Demi Lovato Dealt With Survivor’s Guilt After Mac Miller’s Death – Billboard

After all of the trauma Demi Lovato has endured over the last few years, the singer is ready to address the emotional toll recovering from substance abuse has taken on her.

In a new interview with Zane Lowe that Apple Music is sharing first with Billboard, Lovato spoke about a song on their forthcoming album Holy Fvck (out Friday, Aug. 19, via Island Records) titled “Dead Friends,” and how it was written in the emotional fallout they dealt with watching friends and colleagues such as Mac Miller die via drug overdose while she survived.

“I’ve made friends of all ages. I’ve lost friends that were around my age, and those hurt so deeply because we’ve been in the trenches together,” the singer said of the new song. “I had a lot of survivor’s guilt after my overdose because … right after that, Mac Miller died, and it just put everything into perspective for me of, ‘That could have been you, that almost was you, and how are you going to live your life now?’ And it affected me a lot.”

Miller passed away on Sept. 7, 2018, from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol. One individual associated with Miller’s death, Stephen Andrew Walter, was sentenced to 210 months in prison back in May for fentanyl distribution. Lovato’s heroin overdose occurred a mere two months prior to Miller’s death, and caused the singer to suffer three strokes, a heart attack and blind spots in their vision.

Elsewhere in the new interview, Lovato also tells Lowe that she would advise artists under the age of 18 to consider not signing record deals with major labels. “In your teens, people who aren’t in the spotlight are still trying to figure themselves out. They’re going to parties. They’re making mistakes,”  she explains. “And it’s like, if you’re a 15-year-old and you’re making mistakes, it’s magnified. I don’t know. If I were to have kids and they came to me and said, ‘Mom, I want to be in the industry,’ I would have to say, ‘Please wait until you’re 18.’”

Lovato’s new album Holy Fvck is out Friday, Aug. 19. Check out the exclusive clips from her interview with Zane Lowe below, which airs at 10 a.m. PT on Apple Music 1: