Ashlee Simpson Says SNL Lip-Syncing Fiasco Taught Her 'Power' of 'No'
Ashlee Simpson
Lester Cohen/Getty Images for JBLAshlee Simpson shares an important lesson she learned from her Saturday evening live lip sync fiasco almost twenty years later.
“I never talked about it or said it, but the other thing is: learning as a woman, when you say no or as an artist or a human being or whatever, that day I said, 'I'm not going to continue, I'm not going to continue. It does not matter. I can’t talk,” Simpson, 39, said on the Monday, February 19, episode “Broad Ideas with Rachel Bilson and Olivia Allen” podcast.
While appearing as a musical guest for the late night sketch series in October 2004, Simpson was thrown out when she began struggling with vocal problems before the show, soon discovering that she had “two lumps hitting each other,” causing her to lose her voice. Despite initially saying she would not perform, the singer claimed she was still asked to take the stage with pre-recorded vocals.
“My band has never practiced this before, this isn't going to go well,” she recalled thinking. “I can't do this.”
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Simpson eventually continued with the show, first singing “Pieces of Me” without any problems. However, as she and her band started putting on the second song, the vocal track for “Pieces of Me” started playing again. While the song dropped within seconds, fans were quick to point out that Simpson was lip-syncing.
Simpson said that moment taught her “the power of my no” and “the power of me to say absolutely no.”
“I feel like it was a humbling moment for me,” she said. “I had the number one song, it was like everything was going somewhere and then it was just, woah. The humility of not even understanding what people would say about you, horrible, horrible things.
Simpson said she learned how to turn off her haters and find her strength through the process. She ultimately did not need surgery thanks to a singing coach, who she says “saved her.” [her] to live.”
“I think I have to find the strength at a young age to say, 'I'm good at this and I'm going to keep going, and I'm going to keep fighting,'” Simpson said.
After her appearance on the NBC variety show in 2004, Simpson returned in October 2005, but she can't find any trace of it on the Internet.
“'I went back to SNL with my second album and I can't find it anywhere. I searched and searched for that gig,” she said. “I was very nervous when I was there and I can't find it anywhere.”
After Simpson released her debut album, Autobiographyin July 2004 she dropped I am I And Bittersweet World in 2005 and 2008 respectively. She has since released the 2012 single 'Bat for a Heart', but has not added any more music to her resume.
In honor of her debut album's 20th anniversary, Simpson spoke exclusively We weekly earlier this month that she's “starting work on the reissue,” and teases that she may drop more songs.
“I'm going to celebrate that album,” she said. “Maybe I'll go in and redo some songs, but I'll definitely do a show around the anniversary.”