Six years after he first publicly identified as bisexual, Jason Mraz is looking back on his path to living truthfully.

The two-time Grammy winner and Dancing With the Stars contestant appeared on Jesse Tyler Ferguson s Dinners on Me podcast Tuesday and explained why he kept quiet about his sexuality early in his career.

I didnt have too many sexual experiences in high school, said Mraz, who grew up in Virginia. I was bullied and was just ready to get out of town. So thats why New York City was great and then, even eventually, California was great.

He continued: The romance in my songs was just copying other romance in songs these are things that you sing about to please others or something. It wouldnt be probably until I got to California that I met a community of people that would see me in a new way that Id never fully been seen before. And I liked how I was being seen and heard.