Post Malone shares his bizarre songwriting habit: “It’s my special zone”
Post Malone has been making music for over a decade, and whether it’s his rap tracks or country material, he has had a fascinating musical journey. That said, in an interview with Howard Stern, the musician made some exciting revelations about his career and how he writes hits such as ‘White Iverson’ and ‘Rockstar’.
With his career beginning in the early 2010s, Malone began pursuing a music career in 2011 when he recorded demos and raps to show his friends. However, nothing would come of it. For two years, he remained in Texas but eventually moved to Los Angeles in 2013 and joined the collective called BLCKVRD.
After another two years of work, in 2015, Malone uploaded the track ‘White Iverson’ to his SoundCloud and released a video for it on July 19th of that year. That was his breakthrough single, and since then, Malone has had vast amounts of commercial success with his music. That said, his creative process over the years has been somewhat strange.
While speaking to Stern in 2022, following the release of his fourth album, Twelve Carat Toothache, Malone opened up about his songwriting methods and unveiled that many of his best ideas come to him while he is on the toilet.
Speaking with Stern, Malone explained, “Shit literally comes to me because I write all my songs on the can.” He explained that writing on the toilet “very much so” relaxes him, and sometimes spends hours at a time in the bathroom.
In an attempt to quantify the toilet’s contribution to his previous material, Malone added, “I’d say about 30% of all my albums have been written on the s***ter! And I’d say 60% of lyrics have been written on the s***ter.”
Although he found it intriguing and quite funny, Stern proceeded to give the emcee a frank warning by telling him that his habit could lead to a higher possibility of developing haemorrhoids. Humorously enlightening Malone, Stern asked, “Are you pushing the whole time? Because you really could get haemorrhoids, and I’m not making a joke.”
Malone took it on board but insisted the toilet was his happy place, telling the renowned host, “It’s my special zone. ‘Cause no one wants to talk to you when you’re taking a s***. I wouldn’t say it’s a hideaway as much as it’s an oasis.”
Although it seems strange, Post Malone isn’t the only rapper who openly admits to finding inspiration in the bathroom. In a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone, Eminem revealed that he came up with the nickname Slim Shady while on the toilet. Unveiling this, he declared, “Boom, the name hit me, and right away I thought of all these words to rhyme with it. So I wiped my a**, got up off the pot, and went and called everybody I knew.”