“Having a family while being drugged”: Damon Albarn (Blur) frank on his fatherhood and his drug use

He returns with a new album. 55-year-old Damon Albarn has reunited with his Blur bandmates. For our colleagues from Paris Match, the star has decided to indulge in an open heart. Indeed, he returned behind the scenes of his big comeback: “Initially, there was none of that in my head. No album, no gig. I was on tour in the United States with Gorillaz and when I’m on the road, I always take a little studio with me. I started writing there and I was like, ‘Um, maybe good, maybe good…’”. Thus, Damon Albarn has “presented about twenty songs to the members of Blur (…) and here we are with The Ballad of Darren”.

I wouldn’t say my personal life is in shambles

In this new opus, the emblematic leader of the group evokes love breakups. With great honesty, Damon Albarn explains: “I wouldn’t say my personal life is a mess, nor would I say it’s unconventional.“, he confides. Having had a long relationship with Justine Frischmann, the leader of the group Elastica, he ended up meeting Suzy Winstanley. He is now the father of a daughter, named Missy in tribute to the singer Missy Elliott. But his family life, Damon Albarn, is not like the others. Returning to his addiction to heroin and his addiction to music, he says: “It worked until I became a father. There I understood that the two were incompatible: having a family while being on drugs is not possible. Finally, I do not recommend it to anyone”.

Always very honest, Damon Albarn confides in complete transparency about his group Blur, which according to him, never separated and then reformed. “What is the point of this kind of final sentences? It has allowed us to never make a comeback. We are not at all available at the same time, we are all doing things on the side, we are busy. And then, when we feel like it, we give a concert at Wembley Stadium”. Isn’t life beautiful?