How I have missed my beloved Raccoon McPantless. For a few years, it seemed like the only stories about her involved NSFW music videos, artwork or photoshoots, but Taylor Momsen sat down with The Daily Beast for an interesting interview (you can read the full thing here). Taylor – Raccoon! – is now 20 years old (she’s only a few months younger than Miley Cyrus) and her band, The Pretty Reckless, are pretty successful. The music is widely praised and the band has toured extensively. This is her thing now. She doesn’t want to be an actress anymore, she wants to be a rock star. And I think she is. Here are some highlights from the Daily Beast piece:

On fame: “Fame is so fleeting and stupid. Once, my tampon string was put on the Internet when I was 15 because some a–hole shot up my dress and it made big headlines. For a year, if you Googled ‘Taylor Momsen’ the tampon photo was the first thing that came up. When that happens, you just go, I really just don’t give a f–k, and you close the computer. People are going to say what they’re going to say, and the tabloids will always spin s–t.”

Being a child actor: “I started modeling at 2, and then acting at 3, and then Gossip Girl when I was 12, so I wasn’t really making my own decisions. When I got to a place where I realized I was in control of my own life, and had found the right band, and everything was coming to fruition, it wasn’t even a question: I was going to quit my day job. I came to set every day with a f–kin’ guitar. But I’m very lucky that the producers were nice enough to write me out, allow me to tour, and pursue my passion, because they very easily could have told me to go f–k myself and keep me on the show.”

Touring the world changed her perspective: “The power lies in the few and then you witness so much poverty, depression, and repression, and it changed my perspective on everything. I came back and thought, It’s a f–ked up world.”

Hurricane Sandy ruined their second album: “We lost everything. The biggest thing we lost was time and we had such a good vibe going, and had built up this room at Water Music with our specs, so it was perfect. We lost $500,000 worth of gear, including a beautiful piano from the 1900s, guitars, recordings, a MIDI console. Hazmat had to come in and clear all the sludge and sewage.”

Why she’s always naked in videos & album art: “I wanted it to be striking,” she says of the cover. “I came up with a symbol, the cross with the arrow going down, which symbolizes Going to Hell. It was an elaborate process but the nudity came from: when you come into this world, there’s nothing but your soul, and you leave with nothing but your soul. People have misinterpreted it and turned it into something else, but that’s just tabloid manipulation.”

Sex & rock n’ roll: “Sexuality and rock ‘n’ roll go hand-in-hand and have since the beginning of time, and if anyone thinks I’m doing anything more controversial than f–kin’ Led Zeppelin, you’re insane, because I can see Robert Plant’s f–kin’ d–k… you know?”

[From The Daily Beast]

Such a delicate flower. Actually, I kind of prefer a tough kid (so hard, yo) who has spent the last three years dedicated to delivering on their “hardness” and owning it. I feel like this is who Taylor really is – this isn’t some Miley Cyrus-esque makeover involving twerking, nor is this Bieber-esque frontin’. Raccoon McPantless is pretending to have a softer side. She really is THIS hardcore, y’all. And why not? I like it.

Photos courtesy of WENN.