Kansas City Royals

It's true: Lorde's hit 'Royals' inspired by George Brett

Updated Nov. 10, 2022 10:17 a.m. ET

foxsports

KANSAS CITY -- The megahit "Royals" by 17-year-old singer/songwriter Lorde was inspired by a photo in the National Geographic Magazine of George Brett signing autographs at then Royals Stadium.

National Geographic Magazine media relations director Kelsey Flora emailed me to confirm that there has been only one image of a Kansas City Royal in the history of the magazine, and it was from a 1976 photo of Brett.

Lorde was interviewed a few weeks back by VH1 and she said, "(I) had this image from the National Geographic of this dude just signing baseballs. He was a baseball player and his shirt said, 'Royals.'

"It was just that word. It's really cool."

The song, however, which topped the charts for nearly two months, also was inspired by Lorde's fascination with aristocracy.

"Like, the kings and queens of 500 years ago...they're like rock stars. If there was a TMZ 500 years ago, it would be about like Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette and all those people," she told VH1.