Ashlee Simpson is opening up about how she was affected by her infamous performance on “Saturday Night Live” in 2004.
For those who don’t remember, Simpson was set to sing her hit song “Autobiography” when the lip sync track for her previous song “Pieces of Me” came on instead. Unsure what to do next, the singer did a little hoedown dance before the show cut to commercial.
The wrong track playing outed Simpson for having lip synced her earlier performance in the show, which she chose to do because she had lost her voice. But the backlash was severe, and Simpson had a difficult time recovering from the incident.
“I had a super-high and then I had a super-low at ‘SNL,'” she shared with The Los Angeles Times. “For me, it was such a lesson: You hate me so much because I lost my voice? It was such a dehumanizing feeling that I had to remember who I was and why I was doing this.”
But what Simpson took away from the experience proved to be valuable. “People’s perception of you is not who you are,” she explained. “Learning that at a young age was — whew! It was intense.”
Simpson Wasn’t Deterred After the Backlash
GettyAccording to Simpson, her second album “I Am Me” was informed by her experiences dealing with negative press and unkind comments. She explained how the album would have been different had she not received so much backlash.
“I don’t think it would have been as raw,” the singer shared. “But I’m happy it was because it got deeper. It got darker too — thicker skin yet very vulnerable.”
She continued, “When you’re faced with something so traumatic, where the world is looking at a young girl this way, you either hide or you fight and keep going. And I just kept going.”
Simpson Focuses on the Positive
Simpson, 40, is now the mom of three children, and getting ready for her residency at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. Her resilience is an inspiration, as is her positive attitude.
When asked if she’d seen Lana Del Rey’s “SNL” performance that was panned in the press, she said no. “I don’t go and watch people’s bad stuff — I’ve been through enough myself,” Simpson shared. “I don’t ever harp on things like that or watch people’s failures because I’ve had one. I don’t do that.”
