Lil Nas X may be an openly gay artist, but in a recent interview with XXL, he revealed that he may have never come out if it weren’t for the success of his first single, “Old Town Road.”

“I don’t think I would have ever came out,” he said. “I honestly felt like it was kind of my duty. Especially if I wanted to move forward. And what I was doing, because authenticity is very real, and I feel like people can see right through that. And that’s a part of me.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Lil Nas addressed the critics who claimed that “Old Town Road” was his only successful hit.

“I am a very — and I wasn’t always, like, I was an atheist at one point—but I’ve become a very spiritual person in terms of the Universe, how everything works,” he told XXL. “And I believe the Universe — if God, if my angels or whatever — put me in the place to have the biggest song in the world, why would they want me to stop right there? There’s obviously a greater purpose. There’s obviously something greater to be uncovered.”

“Of course, I was getting a lot of one-hit wonder [comments],” he continued. “I still do to this day. I get a lot of like, people discrediting or saying, ‘OK, this song was only successful because of this. This song was only successful for that.’ And it, it’s kind of just like, ‘OK, let me show you. Let me show you, and I’m going to show myself. I’m gonna build my legacy right before your eyes. So, if you ever feel the need to count anybody else out, just know, you should probably wait, you know?’”

Since releasing “Old Town Road,” Nas X dropped his debut album Montero, which has recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart. Additionally, 11 of the songs from the album have earned placements on the Billboard Hot 100 with “MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name),” “Industry Baby,” and “That’s What I Want” landing in the top 10.