Lizzo reflects on healing through creating music

Lizzo is opening up about how creating music helped her through her darkest moments this year.

The Grammy winner, 37, was discussing the release of her new rap mixtape My Face Hurts From Smiling in a recent interview with Rolling Stone when the conversation turned to her mental wellness.

"My relationship with music was still very intense," Lizzo reflected of her time navigating depression.

"I still am like, 'Music saved my life,' because there were really dark moments when I was working on Love in Real Life, my album, where I was like, 'Okay, I don’t think I can make it through the day, but I have to go to the studio.'"

She admitted that many of those emotional songs didn’t make the final cut because she "would be like, 'That felt good to say, but you can’t put that out.' "

She continued, "I’m going to just say it. I don’t give a f***. All right. ‘I’ve been fat and I’ve been skinny/B***** still ain’t f****** with me.’ I don’t think that could ever be on a Lizzo song. I would’ve been so scared to put that in something like About Damn Time or Juice."

After years of fearing backlash, Lizzo also said she’s done playing it safe.

"I said, 'I will never ever, ever, ever, ever be a side chick' in the original. And then I was like, 'Mm, but what if I offend side chicks?' And so I was like, 'I will never ever, ever, ever, ever be your side chick.' I always overthink these things because I know who’s consuming my music and I’m very [concerned about] how they’re going to feel, how it’s going to affect them," Lizzo explained.

Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, Lizzo teased the new mixtape, which arrived on Friday, June 27, featuring Doja Cat and SZA across its 13 tracks.

Love in Real Life will be released in 2025, while My Face Hurts From Smiling is available to stream on all major platforms.