Jin and Suga discuss BTS’ “mentally and physically” difficult 2018

BTS members Suga and Jin have opened up about what led to the latter’s MAMA 2018 speech, where he shared that the group had considered disbanding.

On June 10, Suga released a special episode of his talk show Suchwita for the boyband’s 2023 BTS Festa celebrations. Appearing as a guest was bandmate Jin, who filmed the episode just days prior to his military enlistment in December 2022.

Throughout the episode, the pair, later joined by J-hope, looked back on BTS’ journey over the years, eventually discussing the group’s tearful acceptance speech at the 2018 MAMA awards. “It was a tough year,” Suga reflected.

During his speech, Jin shared that 2018 had been a mentally tough year, revealing that the group had talked about potentially disbanding at the time. “I was wondering what made you say that, because we don’t talk about what to say for our acceptance speeches,” Suga asked.

“That was when we were promoting ‘Fake Love’ and every month, we only had a day and half [to rest]. I got really mad over that half day,” Jin shared. “For about three months, we only had one day off each month.”

“The agency said we had to work like that in order to make it, and we knew that wasn’t entirely wrong,” he added. “That’s why we worked so hard, but mentally and physically it was too hard on us. We just wanted to let it all go, we were like, ‘I can’t do this anymore, let’s stop here.’”

The singer added that despite BTS eventually overcoming those times, he had simply wanted to be honest with fans in that moment. “I’m sure it could’ve sounded negative, because it’s not an easy thing to talk about,” Jin said.

“But it was in the past already […] And it was true that we had thought about it. Everything turned out okay in the end, so that’s why I just talked about it later,” Jin explained.

Last week, BTS released the single ‘Take Two’ as part of their annual BTS Festa event, which celebrates their tenth anniversary this year. “The song conveys their appreciation toward ARMY for all the love you shower them with and their desire to always be together with you,” said Big Hit Music of the new track.

The song marks BTS’ second group release of 2023, following the release of ‘The Planet’ last month for the soundtrack of the upcoming South Korean animated series Bastions.

In addition to releases like ‘Take Two’ and the new Suchwita episode, BTS’ 2023 Festa also includes several events across major landmarks in Seoul as part of a collaboration with the Seoul metropolitan government.