Nearly 20 years after her SNL lip-synching fiasco, Ashlee Simpson has opened up about the infamous event.
During her recent appearance on the Broad Ideas With Rachel Bilson & Olivia Allen podcast, Simpson addressed the incident by stating she learned a lot from it and the backlash that followed.
Ashlee Simpson explained what was hard about the situation was that she wrote all her songs and pushed her career forward, just for everything to crash down over the onstage blunder.
“It taught me humility, it taught me so much about myself and my own personal strength,” Simpson said. She also pointed out that the event taught her how to get back up and go on again. “So there’s something about that too.”
During her appearance as a musical guest on SNL, Simpson had already performed her single Pieces of Me before performing her second song Autobiography. However, the wrong vocals ended up playing and she danced a jig before walking off stage. She has been dubbed the only musician to walk out of a SNL performance.
It was later revealed that Ashlee Simpson lost her voice completely due to an acid reflux flare-up. She ended up having to lip-synch her songs. Simpson noted the situation reminded her of the “power of saying no.”
“If I would’ve had that power to really have been like — which I would have now, or looking back — I’d be like, ‘I won’t be showing up. Period,’” she said.
Ashlee Simpson Admits Her Second ‘SNL’ Performance Was ‘F—ing Scary’
While continuing to chat about her SNL experience, Ashlee Simpson recalled her second SNL performance, which happened less than a year later.
“That was f—ing scary to do,” Simpson admitted. She wrote her sophomore album I Am Me after the first SNL incident. “It came out at No. 1 so it was like, ‘I’ll be OK.’”
She then said having her reality TV show at the time also helped her get through the situation. “All the people that were my fans stuck with me and I went back on stage and I went back to it all. But I think having to find – at a young age – that strength to be like, ‘No, I’m good at this. I will keep going. I will keep fighting.’”
Ashlee Simpson went on to add that the SNL event was the most humbling experience of her life. “Because the whole world thinks everything that you just put your heart and soul into writing is a joke. And that sucked.”