Appearing on the SmartLess podcast, the singer and actress confirmed she potentially plans to retire from music after her next album to focus solely on acting.
“I started having a lot of fun with music and then touring was really fun,” Gomez told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. “But I was doing my TV show [Wizards of Waverly Place] at the same time and I just found it really fun so I just kept going. But the older I get, the more I’m kind of like, ‘I would like to find something to just settle on.’”
She continued, “I do feel like I have one more album in me, but I would probably choose acting.” After the hosts praised her talent and noted that she didn’t have to pick over the other, she added, “You’re right, but I am going to want to chill because I’m tired.”
Gomez also discussed the toll her heavy workload took on her as she was coming up in the industry. “I went to a mental institute and canceled one of my tours,” she recalled. “It just got to me because I love working and it distracts me from bad things.”
She reflected on her hit Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place, which led her into an unplanned music career.
“Disney is, it’s safe to say, a machine and, in a way, forcefully require that I know how to sing so I could sing the theme song,” she said. “They know how to package someone and make it a whole triple threat thing.”
“I wanted to be an actress, I never really intended on being a singer full-time but apparently that hobby turned into something else,” she added. “I don’t think I’m the best singer but I do know how to tell stories and I love being able to make songs.”
