Orville Peck may still hide his face behind a mask, but the country crooner has been astonishingly open about his struggles with addiction and mental health.
In a new interview airing Tuesday night (Oct. 6) on ABC’s Nightline at 12:35 a.m. ET, Peck revisits his road to sobriety with ABC News correspondent Jaclyn Lee. In this exclusive clip, Peck details his efforts to get sober following a near-fatal overdose. “I canceled all my touring, I headed into rehab. I lost my relationship,” he says.
In the interview, which was taped backstage before Peck’s Sept. 18 Hollywood Bowl gig, he candidly admits that he didn’t voluntarily go to rehab. Rather, “I was basically given an ultimatum about my career,” he says. “I didn’t really do it for myself at first. I did it for other people because I was so frightened of people leaving me. … But I found my own way through my journey of sobriety that I have to make the priority myself in all aspects of my life.”
He also admits that not everything has been rosy since getting sober. “I think at times it almost feels as if my anxiety is worse but that’s because I was numbing it before,” he says.
And, as fans know, the mask has also been slowly hiding less and less of his face, going from full coverage with fringe to the Lone Ranger eye mask now. Peck discusses his facial covering with Lee, calling its initial purpose “armor to be vulnerable in my songwriting.”
Peck, who also talks about being bullied as a child, says he continues to work on himself: “I think the hardest thing for any human is to have radical self-acceptance and just be so happy to be yourself no matter what. … That took me a long time to feel like I can just be myself in every scenario.”
Peck’s new Jay Joyce-produced album, Mule, debuted at No. 19 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart following its Sept. 18 release and includes a collaboration with Emmylou Harris.
Peck’s The Man Turned Mule Tour lasts through Nov. 22 before ending in Huntington, New York ; $1 from every ticket sold is donated to the Trevor Project.
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