Chatting with Trevor Noah on the The Daily Show, Halsey opens up about her first-ever poetry book, ‘I Would Leave Me If I Could.’

 

Halsey shares, “Poetry was just kind of like … I write all the time, and I was like, ‘Some things you can’t sing,’ you know? And I just wanted to put it out there and let people have it, and get to know me a little bit in this time where it’s so difficult to connect with my fans the way that I’m used to. ‘Cause, you know, as a musician, I really don’t know when I’m gonna be allowed back on a stage again. And that makes me very sad.”

 

 

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Halsey’s book of poems touches on heavy topics, from surviving sexual assault and going through a miscarriage.  Halsey tells Trevor, “I certainly initially feel like I have a sense of responsibility because I do find that people in my position very often only share the good, so I do feel responsible to share, kind of, my transgressions and my traumas, in a way.  Obviously I still keep some things to myself, ’cause I have to have some boundaries.  But I was kind of an open book from the start, so I wanted to keep being that way.”

 

Halsey continues, “I was born in 1994. So the pop star generation that I grew up with was very tailored and very sterile.  Everyone was incredibly talented; it was one of the greatest crop of musicians we’ve ever had in that era — that kind of, like, late MTV era.  But everyone was also very polished.  You know, we saw what the record label wanted us to see. We saw images that were published in magazines.  And obviously, that stuff started changing when the paparazzi era really evolved, and then all the dark stuff was being shared when the artists didn’t want it to be. You know, there was no consent in it. So I think now it’s about kind of finding a nice balance between pulling back the curtain in a way that I have control over and also learning to keep some stuff to myself because it’s healthy to do so. But I think my fans just deserve it.”

 

 

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Huge congrats goes out to Halsey because she’s now a New York Times Best Selling Author.  Halsey writes on Instagram, “Accolades are sometimes based on weird algorithms and viral hits and luck. But sometimes they are based on a true human connection to the art. The tiny girl who learned all her life lessons in novels, propped up on her elbows with a flashlight at night, thanks you. The teenager distracted through all her high school classes, writing short stories about great loves and world adventures, thanks you. The 20 year old huddled over her phone in her notes app, crying silently through a moment of weakness on the 200th airplane that year, thanks you. 26 year old me who has often seen my art populate because of a pretty outfit or a dating rumor, thanks you. This is faceless. I am not sexy, or loud, or charismatic for this art. I am sad, and frustrated with myself, and trying to decide which memories scald me the least to touch. Or perhaps which ones do the most. This is for you to find yourself in. I hope in your loneliness or sorrow you find a mirror in here. I hope you find a loving embrace. And if you don’t, I hope you at least think the cover looks pretty cool. Love always, Ash.”

 

 

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In a separate interview, Halsey thanks Mac Miller for giving her ‘strength to leave a toxic relationship.’  On Dax Sheppard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Halsey says Mac’s 2018 accidental overdose was a turning point for her, “This is a terrible thing to say because I think it puts a positive connotation on a heinously tragic event, but it gave me the courage and the faith to leave the relationship I was in.  It gave me that real f–king reality check that I needed and I think it probably did the same for a lot of other people too.”

 

 

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Halsey goes on to say, “I was lucky enough to be in a position where I was like, ‘Okay, cool I’m not ruining my life yet,’ but I never would’ve expected some of the people that I know and loved and lost—to see them go down that path so aggressively and so rapidly.  I kind of recognized the spiral early and was like, ‘Alright, now I know.'”

 

Although she didn’t reveal who exactly she was referring to, Halsey revealed drugs played a massive part in the breakup, “As a result, my currency of expressing love with them became doing drugs with them.  There was a lot of infidelity in the relationship too. It was like if I don’t do it with you, you’re going to go do it with someone else and then probably f— them and I’m going to take you back anyway because this is what we do.”

 

 

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Thankfully, Halsey worked on getting sober, “One of the first steps of doing that was removing myself from a situation where there’s a literal chemical interference.  I’m going to remove myself from that, figure out what my baseline is and then kind of fix it from there.”

 

Listen to the podcast below.

 

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