In 2021, Macklemore did an interview on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast. During this conversation, the artist confessed that he had experienced a relapse in the year prior. Macklemore has shared that the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to his relapse.

Macklemore Invests In Beverage Company To Support Addiction Recovery: ‘I Align With It’

And yes, it’s not completely like “oh, it’s out of my control. It’s completely removed from me.” But when you have that voice inside of you, screaming at you, that’s a very different voice than I think most normal people have. I think that’s the biggest one in terms of the myth. There’s the myth of, “addicts are bad people”. Addicts are some of the most sensitive, loving, caring people that I know, with the biggest hearts that have been to really dark places.

The Importance Of CLEAN Cause’s Mission

When I’m not sober, my music is horrible. And that was the greatest gift, the fact that I couldn’t be creative — truly creative. I can go in and do a show or, you know, freestyle, but to really be creative, to write something, I have to be in my right mind, because it comes with something bigger than myself. If I was one of those artists that had the experience of, “you know, I make great music when I’m loaded,” — I would be a lot more tempted to do it. And that has been the greatest gift for me. I can clearly see, once I start using, that music doesn’t become a priority anymore.

• Addicts get to a point where they don’t want to be living the life they’re living.
• “Mac Miller was a friend of mine,” he shared.
• If it’s a friend or a loved one or a partner, this is something that they’re struggling with.
• Then I’m just not going to turn it on.

Macklemore Says ‘The Disease of Addiction Is Crazy’ After Revealing Pandemic Relapse

Through that addict-to-addict, that is how programs of recovery have flourished. Billions of people in recovery, in the rooms of a 12-step-program, has happened. It works for a reason because we relate to each other. I can’t go and have a conversation about addiction in the same way if that person doesn’t know what I’m talking about. If that person doesn’t know that voice, and what that voice sounds like in my head that I’m describing, it doesn’t work the same way. So, I think having a recovery can be super important.

Macklemore’s Relapse And Views On Sobriety

After relapsing at the onset of the pandemic, Macklemore is celebrating over two years of sobriety, but his journey is ongoing. Although Macklemore said he wanted to get clean when expecting his first child, he noted, “That’s not how this disease works. My kids can’t keep me clean. I have to do rappers who are sober the work.” At the height of the opioid epidemic in 2016, when opioid overdoses accounted for more than 42,000 deaths in the U.S., as reported by the “U.S.