How Sam Smith's songwriting changed on their new album

Our guest this episode, Sam Smith, is one of the most popular singers in the world. Sam's music has more than 57 billion streams. We first met in 2014 in Sam's hometown in England, when their debut album was just blowing up. Now, a dozen years later, Sam came to my home to talk about their stunning fifth album, "Hazel Eyes."

00:00 "That's where I sat with you"

00:32 Welcome to Alchemy

02:13 A queer love album — and a radical one

03:51 Leaving the pop factory

05:08 The pressure of being a billion-stream artist

07:14 Inside "Thief"

12:08 A private relationship with singing

13:31 Church, gospel, and singing alone

14:33 Vocal surgery, cancelled arenas, and stage fear

17:20 The field in the countryside

19:34 Going back to school in 2014

22:14 Becoming a New Yorker

25:21 The Met Gala, and fashion as armor

31:22 The songs Sam won't sing anymore

35:35 Panic and an overactive imagination

37:10 The letter from Tom Petty

43:56 Pronouns, backlash, and being a political artist

48:10 The Pink House

50:32 Sam Served: the food vlog

54:05 How Sam handles the flak

56:08 What music gives Sam now

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The FLAG Art Foundation is a nonprofit contemporary art exhibition space in New York's Chelsea Arts District. Since 2008, FLAG has staged more than 100 exhibitions celebrating nearly 1,000 artists, with innovative partnerships including the Parrish Art Museum, the Serpentine Galleries in London, and the Harlem Children's Zone. FLAG is free and open to the public. Follow FLAG on ⁠Instagram⁠⁠ (instagram.com/flagartfoundation).

About Anthony Mason:

Anthony Mason, the host of Alchemy, is also a Special Correspondent with CBS News. One of the most versatile and experienced television journalists, Anthony co-hosted CBS This Morning: Saturday for seven years (2012-2019), and then the weekday CBS This Morning broadcast for two more. But he may be best known for his interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Annie Leibovitz, Judi Dench, David Hockney, and André 3000. He has won a dozen Emmy Awards. In 2023, the Songwriters Hall of Fame presented him their Patron of the Arts Award. And for the past three years he has hosted the GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala.