Waylon Jennings's grandson Whey Jennings is opening up about his 27 year battle with addiction and what finally helped him to get clean.
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Jennings said that he's been sober for four years now. He's battled addiction for almost three decades.
"My moral structure was horrible for many years," he told Fox News. "I even got into the music business for the wrong reasons. I just wanted the cliché sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. It was just a horrible decision after a horrible decision. And you just do more drugs. ... You get to the point where you feel like even though you need help, you don't deserve it."
However, he said he decided to get clean after alienating the woman that he loved. Eventually, he won her back. "Getting her back is what really sent me over the edge," he admitted. "Once I thought she was gone, I nose-dived into my addiction... I was just floating right on top of rock bottom... I needed to go get help."
Whey Jennings Talks Addiction
Jennings made the difficult decision to get clean and also go to rehab. Doing so allowed him to reconnect with his family including his six children.
"I've gotten all my kids back," Jennings said. "I've gotten married... my wife had a baby. All my kids remember me on drugs except my 3-year-old daughter. She's never known me to be intoxicated in any way. And when I say I'm sober, I'm not just sober off of drugs. I'm sober off of absolutely everything."
Jennings also confessed that he's removed all of his vices.
"I don't drink, I don't smoke weed, I don't smoke cigarettes, I don't vape. I don't do none of that," Jennings continued. "I'm 100% what they call a helicopter parent — I'm very present in my kids' life — I'm very present in my marriage life. I'm trying to find this perfect balance between work and home and doing what I'm passionate about, which is writing music that helps touch on things that matter."
Of his addiction, Jennings also said he chased after the buzz of being high. Eventually, it ended up consuming his life.
"You go out to have a good time and to quit thinking about all the problems in your life," he said. "You start chasing a buzz. And then you get so deep into chasing that buzz that you wake up one day 27 years later, and you've [given] your life to a drug addiction, and you can't get it back."
