Lewis Capaldi said “a few panic attacks” and his Tourettes diagnosis was worth the trade-off for the life of a pop star, but if his mental health worsened he would be forced to give up music. The Scottish singer-songwriter released his second album on Friday titled Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent following the debut of a one-off Netflix film documenting his rise to fame and personal struggles.
Capaldi, 26, told Rebecca Judd on her Apple Music show that his mental health issues were a “direct symptom” of his job. “I think on this album in particular I talk a bit more about my mental health, which has taken a beating over the last little while,” he said.
“I’m managing it better now, but I think in 2020 I was kind of glad when we got put in lockdown because I had done my first arena tour in the UK, and we had just done an Australia and Asia tour before that, and I was in a bad way where I was just having panic attacks every single day on stage and I was just shy. I still haven’t quite got there, but it’s interesting that this thing that you love to do and you’ve always wanted to do becomes something that causes you such distress, but such is the modern world.”
Capaldi said his latest album or his next album could be his last.
He said: “If I did another album and my head was scrambled and I felt horrible, right now I’m at a point where I can balance my mental health and how I feel in general. Not even just mental health, but the trade-off is worth it.
“I’ll take a few panic attacks and my Tourettes and stuff for what’s happening, but if it gets to the point where things get worse mentally and I stop kind of looking after myself in that regard, I think that would be a point where I’d be like, ‘I’m just not going to do this anymore’.”
The star added: “The main reason I got into music was to play live and if I’m struggling to do that ever, I think that’s where I’m in trouble, because otherwise that’s the payoff, that’s the point of doing it. At that point, if it felt like it was becoming something that I was not into or was causing me stress or I hated (it), then that’s when I would probably pack it in.”
Capaldi also shared the advice from chart-topping pop star Ed Sheeran, who co-wrote his number one track Pointless. “(His advice) was more about songs and writing the best songs you can and everything else is not really important,” he said.
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“He was very supportive in terms of if I had questions about having an upbeat song or having a slow song or what single to put out, or blah, blah, blah, blah, he was there as a sort of sounding board. He never really told me what to do, which I kind of appreciated as well, but he was a good suggestion box.”
He also joked: “I think in hand-to-hand combat, I could whip his ass. But in terms of on the charts, he’s definitely top.”
Capaldi namedropped Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney as someone he would “definitely” like to meet, but confessed he has a “real problem” remembering famous people he has met. The singer explained he had only remembered meeting US actor Tom Hanks at an Eagles concert with former One Direction star Niall Horan after Hanks’ wife Rita Wilson retold the story on ITV’s Lorraine.
Listen to the full interview on The Rebecca Judd Show on Apple Music 1 on Tuesday, May 23.
