Keith City recollects second he confronted remaining crossroads in habit battle

Keith City is reflecting on the turning level in his years-long battle with drug habit and alcoholism. 

Throughout a current look on “The Zane Lowe Present,” the 57-year-old nation star recalled the second he knew he needed to decide that might have an effect on the remainder of his life. 

“All by means of the years of consuming and doing medication and all the remainder of it, I all the time had this very particular voice inside me that goes, ‘Sooner or later, you are gonna come to a crossroads or a fork within the highway, and it will be the ultimate one,'” City mentioned. 

Keith City recalled the second he knew he needed to embrace sobriety.  (Debra L. Rothenberg/Wireimage)

“‘You are both gonna select to get out of this s— otherwise you’re by no means gonna get out of it. That day is gonna come and it will not be like effectively, for those who mess it up this time, possibly subsequent time. There will not be a subsequent time. And you will know when it comes,'” he continued. “This went on for years.”

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The four-time Grammy Award winner defined that the crucial junction got here when his spouse Nicole Kidman referred to as an intervention for him in 2006 shortly after they married. 

“I knew that was it,” City mentioned. “I am like, ‘Oh, that is that fork within the highway.’”

The singer credited his spouse Nicole Kidman with saving him from habit.  (Emma McIntyre/WireImage)

The New Zealand native, who has been sober for nearly 19 years, advised Lowe that lastly extricating himself from the throes of habit and its repercussions was a aid. 

“I did not come to America for that,” City mentioned. “I got here to America to make music and file and tour, and develop as an artist and as a human being. I did not come to America to finish up in rehab and courthouses and s—. That is not why I got here right here, so I am like, ‘What am I doing?’”

“But it surely took just a few, just a few photographs,” he admitted. 

City shared that an inside voice warned him that he would come to a crossroads in his battle with medication and alcohol.  (Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC Pictures)

Over time, the “Someone Like You” singer has been clear about his journey to sobriety. 

In a 2021 interview with Rolling Stone, City recalled that his troubles started after he moved to Nashville from Australia, the place he had beforehand launched 4 hit albums. City defined that he felt like an outsider as a foreigner making an attempt to make it within the nation music scene.

“I knew that was it. I am like, ‘Oh, that is that fork within the highway.’”

— Keith City

“Nothing I’d performed earlier than meant s—,” he says. “I felt like I used to be meant to be right here, I had this absolute burning perception, however I used to be out of step with every part. I imply, what do you do whenever you’re doing all your greatest, and it’s not sufficient?”

“After I was onstage, I felt good, but when I used to be not onstage, I used to be very, very insecure,” he added. “I felt like I didn’t have a lot of something to supply. I used to be simply an alien.”

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City recalled {that a} painful breakup with a lady who had advised him that the “novelty of you has worn off” had fueled his descent into habit.

“You would possibly say, ‘Large deal.’ However I used to be feeling insecure, and the truth that me and my accent can be a novelty to anyone reduce me to the core,” he mentioned. “Oh, my God. Actually unhealthy. It devastated me. It was a turning level. After that, s— began to actually go awry.” 

“I stepped up my consuming,” he continued. “I began doing extra medication. Yeah, man. The entire again finish of the Nineties have been simply terrible.”

City turned sober in 2006. He’s pictured right here in 2002.  (Paul Natkin/Getty Pictures)

After years as a struggling artist, City made his profession breakthrough in 1999 when he launched his self-titled debut album. The file, which notched 4 singles on the Billboard Scorching Nation Songs chart and was licensed platinum, launched City into nation music stardom.

Regardless of discovering profession success, City continued to battle along with his addictions to alcohol and medicines. He advised Rolling Stone that he was in denial concerning the extent of his habit after rising up with an alcoholic father.

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“It took me a very long time to get sober,” he mentioned. “Took me a very long time to acknowledge my alcoholism. A very long time, as a result of I didn’t drink like my dad, so I in contrast every part to him. So it simply took a very long time for me. However I used to be capable of lastly make the correct selection in my life, that I want my dad would have made.”

In 2015, City’s father Robert died after a protracted battle with prostate most cancers.

Kidman staged an intervention for City 4 months into their marriage.  (Bertrand Rindoff Petroff)

After two failed stints in rehab, City was lastly capable of conquer his personal habit issues after he married Kidman. 4 months into their marriage, City agreed to enter rehab once more on the urging of Kidman and his family members.

“That is the purpose proper there the place she actually ought to’ve simply walked,” City advised Oprah Winfrey in 2010. “I am simply so glad she did not, and he or she decided to show round and provoke in the end this intervention, and it was performed in such a means that the love in that room at that second was good. I used to be like, ‘Put the cuffs on, let’s go.'”

In a 2020 look on the podcast “Armchair Professional with Dax Shepard,” City recalled that he realized he would lose the love of his life if he continued down the trail that he was on. 

“She’s simply the one, that was it,” City mentioned of Kidman. “She’s the one which I used to be looking for my complete life, and every part not solely modified, however needed to change in me if I used to be going to go that highway.”

“It was actually like, ‘You both get this proper now, or you might be by no means, ever going to get it proper. That is your one shot,'” he continued. “Actually, it felt so apparent and I knew the place I used to be going. I used to be going into the sunshine lastly. It was every part I used to be searching for after which some. I imply, past.”

City mentioned that he knew Kidman was “the one” and he needed to change if he did not need to lose her.  (Christopher Polk/Selection by way of Getty Pictures)

Whereas talking with Rolling Stone, City mentioned that it was a “miracle” that their marriage survived. 

“I used to be spiritually awoken together with her,” the singer mentioned of Kidman. “I take advantage of the expression ‘I used to be born into her,’ and that’s how I really feel. And for the primary time in my life, I may shake off the shackles of habit.” 

City and Kidman, who will rejoice their nineteenth marriage ceremony anniversary on June 25, are mother and father to daughters Sunday, 16, and Religion, 14.

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In June 2024, City gave a heartfelt tribute to Kidman when she was honored with the forty ninth AFI Life Achievement Award. The couple’s daughters joined their mother and father on the star-studded occasion, which marked the ladies’ pink carpet debut.

Throughout his speech on the ceremony, City recalled how Kidman’s love for him persevered regardless of the rocky begin to their marriage.

“We bought married in June 2006, and barely 4 months into our marriage, my addictions that I’d performed actually nothing about, blew our marriage to smithereens, and I went into the Betty Ford Heart for 3 months,” he advised the gang.

“4 months into a wedding, I’m into rehab for 3 months, with no concept what was going to occur to us,” he continued. “And if you wish to see what love in motion actually seems to be like, give {that a} whirl.”

“Nic pushed by means of each destructive voice, I am positive, even a few of her personal,” City added. “And he or she selected love. And right here we’re tonight, 18 years later.”

In a video of the speech, Kidman was seen wiping away tears whereas sitting within the viewers subsequent to Sunday and Religion.

Keith City, Religion Margaret City, Sunday Rose Kidman-City, Sybella Hawley and Nicole Kidman are pictured on the AFI Life Achievement Award Honoring Nicole Kidman in Aug. 2024.  (Gilbert Flores/Selection by way of Getty Pictures)

Forward of performing on the 2023 Academy of Nation Music Awards, City shared the secret to their profitable union.

“It’s all the time household first,” he mentioned in an interview with Fox Information Digital.

“It is balanced, so it means it goes out of steadiness typically, and we simply put it again in steadiness,” City added. “It is by no means completely in steadiness, however we get it again on monitor.”

City and Kidman will rejoice their nineteenth marriage ceremony anniversary later this month.  (Getty)

Since turning into sober, City has helped different musicians who have been fighting habit. In a 2017 interview with the Tennessean, nation singer Brandtley Gilbert recalled how City saved his life when he was at his lowest level in his battle with alcohol and medicines. 

Gilbert advised the outlet that he began consuming alcohol as a younger boy and have become hooked on painkillers when he was in highschool. His habit continued after he turned a profitable singer-songwriter in Nashville. 

In 2011, Gilbert developed pancreatitis after years of abusing medication and alcohol. He ended up within the hospital and entered rehab after he was discharged. Nonetheless, Gilbert had determined to verify himself out after just a few days towards his medical doctors’ recommendation. He recalled that his alcohol counselors and managers urged him to remain yet another day in order that he may meet with somebody, who turned out to be City. 

“I keep in mind considering, these (expletives) are pulling out all of the stops,” Gilbert advised the outlet.

The “Nation Should Be Nation Vast” singer mentioned that he was “irritated” upon first assembly City and was considering to himself, “You don’t know me, man.”

Nonetheless, the 2 started to attach when City requested him about why he feared giving up medication and alcohol. 

“I advised him, I don’t suppose I can do my job,” Gilbert recalled. “I don’t know if I can ever play a tune at my reveals with out being (messed) up. Or writing, I used to be apprehensive my songs wouldn’t be the identical, that I wouldn’t be on everybody else’s stage.”

Nation singer Brandtley Gilbert beforehand mentioned that City saved his life. They’re pictured right here with Carrie Underwood. (Rick Diamond/Getty Pictures for the Nation Music Corridor of Fame and Museum)

Gilbert remembered that City mentioned he had as soon as harbored those self same doubts and anxieties and he additionally was afraid when he began performing with out the crutch of medicine and alcohol. 

Nonetheless, Gilbert advised the Tennessean that City ultimately discovered “he was a greater performer, a greater author, he had extra enjoyable, he was a greater husband and a greater man with out medication and alcohol.”

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Gilbert recalled that his dialog with City had a big impact on him. 

“My complete world flipped,” he mentioned. “At that time, I used to be like, ‘All proper.’”

The singer has now been sober since December 2011. 

“If it weren’t for him, I don’t know if I’d be sober or be on this enterprise anymore,” Gilbert mentioned of City. 

“I’d most likely be lifeless,” he added. 

Gilbert has been sober since Dec. 2011.  (C Flanigan/FilmMagic)

Final September, City launched his newest album titled “Excessive.” In a press launch, City revealed that the album’s title was impressed by his interpretation of the multi-faceted which means of the phrase “excessive.”

“What makes you ‘excessive’ can imply no matter you need it to imply,” he mentioned. “It is perhaps bodily, non secular, natural, meditative, chemical or musical, nevertheless it’s undoubtedly a spot of utopia.”

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He continues, “For me it’s my household, my associates, and this rollercoaster musical journey I’m on. Enjoying guitar, writing songs and the place the place I all the time really feel excessive — taking part in dwell. Each night time I get an opportunity to deliver an power and a launch to individuals.”

Throughout his look on Lowe’s podcast, City shared that he was “deliberately” reclaiming the phrase “excessive” when naming his album. 

“The type of darkish humor of the phrase ‘excessive’ for a man like me is simply type of too proper on the cash,” he mentioned. 

“It is a fantastic phrase as a result of it means so many issues to totally different individuals. Various things,” City continued. “It is meant various things to me by means of my life. It means one thing totally different now than it did 19 years in the past.”

City shared that being on stage is his “actually blissful place.”  (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)

City advised Lowe that getting excessive to him means “taking part in on stage.”

“It all the time has,” he mentioned. “That was all the time my secure place, was being on stage.”

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“My troubles have been off-stage however being on stage was all the time my actually blissful place,” he added.