Sam Smith tells Sir Elton John: I nearly quit music after being dumped

Sam Smith has opened up about his struggle to write music after a heartbreaking failed relationship.

The multi-platinum selling artist says he had to be “forced” back into the studio after being dumped.

It comes as he prepares to release his first new album in three years.

Sam Smith tells Sir Elton John: I nearly quit music after being dumped

The Oscar winning singer opened up to Sir Elton John in an exclusive interview for the September issue of Attitude magazine.

He told Sir Elton: “There was a period, when making the record, that I was in a really bad place. I got dumped, which wasn’t very nice.

“Writing music about that kind of thing is normally like therapy for me, but when I got dumped this time round I just couldn’t write for about two months.

“My team had to force me to get into the studio, because I almost felt as if I didn’t want to do it any more.

“So, there were moments on there where it got a bit intense and I started to lose myself.”

Sir Elton also opens up on his own past in the interview – fame, sex, coming out and gay culture.

Darren Styles, publisher of Attitude said: “Sam Smith’s debut was extraordinary on every level, both musically and in terms of reach and reaction.


“He is a phenomenon in our community and, faced with the prospect of a global exclusive interview, we needed an interviewer of status who’d walked the same path.

“It could only be Elton John, who very graciously allowed us to crash his holiday home in Nice as he was as keen to hear the new songs as the rest of us.”

Sam Smith tells Sir Elton John: I nearly quit music after being dumped
Sam Smith (Attitude magazine)

His first single from the album, Too Good At Goodbyes, is on course to hit number one in the UK, his sixth single to top the charts.

Speaking about the single to Beats 1, Sam revealed he’s still looking for love: “This song is about me and about a relationship that I was in. I’m still very, very single.

“I think I’m even more single than I was when I released In the Lonely Hour, so I’m insanely single.

“This song is about me and about a relationship that I was in.

“It’s been a long while since I’ve put any music out and I feel that this first single sets the tone of what is to come.

“People are going to see, this one as I’ve said is about me and something that I’ve gone through.”

In The Lonely Hour, released in 2014, became the best-selling album of the year in the UK, while it sold more than any other British artist for two decades.