Lewis Capaldi is giving back to his fans in a big way. On Monday (July 7) the “Someone You Loved” singer announced an initiative with the online therapy company BetterHelp to provide 734,000 hours of free virtual therapy to those in need.
“Therapy is the reason why I am able to be a musician again,” the singer says in a video announcing his effort. “In partnership with BetterHealth and to reflect my experience of therapy and the importance I feel it has in my life and other people’s lives, we’re giving away 734,000 free hours of therapy.” The number represents 1,000 hours for every day since Capaldi was last on stage.
“I don’t think I’ll ever stop going to therapy… and giving access to online therapy to my fans who have supported me throughout my journey is so important to me. This is my way of giving back,” Capaldi said in a statement announcing the deal.
“I feel like if I can be a part of sharing that with other people, why not?” he says.
The nine-minute clip touches on the June 24, 2023 set by Capaldi at the Glastonbury Festival in England that he was unable to finish due to a strained vocal cord and a series of debilitating tics he suffered on stage due to his Tourette’s syndrome diagnosis. Six days before Capaldi’s dramatic, surprise return to the same Glastonbury stage on June 27 of this year for his first show since the 2023 incident — after which Capaldi announced what turned into a two-year break from touring to focus on his health — the 28-year-old singer sat down with one of his best friends to talk about what the past few years of his life have been like.
In the video, Capaldi says that he realized about two songs into his 2023 Glasto set that he couldn’t do it. “Glastonbury’s obviously a big deal. It’s kind of the biggest deal,” he said of the beloved summer festival. “‘I can’t keep doing this to myself, and other people as well,’” Capaldi recalls thinking at the time. Realizing the experience was difficult for his fans as well, Capaldi says he thought in that moment, “‘I’m done indefinitely.’”
He says he took a break because he needed it, but also to “release the pressure valve” a bit. Though the loving audience seemed to pick up on Capaldi’s struggles and helped him finish singing his breakthrough smash hit “Someone You Loved,” the singer says he was on “complete autopilot” during the 2023 show and felt like he was “1,000 miles away… I watch it back and I actually feel sad watching it.”
When he reviews it, Capaldi doesn’t see the wonderful, beautiful example of perseverance his fans experienced, but he is thankful for them helping him make it a “much less embarrassing moment. If no one was singing along it would have been pretty bleak.” He says the reason he got so anxious was that he wasn’t living in the moment, but fretting all along about all the things that could have gone wrong.
What should have been a dream-fulfilling moment of pure joy reaching his lifelong musical goal was instead a nightmare. “I’ve got to the end of the film and it’s not how I thought it was going to be,” he says of the uplifting movie of his life he thought he was part of. “And the thing that I wanted to do the most that made me feel the worst. It was like a weird mix of emotions… I’m probably the only person who doesn’t see it as an uplifting, happy video. Because I get it… watching it… I’m struggling,” he says, noting that a much happier outcome would have been if he was part of the singing and not watching someone having “the worst moment of his life.”
Capaldi says he was doing therapy before the Glasto incident, but he was lying his way through it before finding the therapist he’s made great strides with over the past two years. An admittedly anxious person, Capaldi says he’d neglected to look after himself in the past mentally and physically and now understands the he needs to “steady the platform” and find balance.
After a series of secret gigs to warm up for Glastonbury in his native Scotland earlier this year, during which he is not ashamed to say he cried quite a bit, Capaldi says he wasn’t nervous at all in advance of his Glastonbury return. At the first show in Edinburgh, Capaldi says he felt great through the first two songs and was then hit with a rush of adrenaline that made him shake and was able to calm himself down.
“I think I didn’t realize how much I actually miss being on stage,” he says. “And then I just started to cry and I’m not someone who cries in front of people in general. So it was a weird feeling.” As a testament to the work he’s done, Capaldi says that in the lead-up to this year’s Glastonbury he had “no anxiety or fear or impending doom.”
According to BetterHelp, users can get a free month of therapy when they join — as long as they’ve never used the service before — and will not be charged if they cancel within one month; the offer is available through Dec. 31 of this year. In a testament to his return, Capaldi has announced dates for a U.K. tour in September followed by a fall fun of shows in Australia and New Zealand.
Watch Capaldi talk about his return and his therapy offer to fans below.
