Harry Styles Recalls Mushrooms During Fine Line Sessions
Mr Harry Styles has revisited the making of his 2019 album Fine Line, describing how psychedelic mushrooms formed part of the atmosphere during recording at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studios in Malibu. The singer’s comments, alongside scientific context offered by a leading researcher, have prompted renewed attention on how artists talk about creativity and altered states.
Discussing the sessions, High Times reported that Mr Styles said he “did a lot of mushrooms” at the studio, adding that he and collaborators would lie on the grass listening to Paul McCartney’s Ram in the sunshine, and recalling an incident in which he bit the tip of his tongue while trying to sing through the bleeding.
The piece also details that several Fine Line tracks were worked on at Shangri-La, including “Golden”, “Adore You”, “She” and “Watermelon Sugar”. It quotes Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris, a University of California, San Francisco neuroscientist, who described how classic psychedelics can shift the brain away from rigid, top-down patterns of thinking and towards play, spontaneity and what he characterised as creative “flow”.
Mr Styles’ remarks arrive as his public profile remains closely watched, including recent debate around his visuals and fan reaction after his ‘Dance No More’ video drew backlash earlier this year.
While the researcher stressed that individual experiences vary and the article does not claim proof of a direct cause-and-effect link between drug use and songwriting, the discussion underscores how Fine Line has become part of a wider cultural conversation about pop music, studio mythology and the language artists use to explain inspiration.
