Singer says Whitney Houston’s death influenced her own sobriety.
She’s one of the music industry’s most successful stars, but Mary J. Blige’s life hasn’t always been red carpets and hit albums. During her 20-year career, the singer has dealt with drug abuse, alcoholism and depression, which she says stems from being molested as a child.
Blige chatted with Los Angeles Confidential magazine to comb through her troubled past and reveal how she rose above it.
On being high during the 1995 Grammys: “Back then? Shoot. When I got that Grammy (best rap performance by a duo or group) I was high. Not at the Grammys I don’t think. But I was drinking like a crazy person. Still sniffing cocaine going in…”
On eschewing formal rehab: “What I did was I chose to learn how to drink socially and it didn’t work. The test comes when you have to decide whether you’re drinking to be social or drinking to cover up something again. To cover up depression. To cover up guilt. Shame. Abandonment. All of that, man. Once I realized, ‘There you go again,’ I had to stop. … I don’t know why. But I didn’t want to go to rehab. I believe that anything man himself can do for me, God can do for me in a greater way. I decided to pray and to seek God on my own. I just stayed in The Word. And it worked.”