Billie Eilish isn’t one to censor herself; In the past few months alone, the pop megastar has been boldly vocal about her secret battle with COVID-19, how exposure to pornography at a young age affected her, and her anger over restrictive porn laws. abortion. But more recently, when it appeared on Netflix My next guest needs no introduction with David Letterman, Eilish touched on a topic she’s hardly ever brought up before in interviews: her experience living with Tourette Syndrome.
It didn’t seem like Eilish was necessarily planning to talk about Tourette – who she said was diagnosed when she was 11 – but the topic came naturally after a change in the set lighting caused provoked one of his tics. “If you film me long enough, you’re going to see a lot of tics,” Eilish explained. “I don’t care. It’s really weird, I haven’t talked about it at all. The most common way people react is to laugh, because they think I’m trying to be funny. They think I am [ticcing] like, like, fun move… And I’m still incredibly offended by that.
The ‘Happier Than Ever’ singer continued, “The funny thing is, so many people have it you’d never know. A few artists came forward and said, ‘I actually I’ve always had the Tourette. And I’m not going to take them out, because they don’t want to talk about it, but it was really interesting to me. I was like, ‘You To do?! What?'”
“I hope the God we did didn’t exacerbate this,” Letterman said, expressing his gratitude to Eilish after the unexpected subject change. “I don’t know anything about [Tourette’s].” Eilish replied, “I actually really like answering questions about it because it’s very, very interesting. And I’m incredibly troubled by this, and I don’t understand.
Most of Eilish’s tics, like wiggling her ear or twitching her arm muscle, are barely detectable by anyone but her. “These are things you’ll never notice if you just have a conversation with me, but for me they’re very draining,” she explained. “It’s not like I like it, but it’s part of me. I made friends with him. And so now I’m pretty confident in that.
You can watch the full episode of Eilish from My next guest on Netflix now.
After wrapping up some unforgettable sets at Coachella last month, Eilish is now on the UK leg of her ‘Happier Than Ever’ tour, which also includes a headlining performance at Glastonbury. Check ticket availability for his headlining concerts on Ticketmaster.
