Speaker 1: I love hosting these podcasts because you can listen anytime
Speaker 1: you want and we get to talk as long as
Speaker 1: we want. On the radio, we gotta have to kind
Speaker 1: of keep it brief because you want to hear music.
Speaker 1: But here in the podcast we can have in depth, meaningful, vulnerable,
Speaker 1: intimate conversations. And this podcast is with the very talented
Speaker 1: Sam Smith. Such a talented voice, and he's got new
Speaker 1: music out, new music that we're playing on The Delilah Show.
Speaker 1: But he has such a sweet story. We are going
Speaker 1: to talk with Sam Smith and get to the heart
Speaker 1: of his life, the heart of the matter in this podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm giddy with excitement. Sound Hello, Hello, Hello, thank
Speaker 1: you for having me, and thank you. Welcome to the
Speaker 1: Delilah Show. Oh my gosh, you you Sam. I know
Speaker 1: you've heard this a million times, but you have one
Speaker 1: of those those voices and the way that you um
Speaker 1: caress your lyrics, it just goes right right to the heart.
Speaker 1: Like within two notes. When I hear just two or
Speaker 1: three notes and stay with me, I'm like, shut up, kids,
Speaker 1: big a moment, and I just crank it. Amazing. Thank you,
Speaker 1: I'm glad, that's great. Thank you? Are you really as
Speaker 1: sweet as you appear like. Is there a dark side
Speaker 1: of you? Like? Of course, Oh my gosh, there's definitely
Speaker 1: a dark side. There's a feisty, dark, sassy side for sure.
Speaker 1: But I'd like to think I'm sweet as well. I'm trying,
Speaker 1: I um, I try and be as kind as I can.
Speaker 1: That's what That's a big thing for me. Kind is
Speaker 1: better than sweet. Kind is always better than sweet, because
Speaker 1: sometimes sweet can be schmarmy or fakey or too nice,
Speaker 1: but kind is always appropriate. So I love that. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thanks Sam Smith with me here on the Delilah Show,
Speaker 1: and so many things I want to talk about. First
Speaker 1: and foremost, it has to be hard to come out
Speaker 1: with something new after the mega success you had a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago. Completely tonight, we are talking with
Speaker 1: the incredibly talented Sam Smith, and we are able to
Speaker 1: do this podcast because of the generosity of our friends
Speaker 1: at Serve Pro. Sometimes on the show. Oftentimes on the show,
Speaker 1: I hear from someone who's feeling a loss of control.
Speaker 1: But if that loss of control has been caused by
Speaker 1: a fire or a flood in their home or business,
Speaker 1: here's a number to call Serve Pro. So many people
Speaker 1: have been helped by serve Pro when it comes to
Speaker 1: getting your home, your business, your lives back to normal.
Speaker 1: Serve Pro has been helping people for nearly fifty years,
Speaker 1: so when fire or water damage strikes, call on the
Speaker 1: cleanup specialist at serve Pro. Welcome back, Sam Smith. We
Speaker 1: were just talking about the intense pressure of making music,
Speaker 1: and especially about making music that lives up to your
Speaker 1: last album, which was a smash Yet do you know
Speaker 1: what I can talk about it now? I mean it's
Speaker 1: been a week since I've released this song, and this
Speaker 1: song is too good. It's called too Good at Goodbyes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and honestly from my heart, Like for the last six months,
Speaker 1: people keep asking me, you know, how have you dealt
Speaker 1: with the pressure from that first record and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: And I would always just completely shoot down that word
Speaker 1: pressure and be like, I haven't felt any pressure, and
Speaker 1: I've tried to keep it all positive to convince myself
Speaker 1: that I haven't felt any pressure. But now the song
Speaker 1: is out, I can admit it was intense pressure. The
Speaker 1: pressure is really intense. You know that first record, did
Speaker 1: you know I was just worrying. I mean I went
Speaker 1: from worrying about working in a bar to just wanting
Speaker 1: to sing every day, and that was my main worries,
Speaker 1: was am I going to be able to do this
Speaker 1: as a job to two years down the line then
Speaker 1: having to worry about following up what I've just put out.
Speaker 1: And it's it's really unfair actually that we do put
Speaker 1: pressure on like this on artists after their first record.
Speaker 1: And when I the week before this single release, I
Speaker 1: was so scared because I just didn't know how people.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm coming back from a break and I
Speaker 1: don't know if people are going to want me back
Speaker 1: or they don't they don't want to hear my voice again.
Speaker 1: And the reaction the last week has just been absolutely incredible,
Speaker 1: and I'm just overwhelmed that I've been, you know, welcomed
Speaker 1: back and people of he missed what I do, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm just so thankful. Well, I didn't really miss it,
Speaker 1: because I play it over and over and over again,
Speaker 1: and I'm one of those people. I never get tired
Speaker 1: of a song I love, Like I never get tired
Speaker 1: of a song that I love. It's it's like a
Speaker 1: it's like a part of my heart and every time
Speaker 1: I hear it it it brings up those amazing emotions
Speaker 1: and just joy when I hear you on the exact
Speaker 1: same so I have I have not um stopped listening
Speaker 1: to you or stopped playing you, but I was so
Speaker 1: excited what I heard you were doing new stuff because
Speaker 1: it means I need to play new stuff and more
Speaker 1: people get And I can't wait to give this album
Speaker 1: because there's so much like two good Audbys just touches
Speaker 1: the sides. Honestly, there's there's so much, so many stories
Speaker 1: that I'm telling this record, and I just can't wait
Speaker 1: for it to be in people's hands. Okay, so let's
Speaker 1: start with this story to goodbyes. Uh. Janie, my producer
Speaker 1: got it to me a couple of weeks ago, right
Speaker 1: after probably right after your record reps got it to her.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because had I heard that song fifteen
Speaker 1: years ago, I would have been on the floor. It
Speaker 1: would have slayed me because that was my life story,
Speaker 1: my adult life story. Yeah, but now I'm actually in
Speaker 1: a good place, in a good relationship for eleven years
Speaker 1: now with somebody that I know will never ever, ever
Speaker 1: ever ever say goodbye. Yeah, so I heard it from
Speaker 1: a completely different perspective. I heard it from thank God,
Speaker 1: thank God, I'm not there anymore. Yeah. No, but that's
Speaker 1: and that's Joel. I listened to it now, and I
Speaker 1: think the same thing, even though it was only two
Speaker 1: years ago, um, a year and a half ago that
Speaker 1: I wrote it. But you know, I do think I
Speaker 1: captured that my age in that tune. You know, I
Speaker 1: I was. I was much older than you when I
Speaker 1: was still goodbyes. So this wasn't the stuff I went through,
Speaker 1: you know, when my teens and twenties, I continued that dysfunctional.
Speaker 1: Perhaps God, don't say that that means I'm going to
Speaker 1: have to go through No, no, no, no no no, no,
Speaker 1: you're not. No, You're not going to learn earlier than
Speaker 1: I did. Yeah, hopefully what it boils down to. What
Speaker 1: it boiled down to for me was finally realizing how
Speaker 1: precious I was. Do you know what? It's amazing you
Speaker 1: say that. That's like I feel on top of the
Speaker 1: world the last like I'd say, the last four or
Speaker 1: five weeks, because I've really actually had to sit down
Speaker 1: with myself and and just think after the making of
Speaker 1: this record, and I just sat down with myself and
Speaker 1: I thought, George, Sam, you don't actually like yourself at
Speaker 1: the moment, and how is anything going to work in life,
Speaker 1: not just relationships, but relationships with your family, your friends,
Speaker 1: you know, your career. How is anything going to work
Speaker 1: out if you actually don't respect yourself. So I've really
Speaker 1: started to take time to respect myself and that I
Speaker 1: mean that's going to be album three probably, But you know,
Speaker 1: I look back on this record that I've written and
Speaker 1: two good at goodbyes, and I do look back on
Speaker 1: it now and think, you know, I was quite self
Speaker 1: destructive when I was writing it, and now you feel
Speaker 1: like you've come out of that, or you're coming out
Speaker 1: of that. I feel like I'm coming out of it
Speaker 1: because it doesn't happen overnight. Oh god no. And a
Speaker 1: big part of it was I stopped I've stopped drinking,
Speaker 1: so I haven't been drinking for a bit um, so
Speaker 1: I just wanted to give that a little bit of
Speaker 1: a break. I mean, I've made a bet with my
Speaker 1: manager that I'm not going to drink till Christmas Eve,
Speaker 1: so I'm good. So I'm going to fulfill that and
Speaker 1: then I have a glass of wine. But it was
Speaker 1: a big part of it for me was just to
Speaker 1: chill out and stop coming out as much. I made
Speaker 1: that bet with somebody twenty six years ago, and it
Speaker 1: changed my life and my my addiction or my um
Speaker 1: weakness was not so much the alcohol as it was
Speaker 1: the alcoholics I kept falling in love with. And when
Speaker 1: you love somebody who's an addict or an alcoholic or
Speaker 1: you know, fill in the blank, whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: porn addiction or gambling addiction or of crack addiction, whatever,
Speaker 1: you you cannot have a successful relationship. Yeah, You're so right.
Speaker 1: And for me, it was when it came down to
Speaker 1: the music as well. I've I I love, I'm I
Speaker 1: like having a balance of sadness and happiness in my life.
Speaker 1: It's just who I am. And when it came to
Speaker 1: the writing of this record, I was worried that I
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be able to access any sadness because
Speaker 1: of um my life. You know, it was so amazing
Speaker 1: after in the lonely hour, I was like, I'm on
Speaker 1: such a I'm on cloud nine. It wasn't just unbelievable.
Speaker 1: How am I going to write anything if I'm not
Speaker 1: How am I going to How am I going to
Speaker 1: write anything if I'm not sad? So I then deliberately,
Speaker 1: you know, probably deliberately got myself in situations I shouldn't
Speaker 1: have went out too much, just was self destructive, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to say something when you said that privately, deliberately,
Speaker 1: we we do sabotage ourselves without even thinking about it.
Speaker 1: I mean, we don't sit there and go, how can
Speaker 1: I hurt myself? But it is I look back on
Speaker 1: it now and I think it was yeah, but I
Speaker 1: didn't deliver. Yeah. In the time, I wasn't I'm going
Speaker 1: to do this, But what I learned was the music
Speaker 1: did not benefit. Thank god, I was writing really bad
Speaker 1: music for a good two three months while you were
Speaker 1: writing it. Were you thinking, God, this is good and
Speaker 1: then later your life great? Yeah? And then I listened
Speaker 1: back and everyone was like, no, you just sound really
Speaker 1: depressed and it just wasn't fun. So it took me
Speaker 1: to slowly calm myself down and yeah, just have a
Speaker 1: clear mind and then figure out what I want to say. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm very thankful that because I think a
Speaker 1: lot of artists get into that state and then they
Speaker 1: write something incredible and then that's a horrible, um slippery path.
Speaker 1: You know, someone just like I literally didn't to be.
Speaker 1: A minute ago and someone asked me about, you know,
Speaker 1: how am I going to write an album if I'm
Speaker 1: happy in love? And I just I was like it,
Speaker 1: So you're you're telling me that you think that people
Speaker 1: get to a place where they are happy one hundred
Speaker 1: percent of time. It doesn't exist. That you don't have
Speaker 1: to be go out be going out drinking all the
Speaker 1: time and being this tumultuous relationship to feel that that
Speaker 1: depth of emotion. You know, you we there was as
Speaker 1: you said, there's sadness all around us, and you should
Speaker 1: also have a good balance of sadness and happiness I feel.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing, though, if you if you do
Speaker 1: find true love with somebody who respects you, and that's
Speaker 1: the for me, that's that is the key, that when
Speaker 1: you can when you connect with somebody who respects you,
Speaker 1: who honors the person you are, not respects your music
Speaker 1: or respects your talent, but respects you sam as an
Speaker 1: individual and honors that your soul. And I think some
Speaker 1: people get confused and they want someone who lusts over you,
Speaker 1: you know, and instead of respects you. Well I was
Speaker 1: that someone for years. But but but when you when
Speaker 1: you find that joy in that piece. You are still
Speaker 1: going to have the diagnosis where you get the call
Speaker 1: that you know the biopsy was cancerus. You're still going
Speaker 1: to have the call where you have to say goodbye
Speaker 1: to your grandparents or your mom or someone that you
Speaker 1: dearly love it. You're still going to have those real
Speaker 1: life situations. Um, they rip you apart. It's just not
Speaker 1: because you're getting too good at goodbyes. You know it
Speaker 1: so true, and you're always gonna you know, A big
Speaker 1: part for me is opening my ears up to my
Speaker 1: family and friends around me. You know, when if my
Speaker 1: sisters or my parents or anyone go through high my
Speaker 1: heart aches as well, you know. So it's not all
Speaker 1: you know, it's not always about me, me, me, me, me,
Speaker 1: and what my relationships are going through and and and
Speaker 1: how my heart is. And that's what I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: trying to challenge myself as a songwriter on this record
Speaker 1: and really talk about other things. You know, and too
Speaker 1: good at Goodbyes is that one of one of four
Speaker 1: songs that is about me on the record. And I
Speaker 1: think it was a great way to insur myself back
Speaker 1: because that's what people know from the first record and
Speaker 1: me talking about myself. Um, but the next song you're
Speaker 1: going to hear and the rest of the album is not.
Speaker 1: So it's confession session. We have something here on the
Speaker 1: Delalla shell called confession session where you are going to
Speaker 1: confess to me something that will not be cause you
Speaker 1: angst or injure you in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1: But what's one of the most incredibly horrific goodbyes, like
Speaker 1: where somebody broke up with you via text? Or I
Speaker 1: have a there's a young lady that's dating one of
Speaker 1: my teenage sons right now and her prom date broke
Speaker 1: up with her at the prom no way from and
Speaker 1: she had to find another rite home at the prom. Okay,
Speaker 1: we need to, we need his name, and we need to.
Speaker 1: I came down ridiculous, and oh my god, what is
Speaker 1: your most ridiculously memorable goodbye that either you said to
Speaker 1: somebody or somebody said to you. Oh my gosh, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think. Okay, I would say, um, the guy,
Speaker 1: the guy who too good at goodbyes is about I
Speaker 1: would say, I got it happened over the phone, which
Speaker 1: is horrific. Um, So I would say that would be it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got, I got dumped on the phone, Um, a
Speaker 1: few hours before I was meant to meet the person,
Speaker 1: and that killed me. It was awful. And I listened
Speaker 1: to your songs and I can tell you want You
Speaker 1: have such a sweetheart, such a good heart, and you
Speaker 1: want to fix it. I do. I always want to
Speaker 1: fix I just want to be happy. But then I
Speaker 1: think that I'm My idea of happiness was a bit warped,
Speaker 1: you know. I thought this happiness was this kind of
Speaker 1: realm that you walked into where you were happy one
Speaker 1: at the time. But that just doesn't exist. You know,
Speaker 1: it's always gonna there's always going to be that. You
Speaker 1: have to have that balance and be prepared. You know.
Speaker 1: It's about being It's about real life For me at
Speaker 1: the moment, you know, I'm trying to be real in
Speaker 1: every way. Um, I'm part of an MTV generation where
Speaker 1: I've watched all these films and I want my my
Speaker 1: life to be like this Disney movie almost and I'm
Speaker 1: now more attracted to the real side of stuff, you know.
Speaker 1: So speaking of that, this is National Suicide Prevention Awareness
Speaker 1: Week and I have a teenage son that has been
Speaker 1: struggling since last December and we had a crisis intervention,
Speaker 1: and UM, really good counselor, is really good doctor, is
Speaker 1: really good medicine. He's not through it yet, UM, so
Speaker 1: we it's still kind of touch and go, but he's
Speaker 1: he's starting to talk about it. And I've read a
Speaker 1: lot of things about you, and you have dealt with depression,
Speaker 1: and you have been very very honest and very very
Speaker 1: real about your battles. And I just wondered if you
Speaker 1: had any words of encouragement for young people or any
Speaker 1: insights on what they could do to reach out for
Speaker 1: help in this this week that we're paying, you know,
Speaker 1: putting a spot line. We should put a spot line
Speaker 1: on it every day, every of course. But of course,
Speaker 1: of course I UM talk open up, and I say,
Speaker 1: in these situations, it's just important to be outward in
Speaker 1: every way. UM, when you're so locked in your own mind, UM,
Speaker 1: do anything you can to just be outward. UM, Sing
Speaker 1: songs that move you as loud as you possibly can.
Speaker 1: Talk to your mom and your dad and your sisters
Speaker 1: and your and not even you don't even have to
Speaker 1: talk about the actual thing that you're going through. Just
Speaker 1: talk and hopefully something will flow after that. UM, But
Speaker 1: just know you're not alone. Even when you feel like
Speaker 1: you're alone, there's so many people in the world that
Speaker 1: are alone as well, so you're not alone in that.
Speaker 1: If you know what I mean, I know exactly what
Speaker 1: you mean. Thank you for that, and thank you for
Speaker 1: for too good at goodbyes. Like I said when I first,
Speaker 1: thank you for talking your You're sensational. It's so lovely
Speaker 1: to speak to you. Sam Smith. Too good at goodbyes.
Speaker 1: I have to say goodbye, but thank you. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. You're amazing. Thank you. Stay in touch. I will,
Speaker 1: I will, I'll come to the farm. Okay, that's an
Speaker 1: honest invitation. I'm not making that up, and no, I
Speaker 1: would love to come. God bless you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you,