The Weeknd Opened Up About Being Basically Homeless & The 'Darkest Time' Of His Life

It might seem like The Weeknd is at the top of his game right now given a slew of recent successes, but that hasn't always been the case.

On Monday, January 9, the Canadian musician recalled a time when he was 19 and things were looking grim.

"That was probably the darkest time of my life," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "I was homeless, pretty much. I had dropped out of school."

"I didn’t know if I was going to succeed as a musician," the "Save Your Tears" singer continued. "I didn’t know if I was going to be able to live to see tomorrow."

That being said, he recalled that he somehow was able to get into the movies to see a screening of James Cameron's 2009 massive hit Avatar, which had a profound impact on him.

"And I remember I somehow got to see the film in theatres. I don’t know how I got in. It was such an escape from my real life that the film is tattooed in my brain," he explained.

Since then, he's had countless successes, including recently landing the honour of having the most-streamed song ever on Spotify with his hit "Blinding Lights" having been listened to over 3.3 billion times, beating out Ed Sheeran's hit "Shape Of You," according to Forbes.

In a bit of a karmic moment, for the new Avatar: The Way Of Water movie, Cameron asked the singer to contribute a song to the soundtrack, which was recently nominated for an Oscar.

“They told me they had one name on the list to do the song and it was me,” the Canadian explained of his hit "Nothing is Lost."

"It feels kismet and it’s a full-circle moment for me to be a part of something like this, because it is such an important film for me," he explained.

Congrats on all the successes!

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.