just make me believe it’s true.

  15. Liv says:

    I never really thought much about Lana del Rey but I’m beginning to like her. Yes!

  16. Meg says:

    Im wondering now if what Moby said about Natalie is kind of what Brad did with that MIT professor, there’s a picture of us next to each other so I’m going to say we’re dating because it benefits me. You’re not dating unless all parties involved say so you can’t decide on your own that it’s happening

  17. otaku fairy... says:

    He does come across like the kind of guy who desperately reads more into younger women’s interactions with him. There’s nothing attractive about him either, and just his attitude as a rich, famous person about people on food stamps is gross and entitled. I definitely believe what Natalie said about the situation. If at 18 or 19 someone is creeped out by anyone over a specific age wanting to date her, she has every right to feel that way and set that limit. If another person the same age has a higher age limit or different standard than her when it comes to hook-ups/dating, she has the right to feel that way and set that limit. Denying the sexual agency of others to suit my own comfort zones or standards of ‘propriety’ (?) by saying adults under any age can’t consent to banging whomever they choose is #notmyfeminism. Some of that commentary was extreme and problematic. It sets a toxic precedence and as a culture, we need to do better at showing basic respect for ALL women as human beings- even when they make decisions with their bodies we don’t like. Going from being a 33-year-old wanting to date and 18-year-old to being a 41-year-old wanting to date a 21-year-old definitely makes me side-eye a person’s maturity though.

    • Vanessa says:

      Moby is a creepy old man who no longer relevant to the music so he try’s to piggyback off the success of two woman who he desperately tried to date . I think he straight up lie about Natalie the way he describes the encounter he had with Natalie sound like something that happen in one those rom com from 2000 it’s sound so hipster so over the top . Moby seem like the type of person who thinks he the most intelligent person to ever live

  18. Emily says:

    Aside from him perving on young women, he’s also implying Lizzy Grant’s change of name to Lana Del Rey was prompted by a comment he made, like it had never occurred to her before. So like is she totally famous because of his genius observation?

  19. Lila says:

    I need mouthwash after that story, maybe brain bleach. So gross.

    It is hilarious that Moby is doing all the hard lifting in establishing himself as a perv. No one was asking for these stories.

  20. Harryg says:

    Eww he’s creepy.

  21. Grant says:

    My boyfriend is a huge Lana stan. I’m more of an Ari Grande guy myself but I will say that I’ve seen Lana live with the mister twice and she truly has a great voice. I mention that because I feel like Lana got a lot of flack at the beginning of her career for being manufactured but she really is legitimately talented. I think she sounds like a Disney princess on acid.

  22. Valerie says:

    | I’d assumed that we would end up christening my new apartment with vodka and sex.”

    Vom. Blech!

  23. Digital Unicorn says:

    Yuck, he really is just gross. I wonder who else he will use for attention.

    He truly is too stupid to realise that he’s just outed himself as a predator of young woman, a Harvey Weinstein. I wonder how long it will be before we get MeToo stories about him forcing himself on women, cause you know he has. He is not someone who takes No for an answer.

  24. Mumbles says:

    What’s funny about this is that Lizzie comes from great wealth herself. But good on her for calling out this gross skeeze.

  25. Annie says:

    I love when men willingly tell us that they’re sh*t. I used to like his music and I really respected his activism. I had no clue he was a creep. Thanks for letting me know, Moby. Now I’m finding out that he’s known for similar behavior amongst his own female fans. Awesome.

  26. Jaded says:

    I’ve read better written harlequin romance novels. I can’t wait to read her clapback!

  27. Simon the Bird says:

    Your therapist wanted you—a man in his mid 40s—to bed an aspiring 21 year old musician who would be easily influenced by your connections in the music industry?

    You know Terry Richardson isn’t your therapist, right?

  28. Starkiller says:

    Over the course of the last few days, I have found myself wondering, if this man has always had teeth the color of corn. One of the first pictures that came up, was picture of him with his arm around Scarlett Johansson, who looks as uncomfortable as the similar picture, with Portman. I wonder if for his next trick, he will try to claim that he also “dated” Ms. Johansson.

    • Ms.ChanandlerBong says:

      I was going to make a comment that he should spend more time on his teeth than spouting these pervy stories but thought maybe that was too mean… Blech…

  29. Jess says:

    Like I said in reply to yesterday’s post re: Portman, he’s been a creep since forever and people–in particular women–like me who spent way too much trying to have a music career have long known he was. It’s like with Kevin Spacey or any other creep/predator in the entertainment industry. Word gets around so people can try to protect themselves from being suckered or worse. And again, this is a creepy man trying to rewrite women’s life stories that make him look cool and desirable with no attempt at thinking about how it really was for the woman then or how hos revision will impact them as individuals or as people living in our society now. This is toxic to the max and it needs to stop. By the way, I was reminded yesterday about one of the reason I absolutely loath Moby, and it was his poor shaming a couple years back over poor people allegedly buying “junk” (translation: food they can afford or the occasional cheap indulgence) with food stamps. People on Twitter naturally have been digging up Moby’s greatest hits over the past 24 hours and this was one I particularly resented as a disabled woman who can’t afford to eat what I should be eating for my particular health issues. The dude is forever thinking he owns other people’s stories and can make moral choices for them without doing any work to understand what life is like for them, and this garbage with Portman and del Ray is just another extension of this very narcissist pattern of his.

  30. Darya says:

    He is still going on about Natalie Portman on Instagram. It’s so creepy and gross.

  31. Anna says:

    YUCK. He really does sound like a sleeze, like someone who would pretend to want to be your friend then once you felt safe and let your guard down – BAM propositions you suddenly and vulgarly.

    I just wanted to say that I truly thought him and Natalie Portman dated in the 90s. I remember reading in various places that he was her first (sorry, it’s what I remember reading!) .. I thought this was just a known fact until all this came out, but sounds like they were all just rumors which someone, (probably Moby) had spread way back then.

    • TrixC says:

      I suspect the truth about him and Portman is probably somewhere in between the two accounts. I think they did see each other briefly but she felt exploited and taken advantage of, whereas he’s trying to present it as as a great romance. And now he’s writing about it because he’s a narcissistic jerk.

      • Wendy says:

        I mean, that’s pretty much exactly what she says — she went to a show and met him backstage, he said “let’s be friends”, she took him at face value and hung out a few times, but ultimately he was just too creepy. It’s just that, like many many many MANY men, he appears to have interpreted friend-level interest from a female human as romantic interest. That’s such a common thing that men do… like, I can’t even remember how many men I’ve met who thought I desperately wanted their dick in me when in reality I was just being friendly. Seems like Moby’s just another one of those kind of men, unfortunately.

  32. Jon says:

    His first autobiography is just one brag after another of all the “women” he’s taken to bed. It read like he is desperately trying to make people believe he is a real heterosexual. He’s talentless. With a failing career I guess he’s just desperate for attention.