Alex Warren opened up about struggling with grief after losing his parents during an emotional monologue in Perth on Saturday.
Hear the monologue by clicking play.
During a sold-out performance RAC Arena, the 25-year-old musician described the profound isolation he felt after losing his father at nine years old and his mother in 2021.
“One day, randomly, your life was perfect. The next day I didn’t have a dad. That’s grief.
“Every parent would come up to me and go ‘oh it gets better’, but it never did. I was able to manage it a little bit better, but my dad was still dead,” he said.
Warren admitted he “didn’t want to come to terms” with his father’s passing, sharing how he eventually stopped telling his dad’s story.
“I didn’t want to be different. I didn’t want to come to terms with the fact my dad’s dead. I would never talk about it. I wouldn’t. I didn’t want to bring it up in a room,” he said.
“I stopped talking about it, I stopped bringing him up, I just wanted to be the cool kid in the room until one day I started to forget the way that he looked. I forgot the way that he smelt. I forgot the way that he felt to hug when I just needed advice. I forgot my dad.”
The American singer shared how isolated he felt during that time.
“I was surrounded by so many people, yet I felt so alone,” he told the crowd.
When his mother passed away in 2021, he expected to handle the grief better—only to find the reality was the exact opposite.
“I thought I could handle that better. ‘You know I did this already. How much bigger can that feeling get? How much more can I feel the loss?’ It was so much worse.
“I walked out of that hospital and I looked around, I was so angry,” he said.
Warren explained how realising he wasn’t alone in experiencing grief inspired him to encourage fans to keep sharing the memories and stories of their departed loved ones.
“People die twice. They die when they die and they die when you stop telling their stories. Don’t make the mistake that I did. Don’t make the mistake of not talking.”
