The rapper whose real name is Ben Haggerty says he needed to 'escape' from the pressure of being in the spotlight.
- Jul 29, 2015
AceShowbiz - Macklemore talked about his struggle with being in the spotlight. The hip-hop star who shot to stardom through his single with Ryan Lewis, "Thrift Shop", told Complex that he was overwhelmed with public scrutiny that came with his newfound fame and turned to sleeping pills and marijuana.
"I held it together for a while. But, eventually, I stopped going to my 12-step meetings. I was burnt out. I was super-stressed. We weren't sleeping - doing a show every day, zigzagging all over the country," he explained. "In terms of the media I was getting put into a box that I never saw myself."
"The pressure and the fame - everything. All the cliches, 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."
But the 32-year-old rapper has sobered up since he found out that he's expecting his first child with his fiancee. He said, "Since I heard that Tricia was pregnant, I was like, 'I need to grow up right now.' "
