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‘I couldn’t even spit my toothpaste out’: Lucy Rose on returning to music after agonising maternal osteoporosis

The singer-songwriter discusses the pain and isolation after breaking eight vertebrae – and having her self-esteem restored by Paul Weller

I’m sitting with Rose, 34 – who began her career as a backing vocalist with Bombay Bicycle Club, before striking out with her own successful brand of ethereally beautiful folk-pop – at her kitchen table in Brighton, where she lives with her husband, Will. Today, Rose’s bone density is still severely low – “If I fell over, it probably wouldn’t be good” – but thanks to drugs (the funding for which she had to secure from her local council, another source of stress) and hydrotherapy, her life is largely back to normal. Her excellent fifth album, This Ain’t the Way You Go Out – a mantra inspired by the straight-talking hydrotherapist who treated her – sees her swap the sparse, maudlin soulfulness of her previous record for hook-laden, intricately layered tunes shot through with stark pain.

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