Drake Bell is using his new music as a way to process his experience.
The 37-year-old singer-actor released "I Kind of Relate," a new song on his experience, along with a music video a few days after disclosing that he had been sexually abused as a child actor on Nickelodeon.
The song, "running away / From the abuse and all the shame," and the video, which has him on a television set that looks like it could be from his old Nickelodeon series, Drake and Josh, seem to be references to his past.
"This song was inspired by my past and now that my story is being told I felt the time was right to share it," Bell wrote in the caption of the video on YouTube.
A little boy is shown in the beginning of the film reading aloud on a TV before an adult guy ushers him into a trailer and shuts the blinds. The outside of the trailer and the back of the chair both say "Drake Bell," when he stands up.
Then, Bell himself makes an appearance in the film, seated in a car and appearing to have just survived a collision with blood on his face.
Following surgery, the "Found a Way" singer watches what looks to be a group therapy session. Eventually, he takes up a guitar in a scene that mirrors the bedroom that Josh Nichols (played by Josh Peck), the character's step-brother, and his character, Drake Parker, shared on Drake and Josh.
Following surgery, the "Found a Way" singer watches what looks to be a group therapy session. Eventually, he takes up a guitar in a scene that mirrors the bedroom that Josh Nichols (played by Josh Peck), the character's step-brother, and his character, Drake Parker, shared on Drake and Josh.
"I kind of relate / I found beauty in my pain / I’m running away / From the abuse and all the shame," he sings on the pop-rock song. "‘Cause no one comes / To my house anymore / No one knocks on my door / I kind of relate / The wrong decisions I have made / I wanted to stay / But I couldn’t last another day / My golden days / They seem so far and gray / So I’m running away (running away)."
The former cast member of The Amanda Show spoke up on Instagram shortly after the release of "I Kind of Relate" on Monday, sharing the story behind the images of a vehicle crash in the music video.
Drake Bell recreates the Drake and Josh set for a music video After revealing he had been sexually abused