Hilary Duff Reveals How Disney Really Felt About Her Music Career

The multi-hyphenate said pursuing a career in music was solely her idea.

Hilary Duff appeared on the Feb. 27 episode of Josh Peck and Ben Soffer's podcast Good Guys, where she shared the shocking revelation that Disney Channel initially didn't want her to pursue a career in music.

Throughout the 2000s, it seemed to be a requisite for Disney Channel stars to be both actors and singers—even Zendaya had a short stint in music before focusing on acting full-time—but as Duff explained, that wasn't always the network's vision for its stars.

On the episode, Peck recalled that during his time at Nickelodeon, the network "sort of had this setup where once you're 18, you're done and the show's done, [the actors] are done, because you've probably just aged out of the demo."

The Drake & Josh star mentioned that, from his perspective, Disney Channel "did a bit of a better job" of handling its actors aging, by encouraging them to pursue talents like singing, and growing with its stars. 

However, Duff noted that was not initially the case.

"I, at the time, wanted to start singing and they were not super on board. Like, they didn't want to sign me right away at Hollywood Records [a label under Disney] Music Group and obviously that was the first place we decided to go," she explained. 

Duff said the label's chairman Bob Cavallo, who was previously Prince's manager, was the one who eventually decided to sign her.

"It wasn't like they were like, 'Let's just juice this for what we can.' It was my idea," disclosed the multi-hyphenate.

At the time, Duff saw music as a way to break away from only being seen as Lizzie McGuire, and allowing herself to have a career while "being [her] own person."

"I thought music would be a good way to reintroduce myself," she said.

Duff went on to release three albums under Hollywood Records: Metamorphosis, Hilary Duff, and Dignity. Her final LP, Breathe In. Breathe Out. came out in 2015, under label RCA.

Though her career in music proved to be as successful as her acting, the "Come Clean" singer recently told Parade she doesn't have plans to make new music.

"I'm very lucky that I live with an amazing producer and songwriter as my husband, so any time I want to, he's there for me. But I'm busy; I don't know how that would work. I'm not a very balanced person," she said. 

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