BTS’ RM Reveals How Jonghyun’s ‘Shocking’ Suicide Affected Him: ‘I Couldn’t Sleep’

Billboard Magazine

Jonghyun’s suicide in December 2017 rattled fans around the world, and for the first time, RM of BTS is opening up about how the tragedy impacted him, too.

K-pop group BTS (Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jungkook) doesn’t shy away from the issues of suicide and depression in South Korea in a Feb. 15 interview for the cover of Billboard. When Jonghyun took his own life in December, BTS paid their respects at his funeral, and RM is now shedding a little more light on that difficult period.

“We went to give our condolences that morning,” RM says. “I couldn’t sleep at all that night. It was so shocking, because we had seen him so often at events. He was so successful.” BTS was filmed walking to the funeral hall at the Asan Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea on Dec. 18, along with other K-pop groups such as Girls’ Generation, NCT, and BoA. “It was a shock to everyone,” Suga adds, “And I really sympathized with him.”

RM also expresses his hope that lawmakers change policies to take the stress off the younger generations. “Honestly, from our standpoint, every day is stressful for our generation,” he explains. “It’s hard to get a job, it’s harder to attend college now more than ever…adults need to create policies that can facilitate that overall social change. Right now, the privileged class, the upper class needs to change the way they think.”

“And this isn’t just Korea, but the rest of the world. The reason why our music resonates with people around the world who are in their teens, 20s and 30s is because of these issues,” Suga adds. Hopefully, groups like BTS will continue to come forward and have conversations about issues like these.

You can click through the gallery, attached, to see all of BTS’ different covers for Billboard.

HollywoodLifers, what do you think of BTS’ interview?