“I gave up as a person.”
You know Taylor Momsen for her iconic performance as Jenny Humphrey in gossip Girl.
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Momsen is also the lead singer of the rock band The Pretty Reckless – and they just released their latest album, Death of Rock and Roll.
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In a recent interview with Metro UK, Momsen talked about how the deaths of two friends – specifically, Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and music producer Kato Khandwala – brought her to a point where she “was not in a good place mentally to be public. “
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Cornell died of suicide in 2017, while Khandwala died in a motorcycle accident the following year.
“My life felt like it was over, and I went too deep into this totally dark hole of depression and substance abuse and it was a mess,” she explained. “I was living in this hole of darkness that I wasn’t sure I would ever get out of. “
“I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I kind of gave up on life. I gave up everything at that moment. I wasn’t sure I wanted to make music again.”
“I had given up as a person. It was too dark.”
Momsen says that, around 2019, she managed to regroup with her band and launch herself into creativity as a way to help with what she was feeling: “It was the song that saved me.”
“I know it sounds very cliché,” she explained, “but it was rock ‘n’ roll and the music that got me out of it, and I finally got to a place where I could start listening to records again.”
If you or someone you know is experiencing mental health problems or substance abuse, call the SAMHSA hotline at 1-800-662-HELP or click here for more information.
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