Calum Scott: I wanted a pill to make me straight
CALUM SCOTT says the rejection he suffered at the hands of his friends for being gay was so distressing that he would have ‘taken a pill’ to become straight.
But the Dancing On My Own chart-topper says he has now made peace with himself and has ‘never been happier’. Speaking exclusively to Guilty Pleasures ahead of tomorrow’s Pride In London celebrations, the 28-year-old recalled the traumatic time he had growing up in Hull.
‘I tortured myself about it when I was younger,’ said the Britain’s Got Talent star. ‘There were times when I was thinking if I could take a pill to be straight then I would do it in a heartbeat.
‘I thought, I can keep on punishing myself, hating who I am, or I can enjoy my life. I am at a place where I am happy being gay.’
Calum decided he wouldn’t come out until after his stint on BGT because he didn’t want audiences to think he was pushing a sob story.
‘I associated telling people about my sexuality with losing people because of the trauma that affected me when I was younger,’ he explained.
After coming out to his dad two years ago, he wants his music to help kids and teens who feel they are in impossible situations, especially those in religious communities.
Urging them to talk, perhaps to a helpline, Calum said: ‘I don’t think people really understand how it is for young people going through that confusion.
‘I wondered for ages if I was going through a phase. There’s a bit of denial. You are terrified of what people think. It’s horrible. It’s something heterosexual people will never really get because they’ve not got those pressures.’
Calum’s latest track, Light Us Up, is out now.
Author: Andrei Harmsworth
