Keith Urban Offers Addiction Recovery Advice to Demi Lovato: ‘It’s All Up to Her’
Having dealt with addiction himself, Keith Urban has some words of advice for pop singer Demi Lovato following her reported overdose on July 24. The country superstar says it's going to be up to Lovato to make the necessary changes, but that a good support system is also important.
"I don’t know anything about her personally,” Urban admits to the Australian morning show Today Extra (quote via ET); still, he'd advise Lovato "[to have] good people around her and a willingness to want to live a different way if that’s what she wants to do. It’s all up to her.”
Los Angeles police responded on July 24 to a call at 11:39AM local time from a home in the 8000 block of Laurel View Drive -- Lovato's block -- in the Hollywood Hills. A law enforcement source reported that Lovato was treated with Narcan at her home, and that paramedics found her unconscious when they arrived; however, the drug on which Lovato overdosed has not been officially reported.
"Demi is awake and with her family, who want to express thanks to everyone for the love, prayers and support," a representative for Lovato said in a statement on the day of the incident. "Some of the information being reported is incorrect, and they respectfully ask for privacy and not speculation, as her health and recovery is the most important thing right now."
Lovato has struggled with substance abuse, as well as bipolar disorder and bulimia, in the past but entered a treatment facility in 2011 and had been sober for six years as of March. However, Entertainment Weekly reports, her new song "Sober" addresses the fact that she relapsed recently.
Country Stars Share Well Wishes for Demi Lovato
After Urban moved to Nashville in the early 1990s, music industry success wasn't coming as easily as he'd hoped it would, and he began using drugs and drinking more. "I was taking everything," Urban says. "I remember thinking, 'Oh, good, this is the end of it, yahoo.' I was quite happy about it."
It was Urban's wife, actress Nicole Kidman, who "saved" him, he says: His final entrance into rehab came after she staged an intervention in 2006. It was his third time in eight years, but that time, Urban found the strength to stay sober for good.
In addition to Urban, Jason Isbell, Dan + Shay, Chely Wright and Brad Paisley are among the celebrities who have offered their positive thoughts to Lovato.