‘My body became so sick’: Rupi Kaur reveals the physical toll of viral fame to Rick Rubin

The self published book grew into an international phenomenon. “This book became like a machine and got so noisy. You know, it was like on the New York Times bestseller list for a hundred weeks from selling like millions of copies. And I was like 22, 23 years old and it was amazing. And then equally traumatising.”

Success at speed and its cost

A screengrab of Rupi Kaur’s Instagram profile, which mentions that the poet is on sabbatical. (@rupikaur_/Instagram)

The wave of attention carried contracts and tight deadlines. The second book had to be produced in a matter of months. She explains, “I like lock myself in the room and I started to create in a way that was not organic to me.” She searched for a method in the habits of well known authors. “Stephen King says, you know, you need to like put these many hours in and these many words. And it was like writing became such a punishing act.”

Her health deteriorated under the pressure. “My body became so sick and I would go through these like 72 hour migraine spells. I couldn’t digest food. It was just like pain all the time.” The book reached readers although she often wishes she had longer to shape it. She also reflects that limitless time could have held it back completely. “Maybe it would have never come out.”

A sabbatical reshapes her sense of self

After 10 years of touring and constant output she sensed a need to step away. “This last fall, I kind of celebrated the 10 year anniversary of my first book. And I knew I was like, okay, we’re kind of done with this chapter. And so I decided to take a sabbatical.” She stepped back from her team and from the constant public presence that many expected of her.

The distance brought clarity. “It’s been amazing and it’s been. Been so humanising and I’ve been definitely getting back into the driver’s seat of my life again, feeling good about it and feeling that spark come back and that magic.”

Long before social media, there was the stage

Rubin raises the well worn label “Instagram poet.” Kaur says, “See, for me, I never saw myself as that. Because I started performing. For me, it started on the stage.”

Her first open mic came in her teens. She saw a poster, wrote a piece and stepped up to read it without even naming it a poem. “It went against my entire personality to want to share something like this. It’s a very bad poem, but I recited it anyway, and it was so electrifying. It felt like the first time that people were listening.”

She spent years sharing work in community spaces before moving online. On Tumblr she found that longer spoken word pieces felt flat on screen, prompting her shift to tighter forms. “I call them peach pits. So I’ll, like, write a first draught, and then it’s about, like, peeling back the skin and the flesh and just presenting the core of the idea, so. So that it’s like the most concentrated form and it hits you hard and fast, you know, like a shot of vodka or something.”

Rupi’s collections of poetry, milk and honey and the sun and her flowers, have sold millions of copies and been translated in over 42 languages. (Generated using AI)

A performance that blends intimacy and uplift

Her live show has grown into a full evening that mixes poetry with original music and anecdotal storytelling. She tells Rubin, “It sort of became like a 90 minute, sometimes 120. Theatrical experience of poetry that sits on top of like original music that we were producing. But then there was a narrative weaved through with storytelling and almost like a form of standup comedy.”

Audiences bring a charged energy to the room. “It’s really fun, loud and engaging. It’s like half of it feels like a party and then the other half feels like a sleepover on Friday night with your best girlfriends.” She begins with heavier themes before leading the room toward release. “We work through that and then we always end up in a place of, like, celebration.”

Readers often tell her the poems speak directly to their inner lives. Someone will point to a page and ask, “this one. How did you know.” Kaur sees that bond clearly. “I think they come to me in a way. It’s to connect with themselves, really, because it’s a very. People have a very intensely emotional bond with the poetry.”

Faith, oneness and a spark returning

Kaur speaks with Rubin about the influence of Sikhi. “We believe in this oneness, that we are all connected and so, you know, we are everything and we are nothing all at once.” The sabbatical has strengthened this connection. “I would say the sabbatical has given me a lot of space to connect with that, and my entire world is changing because of it.”

A new book is forming and she feels the sensation physically. She describes a spark coming back. As the conversation draws to its close Rubin asks what she believes now in adulthood that she did not believe when she was young. She answers, “that great things can happen to me.”