Lily Allen found it easier to create music when she was on cocaine.
The ‘Smile’ singer, 39, has been sober for almost five years after giving up class-A drugs and drink in 2019, but has now admitted she found the substances were effective at making her feel more liberated when she was making songs.
She told The Observer: “Drugs and alcohol were very good at drowning out my inner critic.
“When you take cocaine you think all of your ideas are brilliant and need to be shared.”
Lily also told how she has been working on new music, adding: “I have about
100 of them!”
But her Observer profile said she “doesn’t feel like they’re any good” so she has decided to call “time on that side of her career for a while” to continue pursuing acting.
Next summer she is due to star in a theatre production of ‘Hedda Gabler’ in Bath, and is taking the time before it starts to enjoy time with her daughters Ethel, 12, and Marnie, 11, who she had with her 46-year-old former husband Sam Cooper.
But Lily – who has been married to 49-year-old ‘Stranger Things’ actor David Harbour since 2020 – added about missing performing live: “I can really miss those extreme highs.
“Like I miss being on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and rushing my t*** off.
“I know that I will never experience that again, and there’s a sadness that comes with that.
“But I am level. I’m no longer having really terrible, long periods of time of absolute despair.”
Lily’s turbulent times have included the stillbirth of her son George in 2010, as well as her divorce from Sam Cooper and a stalker ordeal in 2015 that saw her fanatical follower getting into her bedroom.