Jessica Simpson on Not Feeling ‘Good Enough’ as a Star in the 2000s

Jessica Simpson reflected on being a pop star in the early 2000s during a show in Mashantucket, Connecticut over the weekend. Speaking to the crowd, the singer shared words of encouragement for fans and opened up about how Nashville helped her return to music.

“My whole music career, I had a job, and that was to be a pop star, and I tried,” the singer told the audience gathered at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in a video shared by TV producer John Pascarella. “You see. when you’re younger, you never feel good enough, and it’s okay to not feel good enough.”

Earlier this year, Jessica Simpson returned to the stage after a 15-year hiatus — performing at SXSW in March and releasing a pair EPs, Nashville Canyon Part I and II.

“I do love Nashville,” Simpson continued. “It brought me home, to myself. It brought me inside of my heart in a really hard time of my life. I just kind of had to surrender myself to my intuition, to the light that was in front of me. I just focused on that.”

Simpson made her debut with 1999’s Sweet Kisses, following it up with Irresistible (2001) and In This Skin (2003). Yet it was her MTV reality show Newlyweds, co-starring then-husband Nick Lachey, that sent her fame skyrocketing in the early aughts.

When speaking to Rolling Stone back in March about her new era of music, Simpson said, “When I’ve had success in my life is when I’ve just been honest and real,” adding, “I’ve never gotten a chance to do that in music until now.”