The Weeknd wasn’t kidding when he said he couldn’t feel his face.
The Toronto singer, whose songs are peppered with drug references, has said in a rare interview that he “dibbles and dabbles and whatnot” in drugs.
“When I had nothing to do but make music, it was very heavy. Drugs were a crutch for me,” he told The Guardian.
“There were songs on my first record that were seven minutes long, rambling – whatever thoughts I was having when I was under the influence at the time. I can’t see myself doing that now.”
But, The Weeknd admitted his new album Starboy was recorded with the help of weed and Hennessy.
“You have writer’s block. And sometimes you’re like, I can’t do this sober,” he explained. “I had to get that little jump. And the ball started rolling.
“And then I didn’t need it any more.”
The Weeknd (aka 26-year-old Abel Tesfaye) said he currently feels “in control” and that he has never sought treatment.
“I think that’s more when you’re priveled, you know? Going to a therapist is not something you do when you’re growing up as a street kid in Toronto,” he said.
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The Weeknd told The Guardian’s Tom Lamont about growing up in a Toronto suburb as the only child of Ethiopian immigrants who separated not long after he was born. He was raised by his single mom, who worked four jobs to pay the bills. (“The way you see in the movies,” he said.)
At 17, he and a friend decided to quit school and move out on their own. They moved into the city and stole food while using social assistance to buy booze and drugs.
Without getting too specific, The Weeknd admitted to having spend nights behind bars. He said his life was “bad enough for me to smarten up, to focus.”
He added: “A lot of people don’t get that second chance. But around that age, you usually get one second chance after a slap on the wrist. And you either take the experience and think, ‘This is it, final straw’, or you don’t. And the next move after that? It’s your entire life. You become who you become because of the next move you make.”
The Weeknd said hurting his mother — who “was just happy I wasn’t dead” — motivated him to survive and thrive.
“I couldn’t ever go back home without being something,” he told The Guardian. “I probably would never have gone back home if… That was definitely a big motivation.
"To get back home, and not empty-handed.”