Ep. 252: Lizzo | Rock Bottom, #1, and the Game Nobody Explains

Ep. 252: Lizzo | Rock Bottom, #1, and the Game Nobody Explains

From And The Writer Is...with Ross Golan by And The Writer Is

June 9, 2026 · 1h 29m

About this episode

Lizzo discusses her journey in the music industry, including personal struggles and insights into the business.

Today's guest is a Grammy winner, a two-time Billboard #1 artist, and one of the defining pop voices of the last decade. But her real story isn't the anthems or the awards. It's the part that plays like a rollercoaster and teaches like a masterclass: how she almost quit, what going #1 actually felt like, and everything about the music business nobody explains until you've survived it. The press version skips the touring deficits, the depression at the top, and the moment in an Echo Park apartment when she nearly took a job at Smoothie King. The question underneath everything she says: once you stop chasing the metric and the moment — who do you become? And The Writer Is... Lizzo! In this episode of And The Writer Is, we go deep on: • Why she wanted to quit music the day "Truth Hurts" went #1 — and the 2017 low point that was actually worse • The touring economics no one explains: how you gross $1M and still finish the year in the red • Why the indie grind that built her, in her view, no longer leads to the mainstream • "She stopped giving a fuck about what we wanted" — Beyoncé's self-titled as a blueprint for artistic autonomy • Why she only talks to people who buy her music —…

People in this episode

Host: Ross Golan

Guest: Lizzo

Topics covered

  • music industry challenges
  • artistic autonomy
  • personal struggles
  • songwriting process
  • touring economics
  • mental health in music

Keywords

  • Lizzo
  • music industry
  • Truth Hurts
  • songwriting
  • touring economics
  • Beyoncé
  • mental health
  • artistic autonomy

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Truth Hurts, About Damn Time

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