Lil Nas X is on top of the world right now, and in an in-depth interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, he opens up about the journey to this point, including the fear he’s still working to overcome. “I guess I was always and still am afraid of being any kind of vulnerable,” he admits. “Because the way the world works, if you tell them your darkest secret, the second somebody doesn't like you, they're going to throw that shit in your face.” But if he second-guesses himself, it's nearly impossible to tell on his debut album MONTERO, which has confidence and imagination in spades. If the microscope of being a public figure is a source of anxiety for the artist, then creating in spite of that is his balm. “Music saved my entire life, like all artists say, and I truly get it now,” he tells Zane. “It gave me an outlet to just have more of a purpose, have something that I want to dedicate myself to, have something I love, have something that I'm not doing for somebody else.”