Shawn Mendes is opening up about the effects of fame and how canceling his tour two years ago was one of the hardest but greatest decisions of his life.
The singer, who canceled his "Wonder" tour in 20222 to prioritize his mental health, talked about everything from his new music, to his mental health and more in an interview with Jay Shetty on the "On Purpose" podcast that was published Monday and the journey he's been on in the past two years.
Shawn Mendes to release meaningful new album this fall: 'Music really can be medicine'
Leading up to the cancellation of his tour, Mendes recalled feeling how hard things were getting for him at the time and that he "had nowhere to go."
"I've done a lot of tours and I've been in hard places before, and I think the reality was that it just became really, really clear to me that I needed to diversify in life," he said. "Since I was a kid, my entire life had been about one thing. It had been about performing and making music and just a constant kind of cycle.
"I didn't have other aspects of life that I felt connected to, that I could have leaned into, to have a little bit of a break from touring and come back and just find that balance," Mendes added.
Mendes said canceling the tour was "one of the hardest pills to swallow" and thought about the sacrifices people made to bring his tour to life, but doing so was important for him.
"It gave me a life," he said. "It gave me time to discover so much about myself."
Shawn Mendes cancels remainder of 'Wonder' tour to prioritize his health
In the two years after the tour, Mendes learned a lot about himself including how the decisions he makes have consequences, how to be vulnerable and also how fame was taking a toll on him in negative ways.
"It was all based around perception and just all I wanted to feel was comfortable in my own body and not like crawling in my skin," he said. "From every word that would come out of my mouth to the way I would sit in a chair, everything."
"And I think it just takes time because the reality is that if you spend your life around cameras and around social media and around people who are constantly talking about the way you look, the way you sound, the way you act in a way that has ore to do with a performance and perception, then that is what you're going to be focused on," he added.
He said that the only way to change your perspective in that situation is to surround yourself with people who don't care about any of those things. Mendes said talking about this in therapy also helped him.
"Oftentimes, I went from wanting to look like the image of perfection to I'm just going to be a man in the woods and i don't care what I look like, I don't care what you think," he said. "And there's a good period, I'm sure, of paparazzi photos where people could tell."
While Mendes said it's okay to care about your appearance, he learned how being consumed by that can be detrimental.
"I started to find a middle ground again where I was like, ok, you know what? You can care. Just don't kill yourself caring," he said. "The extremes -- they don't work for me anymore."
In the time since his tour, Mendes has also done some reflection on love and his past relationship with singer Camila Cabello. The two dated for two years before calling it quits in November 2021.
Mendes said having a relationship that is public is "brutal." He said that he and Cabello had "done the best job at preserving our private little fire of love for each other" and have "worked extremely hard to just protect each other and protect that love."
But he said no matter how strong you are mentally, when there are many criticizing the relationship, "it's so hard not to be affected by it and to be swayed by it."
The singer said he's learned not to go on social media anymore or care what people say about his love life.
"It's honestly too detrimental to the actual relationship itself and I've become pretty strict on that part of it," he said.
In October, Mendes will release his self-titled album, "Shawn," which he says is one of his most "honest" albums that he's ever made.
"When you're done with all the ideas of what you're trying to force it to become, there's a breaking point and you surrender to it and the album starts to become what it's meant to be," he said. "And you just have to roll with that."
He added that what he learned in the process of making the album was making sure the foundation for the album was made up of "authentic truth."
"If you work really hard to get to that place and the first brick you lay is truth, each brick after that will be much easier," he added.
"Shawn" will arrive on Oct. 18 and it is available for pre-order now.
