Lil Nas X gives update on mental health and new music: 'I'm just ... smelling the roses'
Following an event last summer in which Lil Nas X was charged with attacking Los Angeles police officers, the pop star took to Instagram on Wednesday to share information on his bipolar disorder diagnosis and experience in rehab.
He said he spent the last few months in rehab, before spending time with family, retaining a therapist and psychiatrist — and acknowledging his need to take medication.
"Black, gay, bipolar — I'm, like, living life on extreme hard-mode," the Montero singer said while laughing. He also hinted at new music coming soon — which would be his first release in more than a year.
"I'm doing better, I'm feeling better, I'm creating freely and there's less fear in my heart," Lil Nas X said. "And I'm just, like, smelling the roses."
Absent from the three-minute social media post was any direct reference to the Los Angeles charges.
At the time of the charges, authorities alleged that the then 26-year-old (real name Montero Lamar Hill) was walking nearly naked down a street in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley in August 2025, before charging at police officers who were responding to calls about him.
A criminal complaint said three officers were hurt. Photos and video apparently shot before the police confrontation showed him walking in the street in only white briefs and white boots.
After spending three days in jail, Lil Nas X was released on a $75,000 US bond. He pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of battery with injury on a police officer, along with one count of resisting an executive officer.
In his first public comments shortly after, the artist posted a video to Instagram saying that "these last four days have been terrifying." But he added, speaking of himself with a laugh, "Your girl is going to be OK. She's going to be alright."
A judge later allowed Lil Nas X to enter a mental health diversion program. If he sticks to his treatment program and obeys all laws for two years, the four felony counts against him will be dismissed.
The musician was eligible for the program because the court found that the encounter involving police was the result of his since-diagnosed bipolar disorder and appeared to be an aberration compared with his usual behaviour.
The singer, who burst onto the scene in 2019 following the viral success of his country/hip-hop hit Old Town Road, has ridden waves of acclaim and controversy since the start of his career.
That track inspired both celebration and criticism for challenging what constitutes country music. After the original iteration of the song was pulled from Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, some fans and fellow artists argued the decision was racially motivated.
Lil Nas X later enlisted a feature by country musician Billy Ray Cyrus for a new version. While neither ended up back on the country charts, both peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the latter for a record-breaking 19 weeks.
During Old Town Road's early success, Lil Nas X also came out as gay — setting off a debate around homophobia in hip hop. But a tendency to release cryptic and occasionally inflammatory statements on social media led to frequent controversy.
A 2021 campaign in which he marketed modified Nike "Satan shoes" containing a drop of human blood, and a music video in which he provocatively danced with a figure dressed as the devil, led to more pushback from conservative and religious groups. The former campaign also led to a since-settled lawsuit from Nike.
The transgressive, devil-inspired esthetic was from Lil Nas X's Montero, a self-addressed concept album from 2021 that largely dealt with the artist himself — who came from a church-going family with a gospel-singing father — coming to terms with his sexual liberation. The singer then released an EP, Days Before Dreamboy, in 2025, and is reportedly working on an upcoming album titled Dreamboy.
cbc.ca
