Macklemore first opened up about his "painful" relapse when speaking last April on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, but admits he didn't intend to discuss it at first. The "Thrift Shop" rapper said he felt inspired after hearing Shepard's own story and hoped that he would help even more people by sharing his recent experience.
"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," he recalled to People.
Macklemore said of his relapse "It was really painful for myself and for the people who loved me. I stopped doing the work" and that the pandemic is what triggered it. "When I have to be still and exist within my own head, that's where my disease lives," he explained.
Macklemore, 38, said his family stepped in when he needed them most and helped put him on the path to recovery. The artist touched upon when his father put him in a treatment facility during his 2008 relapse and said, "Getting that help saved my life."
The Grammy winner says that, while his family does play a role in keeping him accountable, the responsibility falls solely on him. Macklemore and wife Tricia Davis share three children together, six-year-old Sloane, three-year-old Charlotte and Hugo, who is six months.
Although Macklemore says he wanted to get clean when expecting his first child, he notes, "That's not how this disease works. My kids can't keep me clean. I have to do the work."
When talking about addiction and treatment, Macklemore stressed, "I hope that people will come out of the shadows, that the guilt and the shame of the disease of addiction lessen and we don't feel like we need to hide anymore."
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
