Jessica Simpson was forced to lose weight by her record label who wanted her to compete with Britney Spears.
“So when I first started singing, I was — to everyone at the record label — supposed to be this pop star,” she told the audience during her concert in Pennsylvania Thursday.
“You know, there’s Britney Spears, there’s Christina Aguilera, we love them, we support them. I had to, like, follow in their footsteps,” she explained.
“And I really thought that I was signed just because of my voice, and all of a sudden it was like, ‘OK, you need to lose 15 pounds — and by the way, I was 115 pounds,” she recalled.
Simpson said she was just 17-years-old when she was instructed to lose weight, which was “a lot” for her to handle.
The musician revealed that by her sophomore album, “Irresistible,” the label told her she “needed to have a six pack — which was definitely not going to happen.”
“I’m just not built that way, you know? I have a belly a little bit,” she proudly said.
“There were just all these things that I had to be to be Jessica Simpson, or the version of Jessica Simpson that they believed I should be, that would be successful.”
“I always felt like a failure because I was never good enough,” she heartbreakingly admitted.
Last year, Simpson released her two-part EP, “Nashville Canyon” — her first new music in 15 years.
The 45-year-old said working on the album over the last three years helped “heal” her.
“I feel like walking onstage is almost more comfortable than my living room at home,” she shared. “And it’s such a beautiful feeling. It really is.”
Last December, Simpson opened up about never feeling “good enough” in the earlier days of her music career.
“My whole music career, you know I had a job, and it was to be a pop star and I tried but I will say when you’re younger you just never feel good enough and it’s OK to not feel good enough,” she admitted during a Connecticut concert.
The “With You” hitmaker rose to stardom at just 19 years old with her hit debut single “I Wanna Love You Forever” and album “Sweet Kisses,” which was released in 1999 by Columbia Records.
BACKGRID
Simpson went on to release several more chart-topping albums, including 2003’s “In This Skin” and 2006’s “Public Affair,” making her a household name in pop music.
Her most recent album was inspired by the downfall of her marriage with Eric Johnson.
The former couple wed in 2014 and share three children: daughters Maxwell, 14, and Birdie, 7, as well as son Ace, 12.
