Sam Smith may have had a hugely successful start to his year, but the 22-year old has revealed in a magazine interview that he experienced homophobic bullying and attacks while growing up.
The singer, whose interview will appear in the February issue of Rolling Stone, told the magazine how the bullying affected him less than he expected – but it made him uncomfortable when people would shout ‘faggot’ at him while he was walking with his dad:
“I was just embarrassed that my dad had to see that, because I could only imagine how you feel as a parent.
“You just want to kill them. I was always embarrassed for the people around me. It actually never deeply affected me, you know?”
The Latch singer also suffered physical attacks for his sexuality, saying he became a target for wearing make-up. Having just moved to London, Smith said he was attacked while walking down the road:
“I got punched in my neck, just out of nowhere. It wasn’t the easiest.”
Despite his challenging experiences growing up, Sam said he’s proud of how the world reacted to his coming out as a whole:
“I am, I’m proud for the world, and the people in the world, for the way that they’ve reacted, because they’ve hardly reacted, which is exactly what we wanted.”
