How Lizzo Went From Heartbreak to Feeling Good as Hell

In an interview with Rolling Stone released Wednesday, the artist opened up about the heartache she’s experienced and how it’s influenced her work.

According to the magazine, the first time Lizzo thought she was in love was at age 19. The musician was, as she put it, “delusional” and trying to be someone she wasn’t. After the relationship ended, she started to ask the following question: “How can you be in love with someone when you’re not even you?”

Then, about two years ago, Lizzo fell in love with an unknown Gemini. Their breakup inspired many of the tracks on her album Cuz I Love You.

“As f–ked up as it sounds, I needed that heartbreak experience,” she told the publication for its February issue. “I’m not sad, because I use the pain so constructively. It’s inevitable. The pain is human experience.”

“That was really scary,” she told the magazine. “But being vulnerable with someone I didn’t know, then learning how to be vulnerable with people that I do know, gave me the courage to be vulnerable as a vocalist.”

“Like my relationship with my family, I’m working on that,” she said. “I open myself up to friendships. I open myself up to the idea of children, which is big for me, ’cause my albums are my babies.”

She also said she’s been writing songs while traveling, including a few that were inspired by “cute little things” she’s heard from, as Rolling Stone wrote, “more recent lovers.”

“That’s the good s–t right there,” she said.

To read Lizzo’s full interview check out the February issue of Rolling Stone.