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On the heels of his return to Glastonbury Festival in the UK, Lewis Capaldi is opening up about his mental health evolution and the difficult public moments that forced him to change.
The Scottish “Someone You Loved” singer’s comments came during an episode of Theo Von’s This Past Weekend podcast released on Tuesday, July 15.
Capaldi, who has been candid about his health journey and Tourette’s diagnosis, shared more about an incident onstage at Glastonbury in 2023, during which he had difficulty finishing his performance and fans stepped in to sing along, calling the experience “a long time coming, to be honest.”
“When it happened and when it was happening, it was like the lowest moment of my life, and it was horrible,” he recalled.
As it was unfolding, he knew he needed to take a break from performing.
“I had this moment where I was onstage like two, three songs in, I was like, ‘This is the last time I’m going to play a gig for a long time,'” he said. “I need to try and get through the rest of the show, but when I come off, I’m done.”
Immediately, he felt an odd sense of relief, knowing he’d find the support he’d needed.
“At Glastonbury, when I came offstage, it was weird. I had this, ‘Oh, everything’s alright now and I can actually go and get help and fix myself for the next two years,'” Capaldi recalls.
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“In a weird way, it’s probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said, adding, “I wouldn’t have stopped otherwise.”
Capaldi, 28, also revealed he’d had a similar episode in Chicago just weeks before Glastonbury.
“It was probably even worse, the one in Chicago, I couldn’t come back onstage and finish the song, I was like backstage convulsing and having this crazy panic attack, mental episode,” he said. “It was really, really bad.”
During that season of his career, he didn’t want to turn down opportunities and worried about missing out.
“I said yes to way too much and I took way too much on,” he said, adding that the tough experience at Glastonbury forced him to slow down. “I dread to think what would have happened otherwise.”
The singer spent the next two years working on his mental health, focusing on therapy, trying to reduce stressors, and gradually getting himself into a “much better headspace.”
“I had no choice but to confront things,” he said.
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Capaldi changed his medication to take an anti-psychotic drug that he says has changed his life for the better.
He also found a therapist and started participating in weekly therapy sessions.
“That’s really been maybe the biggest, biggest thing that’s switched everything around,” he said.
On Friday, June 27, Capaldi made his return to the festival in what he calls “a bit of a comeback moment” and released a new single, “Survive,” the same week.
He called his surprise appearance a “really special, special moment,” adding it was perhaps “the best day of my life to be honest.”
“After these two years off, I really wanted to come back and do Glastonbury and sort of as a mental sort of win,” he said. “Finish the thing that I couldn’t finish before.”
