Lewis Capaldi: Glastonbury episode was best thing that's ever happened to me
Lewis Capaldi has admitted his Glastonbury 2023 episode was "probably the best thing that's ever happened" to him, because it inspired him to take a break from performing and he "dreads to think" what would've happened if he hadn't.
Lewis Capaldi says his Glastonbury 2023 episode was "probably the best thing that's ever happened" to him, and it is the "most important" day of his life.
The 28-year-old singer had a rest from performing after he broke down on stage at the festival two years ago, when vocal tics plagued his singing - a symptom of the neurological disorder Tourette's syndrome - but he "dreads to think" what would've happened if he had carried on afterwards.
Lewis has now revealed he suffered an "even worse" experience in Chicago, a few weeks before the Somerset spectacle, when he was "convulsing" backstage and having a "crazy panic attack and mental episode".
Speaking on This Past Weekend podcast with Theo Von, he said: "A few weeks prior to that show we were playing in Chicago and I had a very similar episode - it was probably even worse.
"I couldn't come back and finish a song. I was backstage convulsing and having this crazy panic attack and mental episode. Way worse than what happened at Glastonbury.
"Because Glastonbury is such a big stage, it was the first time people outside my shows had seen it. At Glastonbury, when I came off stage it was weird, I had this (feeling) 'everything's alright now, I can actually go and get help and fix myself for the next two years.'
"In a weird way, it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. I wouldn't have stopped otherwise.
"Glastonbury 2023 was, for sure, really important - maybe the most important day in my life.
"Someone upstairs was like "this has to happen now otherwise..." I don't want to think of where I would be now if I'd continued.
"We were meant to go to Australia. It could have been really, really horrible. I dread to think what would have happened."
Lewis made a triumphant return to Glastonbury this year to perform a secret set, and he says the comeback was a "mental win".
He said: "I really wanted to come back and do Glastonbury as like a mental win – finish the thing that I couldn't finish before."
Lewis now attends weekly therapy sessions, which have been "really beneficial" for him, and he is now on lifechanging antipsychotic medication.
He added: "It was really scary when they offered it.
"Antipsychotic? I'm like 'I'm not psychotic'.
"It's changed my life. Anxiety levels are so low these days. I don't feel the stress."
