Keith Urban has long been open about his past struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, and he says he harbors no ill feelings toward his past.
In a candid interview with British newspaper, The Times, the Australian native shares how his father was an alcoholic and it took him a while to admit that he also had a problem, until he entered rehab in 1998.
“I realized I’m allergic to it. Someone said, ‘You have an allergy? What happens when you drink?’ And I said, ‘I break out in cuffs,'” Keith describes. “I don’t talk a lot about it because I love my audience being able to just come and have a great time. I’ve nothing against drugs or alcohol. Everyone does what they want to do to have a great time.”
Soon after Keith and Nicole Kidman married in 2006, the country star went back into treatment at the Betty Ford Center, later learning how to live in the world without being dependent on substances — a fact that didn’t impact the way he made music.
“I’m glad it didn’t change anything about my music. I wrote plenty of hit songs while drunk. I wrote plenty sober. I feel lucky it hasn’t defined my creativity,” Keith says.
The superstar is currently climbing the charts with his single, “Wild Hearts.”
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