JoJo is getting candid in her latest interview, where she opened up about her past label troubles, drug use, and her comeback.
In the backstage documentary with UPROXX, the 29-year-old singer told the true story behind her being signed by Blackground Records’ founder Barry Hankerson, who was Aaliyah‘s uncle.
“He started that label for her because she was so young that nobody would sign her,” JoJo remembered, “but hearing about how he had made Aaliyah into the icon that she was, we were obviously really interested in that.”
She continues, “My label got my mom a car, got us an apartment and I had my own room for the first time. They felt like family to us, and I think that’s what both my mom and I were really longing for deep down. Both of us come from very unstable family situations and they really appealed to that within us—that we were creating something that was going to last forever.”
However, that magical feeling didn’t last.
She says that the battle with her record label was “incredibly upsetting” and recalled a moment when she was asked to “look as healthy as possible.”
“I was like, ‘I’m actually the picture of health. I look like a healthy girl who eats and is active. I don’t think this is about my health. I think that you want me to be really skinny.’ He’s like, ‘No, I wouldn’t say that,’” JoJo adds.
“I ended up working with a nutritionist who had me on a 500-calorie diet a day. I was taking these injections that make you have no appetite. I was like, ‘Let me see how thin I could wear because maybe then they will put out an album. Maybe I’m so disgusting that nobody wants to see me in the video and they can’t even look at me.’ That’s really what I thought.”
Eventually, she turned to drugs and alcohol as a way to feel “pretty” and “worthy.”
“There were definitely nights that I stumbled out of clubs and that I blacked out. I was just completely reckless, did not care. I needed to be buzzed to feel okay. I would go to the edge, stand on my tiptoes on the edge and then come back. I should be dead,” she said.
Now, JoJo is looking to create a new legacy with her new album, good to know, out in the spring.
“This journey has been a journey of learning how to love myself. I feel really lucky, really, really grateful for the longevity that I have and for the resilience that I do have. But I work on it every day. I want to create a life for myself and I want to create a legacy.”
Watch the full documentary below!
If you missed it, see all the upcoming dates on JoJo‘s tour.
