Marcus Mumford, the band Mumford & Sons’ lead vocalist, has spoken up about a childhood sexual assault incident that has become the central theme of his most recent work.
Mumford said that “the incident that occurred when I was six” is at the heart of his new song, “Cannibal,” in an interview with GQ that was released on Wednesday.
He emphasises in the interview that, contrary to what “some people’s impression” may have been, neither a member of his family nor a leader in the religion he grew up in committed the abuse.
The song, which is the first single from his upcoming self-titled debut solo album, begins with the words, “You are still in my mouth, which I detest. You were aware that a toddler would not have thought that was a decision.”
Mumford said that the song had provoked painful discussions with individuals who were closest to him, including his mother, who had not been aware of the event until hearing it.
Mumford told GQ, “I hadn’t told anybody about it for 30 years.
More than three million copies of Mumford & Sons’ first album, “Sigh No More,” were sold in the United States since its 2009 release.
Delta, their most recent album, was released in 2018. Mumford admitted to GQ that over those nine years, “I leant fairly heavily into alcohol and picked up some definitely addicted tendencies.”
Mumford disclosed to GQ that, in 2019, he reached a point of self-described “rock bottom” and began trauma counselling, where he first spoke up about his experiences with abuse.
Mumford told GQ, “The past three years have simply been trying to look at it and fix some balance.”
He said that since then, he has completely quit drinking and has also changed his unhealthful eating habits.
According to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 13 boys and 1 in 4 girls in the United States suffer child sexual abuse.
In a 2005 CDC survey of San Diego Kaiser Permanente HMO participants, it was shown that 16% of males had experienced sexual assault by the time they were 18.
According to a 1998 research that appeared in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, those who experienced sexual abuse as children were four to twelve times more likely to develop alcoholism, drug misuse, despair, and suicidal thoughts.
Men are less likely than women to disclose cases of sexual abuse, according to a 1997 research that was published in the Clinical Psychology Review.
Mumford makes it obvious in “Cannibal” that starting to recover came from eventually talking about what happened:
“But once I started telling, it became the most difficult thing I’ve ever uttered aloud.
Though it follows me back down and stares into the night with me, the words got stuck in my throat and I coughed.
This is how freedom feels.”