Matty Healy has quit social media to stop himself from being a “f***ing a***hole”.
The outspoken The 1975 frontman, 34, who has been known to go on full-blown rants onstage and online, has vowed to be a “normal bloke” and start a new “era” with his band after deactivating his Instagram page.
Matty is quoted by The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column as saying on stage in Adelaide, Australia, this week: “It’s (coming off social media) because everything happens in eras. The 1975 is a very eras band. The era of me being a f***ing a***hole is coming to an end. I’ve had enough.
“I perform all the time and it’s my job and I love doing this but I can’t perform off the stage anymore as I just want to be a bloke.”
Matty’s own bandmates have had to cut his microphone when he got a bit too outspoken onstage this tour.
The ‘Somebody Else’ singer previously admitted he only felt like he’d “put the bow on [his] adolescence” at the age of 31.
Speaking about the group’s 2020 LP ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’, he said: “I think that I’m kind of putting a bow on my adolescence with this record, really.
“I think that my records have been me as a young man finding my place, and I think that on this record, I kind of found my place.”
Although he’s found himself, the ‘Frail State of Mind’ singer has admitted he longs to have a 9 to 5 job, where he can come home after work and chill on the sofa, because the “rock star” lifestyle isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.
He confessed: “I’ve struggled with the sacrifice of the domestic existence.
“Everyone craves being a rock star because you’re sat on your sofa, in your job, in your life.
“But trust me, there’s been times where I’m travelling and doing all of the things that look amazing, but the one thing I want to do is watch MasterChef on the sofa, wake up the next day and go to a job where I paint a wall, look at the wall and see a good day’s work that I can quantify.”
Matty – whose parents are ‘Loose Women’ star Denise Welch and ‘Benidorm’ actor Tim Healy – also admitted that growing up in the spotlight and manic touring schedules made it “difficult” for him to mature as quickly as everyone else.
He added to NME: “I’ve done shows five nights a week for years.
“You don’t get an opportunity to know what mood you’re in.
“No matter what mood you’re in, you go on stage, so you get the adrenaline rush, you never know what the f***’s going on.
“I think that I’ve needed to grow, you know?
“I’ve needed to take that final step into understanding the past decade, but I’ve been in the middle of all of that and it’s really difficult to see out.
“I’ve just turned 31 and I think I’m going through a thing that a lot of people go through in, like, their mid-20s, because I haven’t really had the opportunity to do it. I’m just kind of figuring out who I am.”