Macklemore.Photo: Christopher Willard/Getty
Macklemoreis celebrating the progress he’s made on his sobriety journey following his2020 relapse.
On Sunday, the “Thrift Shop” rapper, 39, announced in a TikTok video that he’s been sober for more than a year and a half.
“I relapsed during the first summer of COVID,” he wrote on the clip of himself. “Today I have 694 days clean.”
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In a recent interview withRolling Stone, the musician revealed that the message behind his new single “Chant” touches on his recovery journey. The star has been in recovery since 2008, when his father helped get him into treatment after years of drug and alcohol abuse.
“For me, the most important thing to learn in recovery is that I’m powerless over drugs,” Macklemore told the outlet. “The disease is insidious. It’s constantly telling you lies in order for you to go off and go, ‘You know what? I think the best thing for me is to go off and get high’ — knowing damn well that’s the thing that kills me. That’s the insanity portion of the disease.”
In January, the rapperopened up to PEOPLEabout his relapse during the summer of 2020 and the progress he’s made since.
“It was really painful for myself and for the people who loved me. I stopped doing the work,” he said at the time. “When I have to be still and exist within my own head, that’s where my disease lives… [But] I’m like, ‘You know what? I don’t need to pretend like I’m some perfect dude in recovery.’ I am not at all, and there’s no shame.”
Macklemore.Allen Berezovsky/Getty
And just as he’s made it part of his mission to be open with fans, he is with his kids as well. Macklemore shares daughters Sloane, 7, and Colette, 4, and son Hugo, 11 months, with wife Tricia Davis, and said that Sloane has known about his struggles, albeit without specifics, since she was 3 or 4.
“Why would I hide it? It is who I am,” he said. “In terms of Daddy’s sober meetings that he needs to go to, she’s well aware and has been for quite some time.”
While he considers being a dad his “greatest success,” the musician also said he knows that his kids can’t fix him.
“I remember being like, ‘I don’t ever want my kids to see me loaded,'” he said of learning Davis was pregnant with their first child. “There was this relief like, ‘Okay, now I can stay clean for someone else.’ But that’s not how this disease works. My kids can’t keep me clean.Ihave to do the work.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
source: people.com
