At 28, Jeon Jung Kook has headlined arenas, racked up global solo hits, and contributed to the most commercially successful BTS album in history. He also still isn’t sure he’d call himself a pop star. “I can’t really think of myself as a pop star just yet,” he told Rolling Stone in a new cover story published Monday (April 20) as part of the outlet’s eight-part BTS May 2026 package. “But I’m very grateful that I get asked about it that way, and that fans think of me that way. So I want to keep doing better, so that I can feel like a star for myself. Someday!”
That combination of warmth, self-awareness, and almost startling humility runs through the entire interview. Jung Kook has been in BTS since he was 15, meaning he has spent nearly half his life as a global pop star, growing up in real time inside the group. He was drawn to BigHit Music originally not by the company’s promise but because RM was “really, really cool and awesome,” and he describes himself as essentially the group’s first fan. That awestruck quality, it turns out, has never fully left him.
The most revealing stretch of the interview covers his contributions to ARIRANG, where he stepped up as a songwriter more than he had on his solo debut Golden. He co-wrote four of the album’s 14 tracks, but his reflections on that process are characteristically self-critical. “It’s been a long time since then. We chose the songs and everything, but there’s one thing I still think about, which is: why didn’t I do a little more? Two months is a really long time. Couldn’t I have done a bit more? I have a lot of regrets about that.” It is a striking thing to say about a record that has now spent three consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, but it feels entirely true to who he is.
The song he points to as a genuine highlight is “Hooligan.” “When I first heard the track, I came up with the flow immediately,” he said. “The track is so unique, so I might have just lucked into this, but Hitman Bang and the rest of the members thought it was so fresh, and they all loved it. That felt awesome.” He acknowledged getting help with the English lyrics while still taking clear pleasure in the result.
On the question of ARMY’s critique that his solo work was very Western and lacked personal songwriting, Jung Kook was candid without being defensive. “That just happened to be my choice at the time,” he said. “But I could write more for my next album, if that’s what ARMY wants. Back then, I wanted something else. I wanted to get good songs and release an album as soon as I could.” He added, with characteristic self-deprecating honesty, that the kinds of personal stories he could tell feel limited to him right now, and that he forgets things quickly: “You know how computers have hard drives? I don’t think I have a lot of disk space.”
On what it would actually take to feel like a pop star, his answer was disarmingly practical. He said he needs to get better at English, “at least to the point where I can make small talk or chat casually.” He has tried every learning app, but finds the follow-through the hardest part. Audiences already praise the quality of his English pronunciation in song, which he attributes to his ear rather than fluency: “I don’t want native speakers to hear me speak their language and find it uncomfortable, or dislike it, in any way. So I’ve personally worked very hard on it.”
The interview rounds out with Jung Kook reflecting on being the youngest member of BTS, a role he says has always made him comfortable rather than frustrated. Asked whether he identified with George Harrison’s experience of feeling like a junior member in the Beatles, he pushed back: “No, I love being the youngest. I’m so used to that now, so when I’m in a group setting, I’ve always felt very comfortable feeling like the youngest. That’s how I feel now.” After nearly 13 years in one of the most watched groups in music history, that ease still seems genuine.
