Macklemore revisits his battle with drug addiction during his conversation with Jay Shetty on the latest podcast episode of “On Purpose with Jay Shetty”.
Macklemore, real name Benjamin Haggerty, revealed that during the peak of his success with his album “The Heist” in 2013, he entered a full-on stage of addiction.
“All of a sudden, this music that you feel like is yours becomes the world and it becomes open, you know, to public interpretation,” explained the rapper.
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“And I think I lost it then. I think that there was a point where it wasn’t just a relapse anymore. I went back into active addiction around that time period. I didn’t know how to maneuver the success. I had been an underground rapper forever, and as long as that, you know, my entire career was just like this.”
The 39-year-old musician then explained how drugs became an escape for him following the flurry of media attention surrounding him during his abundance of success.
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“And when that skyrocket moment happened and you’re at the mercy of the critics and the think pieces and like the people that are out there just to write scathing reviews or whatever, I lost it. And when, and I compounded that by then turning to drugs to escape it, right?”
The “Thrift Shop” rapper described how long he’s been battling his addiction issues.
“I’ve been in and out of the rooms of recovery for 14 years now, and I relapsed at the beginning of Covid.”
Though the journey with addiction has been one full of setbacks and tribulations, Haggerty finds himself relying on his wife for support, who has been sober for 14 years. “She holds me accountable even when I don’t want to be held accountable,” concludes the rapper.
