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Lil Nas X’s father says pressure to provide for his family contributed to son’s “breakdown”

By Poppy Burton Sep 2, 2025 | 4:43 AM

Lil Nas X’s father has said pressure to provide for their family contributed to his son’s recent “breakdown”.

In a new interview with The Times, the rapper’s father Robert Stafford shared his perspective about his son’s arrest last month (August 21). It came after the ‘Old Town Road’ rapper was reported to be walking down the street in his underwear in Studio City in the early morning hours.

There were also reports that the artist (real name Montero Lamar Hill) was seen speaking incoherently as he wandered the streets around his home. His attorney, Christy O’Connor, later said there was no evidence of drug use as had been speculated, per BBC News, and described the incident as “an aberrant episode in an otherwise productive life”.

The rapper remained behind bars over the weekend, with LAPD having cited a law concerning resisting or obstructing an officer, and the singer was later charged with three counts of battery against a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer.

Stafford blamed the incident on the intense pressure of the music industry, coupled with being a provider for his family and his mother’s reported struggles with addiction.

“For a 26-year-old to have to deal with what he’s dealing with – to be a breadwinner for a lot of people, the inability to change his mother’s situation and the pressure he puts on himself – that can weigh heavily on your heart,” Stafford said.

“I went to visit him in jail and as soon as I walked through that door, I couldn’t do anything but cry,” his father continued. “To see my baby boy on the other side of that glass. We shed tears with each other for a minute. And I had to tell him that ‘What you’re going through is normal’.

“We all have breakdowns every now and then, but the difference is, yours get played out in the public eye. When I went to visit he asked me to say, ‘Tell everybody I’m sorry they saw me like that’,” he said.

“Even in that moment, he was apologising to people for something he was going through.”

Lil Nas X’s bail was set at £75,000 (£55,460), and he pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case will now move to pretrial on September 15 and the judge has ordered him to attend an outpatient drug rehabilitation programme according to Reuters.

Hill has since shared an update with fans, saying he was physically and mentally OK but still shaken by the whole ordeal, which he said was “terrifying”.

The incident came just days after Lil Nas X deleted his Instagram history and renamed his account ‘QUEEN MADELINE’. He had also posted a number of images of artwork and shared clips of what seems to be new music.

In March, he released the ‘Days Before Dreamboy’ EP, which was intended to be the latest step of a new album campaign. The album ‘DREAMBOY’ had been predicted for a 2025 release, although no date has been confirmed. When it does drop, it will be his first full-length album since his 2021 debut ‘Montero’.

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