Terry Hall comments about mental health resurfaced in BBC broadcast

‘I didn’t realise I was spending the first 50 years of my life in this bubble called depression,’ said the late singer

Terry Hall spoke candidly his mental health in a previously broadcast interview on BBC 6 Music.

The frontman of The Specials died on 18 December after an illness from pancreatic cancer, aged 63.

Since the death of the “Too Much Too Young” singer, the BBC has resurfaced old interviews and his various appearances to celebrate Hall’s life and work.

This morning, (Tuesday 27 December) a 2019 interview with host Mary Anne Hobbs was rebroadcast on the radio station as a tribute to the singer.

The interview features Hall discussing life and music with Hobbs while picking some of his favourite songs.

Before the interview ended, Hobbs asked if Hall could tell listeners about the “best of times” so that they could “end on a really positive note”.

“I didn’t realise I was spending the first 50 years of my life in this bubble called depression,” the singer began. “People told me about it, but I had no idea what I was doing.”

“And then 10 years ago, I had to get attention because of an incident and I found a doctor, and she’s been with me for 10 years and she’s got me out of this bubble and said, ‘You’ve got an illness, but we can deal with it’,” he said.

“So for at least five years, I’ve just been unbelievably brilliant and appreciating things on a different level, which I never thought I would”.

“Like really simple things – like on the way in here, I saw a folding bike and that has made my day that you can fold a bike to that size,” he recalled.

“It’s like origami. But just that level and if I get one thing like that every day then I’m so happy. So happy.”

“I guess joy is always something you feel the most acutely in small things,” said Hobbs in reply.

‘Are you happy?” asked Hobbs, before Hall replied ‘yes, yes,’ in the moving resurfaced interview (PA Wire)

Hall agreed, before adding: “People always say to me, ‘You got a No 1 record, you were handed this, why don’t you smile?’ I don’t know why I didn’t smile but that folding bike made me smile and there you go. That’s me, I think really.”

“Are you happy?” asked Hobbs, before Hall replied “yes, yes” in the moving resurfaced interview.

Hall then picked a song called “Oh, Lori” by the Alessi Brothers.

Strangely enough, the track references a “bicycle”. Hall admitted the track had become a “ritual” for him to sing on the Santa Monica pier when he visited LA.

“I’d walk down there and sing ‘Oh, Lori’ and again a very simple thing, but unbelievable joy.”

There is a selection of shows celebrating the life of Hall across the BBC Sounds app available now.