After pressing pause on his music in 2023 due to struggles with mental health, Lewis Capaldi now says that period was "the lowest moment in my life."
The 28-year-old Scottish singer-songwriter made a triumphant return to the stage at last month's Glastonbury festival in the UK, the same site he first admittedly struggled to do his job.
Speaking with Theo Von for this week's episode of the This Past Weekend podcast, Capaldi says his 2023 Glastonbury performance was a sign.
"When it happened and when it was happening, it was like the lowest moment of my life, and it was horrible," he said. "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. I need to try and get through the rest of the show, but when I come off, I'm done."
As soon as he finished his set, he knew he would require some time off from performing.
"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,'" he explained. "In a weird way, it's probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I wouldn't have stopped otherwise."
Capaldi - who recently released "Survive," his first new single in two years - said he experienced a similar episode in Chicago just weeks before, which should have been a sign for him to stop.
"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. I had no choice but to confront things."
He blames saying yes to too many offers and taking on more work than he could handle. But after spending the last two years focusing on his mental health, treating his Tourette's, and trying to reduce the stress in his life, he has found himself in a "much better headspace."
Changing up his medication and seeing a therapist on a weekly basis, according to Capaldi, is "maybe the biggest, biggest thing that's switched everything around."
He calls his return to the stage at Glastonbury on June 27 "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 added. "Finish the thing that I couldn't finish before."
Listen to the full episode of This Past Weekend below.