PSA: Harry Styles really wants the world to know he’s all grown up.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the 25-year-old singer touched on everything from sex to doing mushrooms and making mistakes – it’s safe to say, the 15-year-old me is clutching her pearls.
Speaking about his time in One Direction, Styles said, “I was constantly scared I might sing a wrong note. I felt so much weight in terms of not getting things wrong…Now, I feel like the fans have given me an environment to be myself and grow up and create this safe space to learn and make mistakes,” he said.
Styles is clearly loving his transition into manhood, and the experimental freedom that comes from it. During the interview, the teen heartthrob visits the Shangri-La studios in Malibu and fondly remembers doing drugs there. “Ah, yes,” he says. “Did a lot of mushrooms here.”
Later in the interview, he points to a corner of the studio and says, “this is where I was standing when he were doing mushrooms and I bit off the tip of my tongue. So I was trying to sing with all this blood gushing out of my mouth. So many fond memories, this place.”
He also talks about one big night of partying, when he “lost all my clothes. I lost my wallet. Maybe a month later, somebody found my wallet and mailed it back, anonymously. I guess it just popped out of the sand. But what’s sad is, I lost my favourite mustard corduroy flares.” If this isn’t all of our 21st birthdays combined, I don’t know what is.
While Styles’ coming-of-age clearly involves a lot of drugs, sex and rock ‘n roll (and rightly so) it’s also marked by his own sexual ambiguity and support for the LGBTQI community. “I want to make people feel comfortable being whatever they want to be,” he said. “Maybe at a show you can have a moment of knowing that you’re not alone…I’m just trying to make people feel included and seen.”
Speaking about being open about emotions, Styles said, “I feel pretty lucky to have a group of friends who are guys who would talk about their emotions and be really open.”
Clearly, Harry has shed the skin of his squeaky clean bubble gum popstar past, but he’s not ashamed of it, either. “I don’t feel like I was held back at all. It was so much fun. If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t have done it. It’s not like I was tied to a radiator.”
Harry Styles is the perfect example of how being insanely famous as a kid doesn’t have to ruin your future – in fact, it can help you grow into a smart, creative and kind human being. Keep doing you, Harry.