Adele opens up about what it was like to start dating after her divorce

(NOTE LANGUAGE) Adele is ready to release 30, her first new album in almost six years. The album chronicles her divorce from husband Simon Konecki and the emotional toll it took on her.

“It really helped me [to make] this album,” she tells Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in a new interview, revealing that she “really went to hell and back” when recording 30.

Adele, 33, also revealed that dating after her divorce was another kind of hell, which she sings about in the track, “Can I Get It.” The song, she says, is about her realizing how fame made dating harder, forcing her to abide by a new and strict of rules to protect herself.

“First of all, LA is not the f****** place to go dating when you’re Adele,” she scoffed, noting that she was not into the city’s hookup scene. “I’ve left my marriage to go forward, not to f****** go backwards.”

The “Hello” singer admits that, after her divorce, she had “never been this well-known and been single” at the same time, because she had been with someone after releasing her earlier albums, 1921 and 25. “I just never experienced… dating as a grownup really but also everyone knowing who I am.”

Adele adds she shot down the idea of using apps like Tinder because she “can’t be going out with strangers.” The Grammy winner eventually learned how to navigate the dating pool and began asking out people she “hadn’t seen since I was a lot younger” who sparked her interest “as an adult.”

Adele is currently dating sports agent Rich Paul, who reps LeBron James.

30 arrives Friday, November 19. Adele treated fans to another teaser on Wednesday, releasing a video performance of a new song, “To Be Loved,” on Twitter.