Drake Bell Recreates “Drake and Josh” Set for Music Video After Revealing He Was Sexually Abused
Bell recently revealed he was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of dialogue coach Brian Peck while working as a child actor on Nickelodeon
Drake Bell is processing his trauma through new music.
Several days after the singer/actor, 37, revealed he was a victim of sexual abuse while working as a child actor on Nickelodeon, he's released "I Kind of Relate," a new song about his experience and an accompanying music video.
The project seemingly alludes to his past, as the song finds him singing of "running away / From the abuse and all the shame," while the visual sees him appearing on a television set that resembles his former Nickelodeon series, Drake and Josh.
"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.
Related: Drake Bell Says He Was Sexually Abused at Age 15 By Nickelodeon Dialogue Coach
The video opens to a young boy reading over his lines on a TV set until an adult man leads him into a trailer and closes the blinds. As he stands up, the back of the chair reveals his name to be "Drake Bell," as does the exterior of the trailer.
Bell himself then appears in the video, sitting in a car with his face bloodied, as if he has just survived a crash.
After undergoing surgery, the "Found a Way" singer sits in on what appears to be a group therapy sessionand eventually picks up a guitar in a set that greatly resembles the bedroom that his character Drake Parker and his step-brother, Josh Nichols (played by Josh Peck), 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)."
Related: Everything Nickelodeon Stars Have Said About the Alleged 'Toxic Environment' on Set
Shortly after "I Kind of Relate" dropped on Monday, the former cast member of The Amanda Show took to Instagram to open up about the genesis behind the car crash imagery in the music video.
"For those who might not get some of the references in the video. This was my car accident," he wrote in the caption of a photo of himself in a hospital bed with his hands and face bloodied.
"I was stopped at a red light and someone fell asleep at the wheel and hit me head on at about 60 mph," he continued. "I broke my jaw in three places fractured my neck and lost 9 teeth. My jaw was wired shut for six months. Luckily I was driving a 1966 Ford Mustang and the strength of the car kept it from crushing in on me saving my life."
Related: A Timeline of Drake Bell's Career and Controversies
The song and music video comes less than a week after the former child star came forward as a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of dialogue coach Brian Peck. Bell began to open up about the experience, which occurred when over a six month period when he was 15, in a preview released in anticipation of the Investigation Discovery series Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
“The clip reveals that former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell will be sharing publicly, for the first time, the story of the abuse he suffered at the hands of Brian Peck, his former dialogue coach who was convicted in 2004 for his crimes against Drake and ordered to register as a sex offender,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a press release shared with PEOPLE.
In 2004, in connection with Bell's case, Peck pleaded no contest to a charge of oral copulation with a minor under 16 as well as a charge of performing a lewd act with a teenager. Bell's identity as the victim was not made public at the time. Peck spent 16 months in prison and was mandated to register as a sex offender.
The four-part program, which premiered on Sunday and resumes on Monday at 9 p.m. ET/PT, explores Bell's experience, and sheds light on other anecdotes about the toxic, dangerous culture behind some of the most beloved children's shows of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Bell is among the performers who appear in the docuseries. He previously starred on Nickelodeon's All That and The Amanda Show from 1999 to 2002 before landing his own series with the network, Drake & Josh, in 2004.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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