Noah Kahan’s new Netflix documentary, Out of Body, offers a revealing look into his personal life, and he discusses some of those revelations in the new episode of On Purpose with Jay Shetty.
While detailing his mental health struggles, including body dysmorphia and OCD, Noah admits that he initially didn’t want to get help because he was afraid it would affect his ability to write songs.
“These problems were really hard for me and were disrupting my ability to wake up in the morning and to just be a human being. But I was holding off on getting the help that I really needed for a long time because I was so afraid of it dulling my creativity,” Noah says.
In addition, he continues, “I was like, ‘I don’t want to get help because I’m worried that I’ll be happy and I won’t care about making something. And I won’t feel pain and it won’t be painful enough for my audience and … the feelings won’t be real enough for my audience.'”
Finally, Noah did get help after realizing, “I don’t want to live like this anymore.”
As a result, Noah says his sadness became “more manageable,” and he was no longer “getting sidebarred by rabbit holes of obsession and rabbit holes of anxiety anymore.”
“It really was a turning point for me making this record,” he says. The Great Divide is due April 24.
In a more lighthearted part of the pod, Noah reveals the weirdest place he ever wrote a song was in the bathroom at JFK airport and names Niall Horan as the musician he’d choose to help him bury a body. He also says he’ll die on the hill that macaroni & cheese isn’t very good and adds his favorite compliment to receive is, “I love your shoes.”
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