There's tremendous irony in having an incredibly sobering moment after a huge stretch of debauchery. But oftentimes, that's the light at the end of the tunnel that can inspire some important breakthroughs. That's the case for Keith Urban. He details how one huge, day long bender leads to a rock bottom and a chance to get better comes afterwards.
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Recently, Keith spoke with Marc Maron for his episode of his podcast. There, he once again gets incredibly candid about his battles with addiction over the years. The country star gets very descriptive here though. Urban dives into a dark night where he finally checks himself into rehab for the first time.
"At the end of the night was me sitting at the front of the house that I was renting and my girlfriend had thrown me down the stairs in disgust. Literally. And I had been free-basing all afternoon, pretty much since noon and now it was like one in the morning, wide eyed. It's that thing where you're... you can't even get high anymore. I'm done, I'm done," Keith recalls hauntingly.
Keith Urban Heads to Rehab After a Brutal Day Long Bender
Then, as Urban ponders where he went wrong in life, his girlfriend reemerges with a cop. He thinks he's going to jail that night and he has to learn his lesson the hard way. However, Urban's girlfriend pleads with the police officer and the cop relents with some sympathy for Keith.
"He had me go sit in the car while he and my girlfriend went downstairs and looked around at the house and all sorts of stuff. And he comes back up and he said, 'Man, there's enough. Plenty of stuff down there for me to arrest you. Obviously you're going to get deported. But your girlfriend seems to think that you maybe need help. What do you think?'" Keith recalls.
"I said, 'Yes. Yes, I need help.' She took a big risk. He said this to me. 'She took a big risk. She saw me at the gas station, she pulled in, she said, can you come and help my boyfriend? I don't want him to get arrested. I know you gotta do what you gotta do. But if you cannot arrest him, and some may help me get him into rehab straight,'" Keith continues.
Urban ultimately receives an ultimatum: ride home with his girlfriend and check into rehab tomorrow or the cop would be back. Desperation tells Keith to go ahead and accept the offer. However, in the cruel nature of addiction, the temptation remained prominent on the ride home.
"And all I can tell you in all honesty is the entire car ride home, I'm thinking, how do I get back to my dealer's house?," he says. "If I can I get out of this car at speed, do a little duck and roll, and then head on back to town."
