Benson Boone is giving us a peek behind the curtain, and it’s not the glamorously toned abs we might expect. The 22-year-old pop sensation, recently nominated for Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammy Awards, is candidly addressing his body image struggles in a Rolling Stone interview.
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While many of us might think of Boone as the guy who serenades us with hits like “Beautiful Things” and “In the Stars,” we might also picture him shirtless at one of his electrifying concerts—his fans love it, but it turns out, he’s not as into it as you might think. In fact, when he first started shedding his shirt on stage, he wasn’t doing it to create an Instagram-worthy moment.
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“I definitely remember there was a time where I would take my shirt off because I didn’t know what else to do,” Boone admitted. “After doing a lot of shows, you start to pick up on what people like and don’t like, what girls like and don’t like. There is an art to making anybody go crazy.”
But hold on, he’s not your typical pop star, and he makes that very clear. “I don’t want people to come to a show expecting me to just take my shirt off and it to be like a gun show,” Boone quips. “One, I don’t have the guns for that. Two, that’s just not what I’m about… I don’t want to rely on my physical form to be the primary driver of my shows.” Here, Boone hits us with some real talk: just because he’s got the looks doesn’t mean he’s about to serve us a body-obsessed performance. He’s focused on the music first—and we love him for that.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all smooth sailing when it comes to body image. “It sucks to just focus on that all the time,” Boone confesses. He’s brutally honest about how being hard on himself affects his mental health. “Because I’m so incredibly hard on myself, and when I start to think about my appearance too much, it just kills me because there’s always something more I could do. There’s always a hairstyle or, like, my arms could be bigger. My shoulders could be bigger. It’s never-ending. I can’t afford to think that way because I will never be happy if I do think that way.”
As someone who’s seen their fair share of body-image-based drama in the public eye, his words hit a little differently. It’s refreshing to hear someone in the limelight—especially a young, attractive pop star—admit they’re not chasing the impossible ideal of being the perfect physical specimen. “Dude, it affects me so much,” Boone continues, underscoring how deeply body image issues can cut, even when you’re already living a life many only dream of. “Obviously, like, I enjoy working out and I want to keep my physical shape because I need to. But I can’t be the sex icon of the century, just because that’s not who I am.”
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A message that many of us can relate to, regardless of what we do for a living: the pressure to look a certain way can be paralyzing. And yet, Boone keeps coming back to music as his true passion. “I’m just happy that I could make a living out of it,” he says, and his gratitude for doing what he loves is the kind of authenticity we need more of in the celebrity world.
Of course, he still shows up looking flawless—he’s human, not a saint. But Boone’s refreshing vulnerability about not wanting to be pigeonholed as a “sex symbol” reminds us that there’s so much more to him than what’s on the surface. And as fans, we can’t help but appreciate that. It’s about time we have more stars who are willing to really show us who they are, inside and out.
So, next time you see Benson Boone rocking a shirtless performance, just remember: the guy might be showing off his body, but it’s his heart, his voice, and his realness that make him shine the brightest.