Yungblud tells Louis Theroux of troubled childhood
Yungblud has opened up about the impact of witnessing his parents’ “abusive” relationship growing up.
The Doncaster-born singer, whose real name is Dominic Harrison, grew up living with his parents and two younger sisters, and recalls frequently wanting to “escape” from the arguments that took place.
Speaking on a new series of Louis Theroux Interviews…, he said: “My parents had this weird, beautifully dark relationship where I don’t know if I’ve ever seen two people love each other as much as they have, but I don’t think I’ve seen anybody hurt each other as much.
“It was physically and mentally and emotionally abusive. I’ve always wanted to build a world where I could exist to escape what was going on around me.”
His parents Justin and Samantha also feature on the show, with the former acknowledging that the couple “did shout at each other, you know, excessively” at that time.
“I had anger issues and I’m still going for therapy every week,” he continued. “The last few years I’ve been a lot calmer but obviously I needed therapy to control anger bursts and that’s what I did.”
Samantha said she’d felt “quite guilty” reading her son discuss the issue in interviews, adding: “When we first met we were 16. You fancy the pants off each other. You don’t necessarily respect each other. I’m not trying to justify it but our neutral position is probably one of disrespect and youth and passion and we need to shout loudest and we need to get our own way.
“We went to counselling for quite a few years and I think we learned to respect each other.”
While Yungblud admitted he felt that the family “haven’t resolved a lot of stuff together yet,” the singer insisted that he loved them. Justin concluded: “I think our family is very close to say what we’ve been through.”
Louis Theroux’s interview with Yungblud is available to watch via the BBC iPlayer now.
Earlier this month (November 10), the musician said he doesn’t “relate” to “older” acts like Arctic Monkeys and The 1975 as much as he used to.
During an interview with Rolling Stone UK, the Doncaster artist (real name Dominic Harrison) explained how the aforementioned bands were a “generation apart” from himself, who has a largely Gen Z fanbase.
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Matthew Neale
NME
