Lil Nas X has revealed he was tripping on psychedelic mushrooms while writing his debut album Montero.
The “Industry Baby” singer told the Wall Street Journal that he experimented with mushrooms for the first time during a “pivotal moment” in his creative process.
Rather than recording any music Lil Nas just spent time reflecting on life with his two producers, David Biral and Denzel Baptiste, who remained sober and occasionally joined him in the pool and hot tub.
The psychedelics “allowed him to push past lots of lingering feelings of self-consciousness,” the publication said, giving him the “breakthrough” he needed to create Montero.
“I was able to open up a lot,” Lil Nas X explained. “I was able to write actual stories about my life and put it into my music. I actually did that for the first time.”
The experience added a deeply raw quality to the game-changing album, which deals with themes of heartbreak, loneliness, family estrangement and suicide.
On Montero, Lil Nas X also confronts the painful realities of his life before he skyrocketed to fame in 2019, revealing that he came from a “broken home” and slept on a plastic mattress.
The star has previously described the process of creating Montero as therapeutic and said he “cried every day” while writing it.
“I love joking, but on a serious note, making this album was therapy for me,” he tweeted in September. “I began healing many unchecked wounds, facing skeletons in my closet I never wanted to, fighting internally every day and crying persistently. Montero is truly my baby.”
It all paid off for Lil Nas X as his chart-topping album made over 147 million streams in its opening week alone.
And in another satisfying result, the star revealed that every ex he wrote songs about attended the album’s release party. Just one, he admitted, took offence at how the album portrayed their relationship.
