Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold shared his perspective on mental health and suicide after the shocking deaths of designer Kate Spade and chef, author and television personality Anthony Bourdain last week.
In a statement posted to Instagram, Pecknold clarified prior comments he’d made following the suicides of Spade and Bourdain while offering additional insight regarding his own experiences.
“During a period a few years ago when I was dangerously and actively suicidal, my respect for my loved ones and my knowledge of the pain I would cause them was, truly and with no overstatement, the only effective thought I had at my disposal to prevent myself from acting,” he writes.
He goes on to say that he doesn’t believe that suicide is selfish, and that he takes issue with the lionization of it when someone famous takes their own life.
“When artists are made legends through suicide, I know that some segment of the impressionable population internalizes this as justification for the act,” he continues. “I know this because I have overcome this exact delusion… I am definitely unqualified to discuss the mental health of others, but it follows that so too is anyone else unqualified to judge my psychic reality and assume that this has not been an unwelcome and pernicious facet of my own lived experience, one that I’ve devoted much effort and resources towards addressing. I can say I took a break between albums to ‘go back to school’ in interviews, but that isn’t the whole story…”
Read Pecknold’s thoughts in full below.