Who are Chappell Roan's parents? All about singer's family

With her debut studio album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan has become a global success. The singer's roots can be traced back to Willard in Missouri, where she was the oldest among her three siblings.

Kara Amstutz, Chappell Roan's mother, was a veterinarian. Her father, Dwight Amstutz, on the other hand, was a registered nurse in the intensive care and burn units. He also ran his own practice in Springfield.

Roan grew up in a conservative Christian household where she went to the Church three times a week and spent her summers at Christian camps.

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Chappell Roan was born in a family of scholars

Despite her natural affinity towards music, Chappell Roan came from a family of scholars rather than that of musicians, with both her parents coming from a medical background. Speaking to Springfield News-Leader about the same in August 2017, Roan said:

"Oh, totally, we're just a very normal household. No one in my family is musical, none of my cousins, no one in my immediate family is musical."

The Femininomenon singer's first encounter with music was when she started taking piano lessons at 12. A year later, she performed The Christmas Song at a talent show in her school and won the first prize.

Her victory led Chappell on the path of songwriting. Her parents, both proud and supportive of her talent by now, urged her to audition for America's Got Talent. Recalling the experience in conversation with the news outlet, Roan said:

"We just kind of took the traditional route once we found out I could sing," she said, meaning she tried out for America's Got Talent. "I was like 14," Roan said. "I didn't make it; I had no idea what I was doing."

Soon she started uploading covers on YouTube, attracting several record labels that expressed interest in signing her. At age 16, she wrote an original song titled Die Young and eventually signed with Atlantic Records as a 17-year-old.

Recalling the disbelief surrounding the record deal in her school, Chappell said:

"It did not go over the best in high school. Like when I got signed, some kids just flat-out thought I was lying. It's like so taboo — that nobody does that — and my music took three years to work on and nobody heard anything, so it was like, ‘oh well, she really was lying.'"

She eventually released her first single, Good Hurt, in August 2017, and her first EP School Nights followed a month later.

Despite churning out a sleeper hit like Pink Pony Club with Atlantic Records, Roan's contract wasn't renewed, which led to her being dropped in 2020.

Roan moved back home for a while to cut back on expenses and take up part-time jobs while she created new music. Almost a year later, she made another breakthrough and landed a publishing deal with Sony. By March 2022, she joined hands with producer Dan Nigro and made Naked in Manhattan, a euphoric anthem about having a queer crush.

In 2023, she was signed by Amusement Records - the company opened by her record producer, Dan Nigro. Roan became the first artist signed by the label, with which she released her debut album - The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

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Chappell Roan's stage name pays homage to her grandfather

Chappell Roan was deeply attached to her late grandfather, Dennis K. Chappell. Dennis, the co-founder of PJC Insurance, suffered from brain cancer and was in the final stage a little before Kayleigh's music career started picking up.

According to Springfield News-Leader, it seemed unlikely that the singer-songwriter's grandfather would live to see her music being released publicly. Talking to the news outlet about it in August 2017, Roan shed light on how Chappell became the first part of her stage name.

"I let him hear rough demos, and I told him I was going to be Chappell in his honor," she said.

The second part of her name - Roan - was also a homage to Dennis Chappell, as it was taken from his favorite song, The Strawberry Roan. The song is an old Western track about a pinkish-red horse. Dennis Chappell passed away in 2016, which was the year Kayleigh Rose Amstutz took over her stage name - Chappell Roan.