Marcus Mumford Opens Up: “I Was Sexually Abused as a Child”
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The post Marcus Mumford Opens Up: “I Was Sexually Abused as a Child” appeared first on Consequence.
Marcus Mumford’s solo career has been deeply personal in way that Mumford and Sons rarely approached, starting from the very first lines of his debut single, “Cannibal”: ““I can still taste you and I hate it/ That wasn’t a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it.” Now, the folk pop powerhouse has opened up in a new interview with GQ, sharing some details about his path to mental wellness after childhood sexual abuse.
“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 said. “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.”
Mumford first began dealing with that trauma in 2019, after the release of Mumford and Sons’ Delta, as his struggles with alcohol abuse and problematic eating habits pushed him to his breaking point. “I was at the point where, basically, I’d hit enough of a rock bottom that I was ready to surrender,” Mumford said. “I’d had the people closest to me hold up a mirror and say, like, ‘Dude, something’s not right here and it’s your responsibility to go figure it out.’ ”
He sought out a therapist specializing in trauma, and during their second conversation he opened up about the abuse. Almost immediately, he vomited. “Apparently, it’s very common,” Mumford said, “once you basically unhook the denial and start the process of removing some suppression, then it’s very natural for that stuff to come out. I’d had problems breathing all my life. Not asthma but just, like, catching my breath.”
He began to see patterns in his own behavior that he hadn’t noticed before. “That thing that happened when I was six, that was the first of a string of really unusual, unhealthy sexual experiences at a really early age. And for some reason, and I can’t really understand why, I didn’t become a perpetrator of sexual abuse — although I’ve done my fair share of cuntish behavior.” He had an epiphany: “String of really unhealthy shit when I was under the age of 12, which set my brain up in a way to deal with stuff later on in life in an imbalanced way. And so the last three years has just been trying to look at that and correct some balance.”
It began with writing “Cannibal,” a song his mother heard before she fully understood what it was referencing. According to Mumford, she asked him,“ ‘Can I ask what that song’s about?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s about the abuse thing.’ She was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ So 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 fucking hilarious to tell your mom about your abuse in a fucking song, of all things.”
That conversation with his mother inspired his second solo single, the July release “Grace.” It includes lyrics like, “Even though I’d never tell you everything/ I could’ve sworn I dropped that bomb on you already,” and “This all behind/ I’m fine, it’s alright/ Do I sound like a liar?”
Mumford’s debut solo album, (self-titled), will drop September 16th and pre-orders are ongoing. Next month he’ll launch into his 2022 headlining tour, and you can get your tickets here.
Marcus Mumford Opens Up: “I Was Sexually Abused as a Child”
Wren Graves
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