Pop Star Reveals She Tore Her ACL on Stage, Rips False Reports of Her Being Drunk

Kesha didn’t let an injury keep her from performing. During an interview on Reclaiming With Monica Lewinsky, the singer revealed that she once powered through after injuring herself during a concert.

“I remember I tore my ACL on stage. That was brutal, and in, like, song three or something,” Kesha recalled. “I was playing a festival in Dubai and I tore my ACL and I f**king got up and I played guitar and I sang and I finished the f**king show.”

The press, Kesha said, had a different take on what went down during the show, though.

“I wake up the next day and I’m like, ‘Wow, I am such a f**king monster badass,’” she remembered. “And I wake up and there’s an article on TMZ saying I was drunk at the show.”

The false report particular perturbed Kesha because she “literally, absof**kinglutely never have one drink before a show ever.”

“Well, I did one time, the first time I played Lollapalooza in 2009,” she admitted, before explaining that that one experience turned her off to the practice.

“After that… I was like ‘OK, I’m never doing that again. I’m never drinking before a show,’” she said.

Kesha’s New Chapter

The interview came the same month that Kesha released her latest album, . (PERIOD). Speaking to People about the LP, Kesha noted how liberated she feels getting to release her music through her own independent label, Kesha Records, after years-long legal woes.

“It makes me really emotional,” she said. “I have a phone alert that says, ‘You are free. Are you following your joy?’ For so many years I couldn’t say that [I was]. Now I’m reteaching my body how to be a free woman, dance like a free woman, sing like a free woman.”

“I got to put something to bed and get back to regular programming,” Kesha added. “For this chapter I really wanted to capture the moments where I felt liberated, safe, happy, playful, hot, horny, but all of it was coming from a whole place; I feel very whole.”

Now that she’s in a better place personally, Kesha said, “all of my energy gets to focus back on my true purpose—helping people feel seen, loved, safe, and f**king entertained as hell.”

“My power is all back in my hands,” she said, “and I’m excited.”

Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Stagecoach