Demi Lovato has opened up about recovering from her near-fatal drug overdose.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1, the singer spoke about her time in the hospital following her overdose, and revealed how she’s cut negative people out of her life since then.
Demi spoke to Zayn ahead of the Grammys this weekend, where she will perform her new song ‘Anyone’, which she actually recorded days before she overdosed back in July 2018.
She said: “I recorded the vocals for it four days before [the overdose]. The lyrics took on a totally different meaning [after].”
“At the time when I was recording it, I almost listened back and hear these lyrics as a cry for help. You kind of listen back to it and you kind of think, how did nobody listen to this song and think, ‘Let’s help this girl’?”
“I even think that I was recording it in a state of mind where I felt like I was okay, but clearly I wasn’t. I even listened back to it and I’m like, ‘Gosh, I wish I could go back in time and help that version of myself.’ I feel like I was in denial.”
Demi recalled: “It was about a week after I had been in the hospital and I was finally like awake, and I just remember hearing back the songs I had just recorded and thinking, ‘If there’s ever a moment where I get to come back from this, I want to sing this song.'”
“You know, a part of me was like looking towards the future because that’s what I do. When I’m struggling or when I’m going through a rough time, I look towards the future for hope and to change my perspective on things. Especially when I go through something difficult, I always stop and I think, ‘Okay, why is God putting me through this?'”
On coming to terms with what happened to her back in 2018, she said, “I’m in the process of becoming more and more ready as time goes by. I think it’s taken me a long time to be able to even get this far, which is performing a song that’s so vulnerable to me on a stage in front of all my peers and coworkers, even people that I look up to.”
“That’s kind of nerve wracking to think about. But at the same time I’m grateful that I have this opportunity to sit here and talk to you and tell a little bit of my story. ”
“With the next song that I have coming out I think I tell more of the story. With this one it just kind of tells you a little bit about where I was right before and right afterwards.”
On cutting bad influences out of her life, Demi explained: “I think that as you meet people and as people come into your life, you still have to make a decision every time of like, is this somebody that I want around, you know?”
“And if it’s somebody that’s a good influence on you and supportive of the life that you want to live, then keep them. But if they’re not, if it’s not conducive to your journey that you want to be on, there’s no need for them to be in your life.”
“I think it’s just a part of growing up. As people come into your life, as you meet people, you learn for your entire life, red flags; things to look for. Unless you’re like 100-years-old with a bunch of life experience, you’re never going to know right away who’s good for you and who’s not.”
“Sometimes you get fooled. Sometimes you get into relationships that you think are healthy and then you realize, ‘Wow, that actually wasn’t healthy at all.’ It’s not that you’re not cautious of it—you’re not aware.”
“It’s just you don’t realize it till later until they do something or you do something and it’s like, ‘Oh, this isn’t working out.’ I kind of find that continues to happen and it’s just a learning experience at each time.”
