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Squeeze’s Glenn Tilbrook opens up about childhood abuse.
In a conversation that felt less like a formal interview and more like a quiet, confessional chat over tea, Glenn Tilbrook, the eternally melodic voice and guitarist of the beloved British band Squeeze, has chosen to pull back the curtain on a part of his life previously shrouded in silence. Speaking with a reflective calm that belies the weight of his words, Tilbrook described his childhood as “quite dysfunctional,” a simple phrase that opens a door to a much deeper and more painful history of abuse.For decades, Tilbrook has been the cheerful, buoyant presence on stage, the man behind infectiously clever pop songs like ‘Cool for Cats’ and ‘Up the Junction,’ his public persona a stark contrast to the private turmoil he endured. He reveals that he doesn’t carry a burning anger, a sentiment many might find surprising, but rather a dawning, sobering clarity that has intensified with age.‘As I’ve got older, I’ve realised things that haven’t been OK,’ he shared, a statement that resonates with the experience of countless adults who, in the quiet of their later years, find themselves re-examining their past with a new, more critical lens. This process of late-life reckoning is a common thread in the human experience, where the survival mechanisms of childhood—normalizing the abnormal, burying the pain—begin to crumble under the weight of accumulated wisdom and self-awareness.For an artist like Tilbrook, whose life’s work has been to distill human emotion into three-minute pop gems, this admission adds a profound, poignant layer to his entire catalogue. One can’t help but listen to the nuanced storytelling in a song like ‘Labelled with Love’ or the wistful yearning in ‘Tempted’ and wonder about the wellspring of empathy and understanding of heartache that fueled them.His journey mirrors that of other public figures, from Oprah Winfrey to Tyler Perry, who have used their platforms to reframe their personal trauma not as a source of shame but as a part of their narrative, ultimately helping to dismantle the stigma that keeps so many silent. By speaking out, Tilbrook isn’t just sharing his story; he’s participating in a broader, cultural conversation about resilience, the complex, non-linear path of healing, and the redefinition of strength—which often looks less like defiance and more like gentle acknowledgment. His choice to come forward now, in a phase of life often associated with settling scores or making peace, underscores a powerful truth: understanding and confronting one’s past is not an act of dwelling, but a courageous step toward wholeness, a final, difficult verse added to a lifelong song.
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