Macklemore graced the latest cover of Complex magazine where he revealed that he suffered a drug relapse last year. The rapper has been very open in the past with his addiction and previous 2011 relapse. He admitted to the magazine that fame was the trigger that forced him back into the arms of pills and marijuana.
"I held it together for a while. But, eventually, I stopped going to my 12-step meetings. I was burnt out," the "Thrift Shop" rapper told the magazine. "I was super-stressed. We weren't sleeping - doing a show every day, zigzagging all over the country. In terms of the media I was getting put into a box that I never saw for myself. The pressure and the fame - everything. All the clichés, man - like not being able to walk around, having no privacy, and from this TV appearance to this TV appearance, and the criticism, and the lack of connection, and the lack of meetings - all of that put into one pie was just ... I just wanted to escape."
Macklemore managed to sober up for a bit when his fiancée found pills he hid in his sneakers at SXSW, but the problem was not resolved. Soon after the incident with the sneakers, he turned to impulse shopping, and finally to weed.
During his relapse he did not make any music with Ryan Lewis, his producer and collaborator, which struck Lewis as odd. The lack of productivity made the producer question: "Do you want to make this album? Because it doesn't feel like you want to be here," Lewis said.
Despite his setbacks with sobriety Macklemore is currently sober thanks to a major life-changing moment. In September 2014 he found out that his fiancée Tricia Davis was pregnant with their first child, reported the Huffington Post. Macklemore immediately started attending his 12-step meetings again. "The sobriety was the wake-up call that I needed," he said.
