Katy Perry Struggled With Depression While Working on New Album 'Smile'

Katy Perry was talking all about her upcoming album, Smile, during her appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Tuesday (July 21).

The 35-year-old singer revealed that while she was battling depression while recording the album.

“I’ve always had a playful thing about my music and I lost that… I had really lost my smile,” she recalled, speaking of the criticism about her previous album, Witness.

Katy added, “You create art and you’re excited for it to be received by the world. When it’s not received by the world, when it’s kind of like, ‘No, thank you,’ you think, ‘Oh shit, that doesn’t feel good.’”

She admits that she was still struggling with depression and dark thoughts while working on Smile.

“It was more than I had ever faced in my life. I’d had bouts of depression before, but I had been able to avoid falling into the really dark depression by making music,” she explained. “It’s like all these things you do to distract, you eat, you work you get a new boyfriend, you shop.”

Katy added, “I was so ashamed about being on medication because I was like… ‘I wrote ‘Firework.’ But it was one of those things where I’d sprained my brain a little bit.”

If you missed it, check out the artwork for Katy‘s Smile, due out in August.