Navigating a new path. After a long struggle with alcoholism and three previous rehab stays, Keith Urban was able to embrace sobriety thanks to his family’s tireless support.
“I don’t talk a lot about [my sobriety] because I love my audience being able to just come and have a great time,” the “Somebody Like You” crooner told the Sunday Times in April 2022. “I’ve nothing against drugs or alcohol. Everyone does what they want to do to have a great time. I just 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.’”
He continued: “I had to find a different way to be in the world. 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.”
After Urban watched his father similarly struggle, he ultimately sought treatment three separate times. He completed a final rehab stay in 2006 shortly after he wed actress Nicole Kidman — at her insistence.
“You can try and hide it, smoke and mirrors and all, but then how do I visit every weekend?” the Big Little Lies alum told Vanity Fair in October 2007. “It’s been a huge lesson for me too.”
She added: “I’ve learned an enormous amount having a relationship with someone who is in recovery. I’m more than willing to walk it with him. The two of us are very committed to our relationship. … It was just another twist in my life: Here it goes. Hold on, and off we go! But it was painful, deeply painful.”
The former American Idol judge — who shares daughters Sunday and Faith with Kidman — cited his wife’s assistance as a major turning point in his sobriety journey.
“I guess I used to do a thing where I’d work out the ramifications of whatever I did and then decide whether it was worth it — and most of the time I decided it was going to be despite the problems it would cause,” Urban told The Sun in May 2022. “I’d go, ‘I know this is going to cause this issue, but it will be bloody fun.’ Night-time me hates daytime me, it’s so true. But the next morning, night-time me is nowhere to be found — he’s totally unaccountable.”
If you or anyone you know is facing substance abuse issues, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information 24/7.
Scroll below for more of the Grammy winner’s most honest confessions about his sobriety:
“We were in a very, very, very bad, painful place, and have managed to step through it [together],” Kidman told Vanity Fair in 2007 of supporting her man’s journey. “I hope that gives some people some hope who may be in the same place. And that’s enough said. Anything else is overindulgent and unnecessary right now. And I think it jinxes it, in a way, and that’s why I don’t go on about my enormous feelings for this man.” Rob Latour/Shutterstock
Nearly four months into Urban and Kidman’s marriage, he checked into rehab for drug and alcohol addiction for a third time. “[I thought], 'Surely let's give it a few years so we've got some solidity because this kind of thing could tear us apart. This could just destroy us,’” the country singer recalled during a November 2010 talk show appearance. “I had to make a decision which road I was going to take, once and for all. I'd been at that crossroads before and always taken the wrong road.” Image Press Agency/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Ahead of his October 2006 rehab stay, the Moulin Rouge star organized an intervention. “I was very, very blessed to have Nic call an intervention on me. I had a tight group of friends around me for the intervention," Urban told Rolling Stone in June 2014. "I didn't give a s—t about anything except turning a corner in my life and doing whatever it took for that. And off I went.” Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock for SAG Awards
“I caused the implosion of my fresh marriage,” he recalled to Rolling Stone in June 2016. “It survived, but it’s a miracle it did. I was spiritually awoken with her. I use the expression ‘I was born into her,’ and that’s how I feel. And for the first time in my life, I could shake off the shackles of addiction.” Ed Rode/AP/Shutterstock
“[Getting sober was] something I needed because I'm alcoholically wired. I wish I'd gotten sober many years earlier than I did, but it is what it is," Urban noted during a July 2018 speech at South by Southwest. "I knew I wasn't at my full potential, and that's what was starting to get to me. I was enslaved ... I was living a very, very small life.” Jim Ruymen/UPI/Shutterstock
“It took me a long time to get sober,” the New Zealand native told Rolling Stone in November 2021. “Took me a long time to recognize my alcoholism. A long time because I didn’t drink like my dad, so I compared everything to him. So it just took a long time for me. But I was able to finally make the right choice in my life, that I wish my dad would have made.” BIANCA DE MARCHI/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“Marrying the right person [was] massive," Urban gushed over his greatest achievements during a December 2021 appearance on the “Living & Learning with Reba McEntire” podcast. “Marrying for the right reasons [and] getting sober 15 years ago [were both] a big turning point in my life.” Matt Baron/Shutterstock
The “Wild Hearts” musician told the Sunday Times in April 2022 that his family — including Kidman and their two daughters — were a driving force in his decision to stay sober. He told the outlet, “I had to find a different way to be in the world.” Jordan Strauss/AP/Shutterstock
“So these days I don’t do anything religiously to live healthier — I just do what I have to so that I can live the life I want to live. Nothing more, nothing less,” Urban told The Sun in May 2022. “I want to be able to play for hours on stage effortlessly, and still feel good the next day.” He continued: “Life is very different nowadays. I’m trying to set a good example for the kids, but I still don’t know if I’m getting it right. … I have made so many mistakes, but you have to work out what works for you. My message to them is always to do whatever they are passionate about, I don’t care, as long as they work hard to achieve it.” Marion Curtis/StarPix for HBO/Shutterstock
from Celebrity News – Us Weekly https://ift.tt/et8JLjH
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