Mumford & Sons frontman Marcus Mumford has shared that he was sexually abused at age 6.
In a new interview with GQ about his upcoming debut solo album, (self-titled), Mumford reveals that the record’s opening track, “Cannibal,” is about that traumatic experience.
“Like lots of people — and I’m learning more and more about this as we go and as I play it to people — I was sexually abused as a child,” Mumford says. “Not by family and not in the church, which might be some people’s assumption. But I hadn’t told anyone about it for 30 years.”
Writing “Cannibal” allowed Mumford to talk about what happened with his mother. He remembers a few days after he first played it for her, she asked him what the song was about.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about the abuse thing,'” Mumford recalls. “She was like, ‘What are you talking about?'”
He continues, “Once we get through the trauma of that moment for her, as a mother, hearing that and her wanting to protect and help and all that stuff, it’s objectively f***ing hilarious to tell your mom about your abuse in a f***ing song, of all things.”
That conversation with his mother then became the inspiration for the second (self-titled) song, “Grace.”
(self-titled) will be released September 16.
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