NEED TO KNOW
Ashlee Simpson reflected on the backlash she received in 2004 after she was famously outed for lip-syncing on Saturday Night Live.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times published on Tuesday, Aug. 26, the “Pieces of Me” singer discussed how “intense” the experience was for her.
“I had a super-high and then I had a super-low at SNL,” Simpson, 40, told the publication. “For me, it was such a lesson: You hate me so much because I lost my voice? It was such a dehumanizing feeling that I had to remember who I was and why I was doing this.”
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
She continued: “People’s perception of you is not who you are. Learning that at a young age was — whew! It was intense.”
According to Simpson, her 2005 album I Am Me wouldn’t have been as “raw” as it was had the SNL incident not happened.
“I’m happy it was because it got deeper. It got darker too — thicker skin yet very vulnerable,” she said.
Added Simpson: “When you’re faced with something so traumatic, where the world is looking at a young girl this way, you either hide or you fight and keep going. And I just kept going.”
The “La La” artist recently reflected on the backlash she faced after her 2004 SNL appearance on the Thursday, Aug. 21 episode of Pod Meets World with Rider Strong, Danielle Fishel and Will Friedle.
When asked by Fishel, 44, about the public scrutiny she received amid the performance, Simpson revealed whether she thinks she would have faced the same level of criticism if the situation had happened today.
“I think it’s a different era … I think during that time, I mean, the bullying was insane,” she said.
At the time, Simpson felt like she needed to explain herself to people. “But then my whole life, I had to tell people, ‘Oh, but I perform every night.’ My fans know. I had to know that in my heart,” she said.
Simpson acknowledged she had “ups and downs just like every other human.”
She thinks the internet’s reaction to celebrity mistakes has shifted, “but also it hasn’t in some ways.”
“I think it’s different now. For us, we had the magazines and this. Now everything’s kinda more fleeting,” Simpson continued.
The fallout from the 204 performance felt like it was on one person’s “shoulders forever,” adding, “And I think now everything is, like, a little bit more fleeting and fast.”
In 2004, Simpson — who was just 20 years old at the time — became the first musician to walk out of an SNL performance. Before singing what was supposed to be her second song of the performance, “Autobiography,” her hit single “Pieces of Me” played before she even lifted the microphone to her mouth.
At the time, Simpson looked confused before dancing a jig and sneaking off the stage. While the show cut to commercial, her band continued playing.
Before the credits rolled, the “Shadow” performer attempted to explain herself. But not long after, she faced a slew of backlash for her performance and decision to lip-sync, which she attributed to a recent acid reflux flare-up affecting her voice.
