Post Malone on Balancing Fame With Anxiety, Low Self-Esteem

Post Malone appeared on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show on Wednesday, where he performed two live songs and revealed the “secret ingredient” behind his 60-pound weight loss. The decorated artist also opened up about balancing sudden fame with lifelong issues of anxiety and low self-esteem.

The “Sunflower” singer has spoken previously about feeling isolated by his peer group as a child and suffering low-esteem. He directly addressed the subject in his song “Don’t Understand.”

As he does to most of his guests, Stern asked Post Malone if he felt at all “bitter” towards the people from his past who bullied or ignored him.

“There’s girls that wouldn’t give me the time of day [in high school], and now they’re like, ‘Can I go to the show?’ All that stuff,” Post Malone began. “For me, I wouldn’t say ‘bitter,’ I’d say confused.”

He explained that he couldn’t quite parse how differently people behave towards him now because he hasn’t yet been able to process his fame. “I never really had the time to adjust to all that,” Post Malone reflected. “I’m still me. I’ve always been me. But now people wanna hang out with me.”

He continued: “I’ve never been cool, so what makes me cool right now? Is it because people know who I am? Is it because I’ve accrued a minute amount of wealth? Is it because the songs are good?” He then jokingly added: “I know that part’s not true.”

Post Malone told Stern that this confusion “kinda put me in a dark place for a long time…. It’s like, well, who really cares [about me]?”

The crooner told the host much of his low self-esteem issues stretch back to childhood, a time when he “felt like I didn’t have the natural tact or ability or intuition to socialize. I wasn’t prepared to do what everyone expected me to do. To go out, to socialize. I feel like being quirky just got cool in the last couple of years.”

Perhaps fittingly, the last couple of years have brought the “Congratulations” rapper much peace and happiness. “Now, I’m a dad, I’m hanging out, and I’m the happiest ever,” Post Malone reported.