Sabrina Carpenter's Man’s Best Friend Album Cover Was Kind Of An Accident

Let the cover for Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend be a lesson for us all: Nothing is ever as it seems. Months after receiving major backlash for the cheeky album art, the pop star is giving fans a peek behind the curtain and sharing the inspiration behind the imagery.

In case you need a refresher, the visuals feature a shot of Carpenter on her hands and knees as a man stands above her pulling her hair — or so you thought. In a new interview with Zane Lowe, the singer revealed that the hair pull was never the goal, it was (seemingly) an accident. “I wanted a man playing with my hair and I actually used maybe five different men to take that photo because none of them could play with my hair,” she tells the Apple Music host. “They were all pulling it ... the grip looked like they were yanking it.”

The original intention behind the photo was much more lighthearted than the internet would have you think. In Carpenter’s words, she wanted to express a feeling of, “I got myself here, here I am, this is someone I love but also someone that emotionally can be doing a lot with my heart and doing a lot with my emotions.” Her friends and family all agreed the photo was “perfect,” so when the controversy began swirling online, the 26-year-old chalked it up to a lack of context and kept it moving.

The concept may not have been well received by all, but Carpenter is standing by the artwork regardless. “The photo we landed on was so special,” she tells Lowe, explaining how it was the only pic caught on film that featured her desired lighting and a facial expression that conveyed control “even though I'm on all fours.”

The full interview is out now on Apple Music 1.