Joshua Bassett Reveals Heart Failure Battle After Olivia Rodrigo 'Driver's License' Backlash

“Driver’s License” is the heartbreak anthem heard round the world earlier this year, and it secured up-and-coming star Olivia Rodrigo a spot among the best in music.

Some even dubbed her the next ‘Taylor Swift,’ which if you’re a Rodrigo fan, you know that is her number one idol!

The song is essentially about a really bad breakup where the guy seemingly leaves Rodrigo for another girl, a girl with blonde hair.

This started an all-out game of “Clue,” the music edition, among fans.

Many fans believed the male character in the song to be her “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series” co-star and on-screen love interest, Joshua Bassett. While ‘that blonde girl’ was rumored to be Sabrina Carpenter.

Rodrigo and Bassett were rumored to be dating off-screen as well, so “Driver’s License” was basically rumored to be her exposé on the breakup.

Rodrigo has never confirmed if the song is about the love triangle comprised of Bassett, Carpenter and herself, but given the timing of its release and the social media photos of Bassett and Carpenter together, any investigative amateur could put the pieces together.

Around the same time of the song’s release, Bassett released his own song, “Lie, Lie, Lie,” and took to social media to let fans know he had been hospitalized.

On his IG stories, he said the song was about “a friend that had been lying about him behind his back for a long time.” He wrote the song months prior to Rodrigo's 'DL' release.

So, while it didn’t seem like it was going to be about Olivia, fans still couldn’t wait to hear the lyrics and break it all down.

Unfortunately, as his song was being released on streaming platforms and the music video was dropping on YouTube, Joshua was suffering from severe pain.

He captioned the clip, “welp... not the first place i assumed i’d be on my Lie Lie Lie release day... the ER!! (before you ask, no it’s not covid.) after an unknown, uncomfortable feeling turned into, times 10, the worst pain of my life, i figured i’d just try to sleep. after multiple, very very ugly days and nights, i had no choice today but be taken to the hospital. i’d like to say thank you!!!! for all the support on the song!!! i’ve been doing what i can today to stay involved. had my first surgery tonight! gonna rest at the hospital and the doctors will see what they see in the morn!”

Bassett has not spoken about the mystery illness since January; however, a shocking revelation was made during a recent interview with GQ!

While discussing the ‘DL’ phenomenon and the #Jolivia relationship timeline theories, Bassett told GQ, “People don’t know anything they’re talking about,” explaining that, “the hardest thing has been biting my tongue, in a lot of ways, but the reality is it’s kind of like a lost cause trying to talk about any of that stuff, and I refuse to feed into any of the bulls***, so I just don’t.”

He has remained pretty tight-lipped in interviews when asked any questions about Rodrigo, Carpenter, and the music they’ve both released.

Rather, Bassett has praised Rodrigo on numerous occasions since the release of her song and first album.

The ‘HSMTMTS’ actor then revealed a different story about “Driver’s License.” He revealed that two days after the song was released, he started to get very ill and it worsened over time.

"I thought it was, like, food poisoning or whatever. It got worse, it got worse, it got worse, it got worse,” the actor revealed.

He didn’t have a definite cause for the illness, but thought stress may have had something to do with it.

“It turned out to be septic shock and heart failure. The doctors told me that I had a 30% chance of survival. They told me that if I had not checked into the hospital within 12 hours, I would have been found dead in my apartment,” Bassett revealed.

This occurred while social media went wild dragging his name and gossiping about the “love triangle.”

Since his near-death experience, Joshua has been focusing on therapy, meditation, reading self-help books, writing poetry, and calling his ‘HSMTMTS’ co-star turned best friend, Matt Cornett.