The singer has been open about her sobriety journey, which began in 2019 after years of performing while intoxicated
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NEED TO KNOW
- Lily Allen is getting candid about touring sober for the first time
- Speaking with The Cut, the musician said that while she “misses the post-show celebrations,” she “really” doesn’t “miss the f—ing hangovers and getting to the airport the next day with a pounding head and having to wear sunglasses and stinking of alcohol”
- The singer has been open about her sobriety journey, which began in 2019 after years of performing while intoxicated
Lily Allen is opening up about touring sober for the first time in her career.
Speaking with The Cut for a story published Monday, Sept. 14, about hitting the road in support of her latest album West End Girl, the musician, 41, shared that her latest tour has felt “different” than her previous tours — in part due to her recent sobriety.
“It’s … different because I’m not drunk and high, which I always have been in the past when I’ve been onstage. This is the first tour that I’ve done sober,” she shared.
“It doesn’t feel very rock and roll,” Allen explained. “Like, we come offstage and we play Monopoly. And sometimes I get into my pajamas and I just go straight into the car and back to my hotel room.”
The pop star and mom of two shared that there is a part of her “that misses the post-show celebrations.”
“But at the same time, I really don’t miss the f—ing hangovers and getting to the airport the next day with a pounding head and having to wear sunglasses and stinking of alcohol,” Allen added.
Credit: Joseph Okpako/WireImage
Allen — who wrote her latest album about the end of her marriage to ex David Harbour — has previously been candid about getting sober in 2019.
During an interview in November on CBS Mornings, the “Tennis” artist recalled her twenties feeling like “a big party” when she was performing.
“I don’t know if that if it sounded much fun to the people that were listening to it,” she shared. “It was sure as hell was fun, you know, going out there, but I’m not at that stage in my life.”
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“I’m nervous,” the “Madeline” singer added of playing live. “I don’t think there’s any risk of anything happening, but it’s a real adrenaline rush that you get when you’re on a stage and people responding to your words and when you come off stage that adrenaline is rushing around your body and looking for a place to get out.”
Allen then pointed out that drugs and alcohol “are really helpful” with that release.
“When you take that out of the equation, I haven’t done it yet, but I can imagine that it’s quite hard and there’ll have to be like a routine that I get into or some kind of ritual to help me get out of that space,” she said.
Elsewhere in her conversation with The Cut, she opened up about her ex-husband Harbour’s reaction to her latest album — which candidly explored betrayal and the breakdown of a marriage.
Roughly eight months after the pair split in February 2025, Harbour, 51, said it “wasn’t my experience” but that he had “respect” for his ex-wife telling her truth through her art.
In the interview, Allen reacted to Harbour’s sentiments: “I think that was a generous thing for him to say,” she said.
“He’s having a real moment of success as well, right? He’s been nominated for an Emmy, and it’s great. We’re all doing our own thing, and we’re all doing what we’re supposed to do,” she added. “If there’s one thing I know about David Harbour, it’s that he’s an excellent actor.”
The musician added that while she’s not very outspoken when it comes to promoting her work, she’s very open in her songs themselves.
“If I feel really strongly about something, then great, because I will use it for my art and I will write about it,” she said.
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