‘American Idol’ Judge Reveals Struggles With Sobriety After Demi Lovato Overdose, Says ‘It’s All Up To Her’

Former American Idol judge Keith Urban offered some heartfelt advice to Demi Lovato just one week after the 25-year-old pop star was hospitalized for an apparent drug overdose.

The 50-year-old country singer, who dealt with his own addiction struggles, was asked about his thoughts regarding Lovato’s alleged overdose on July 24 at her Hollywood Hills home.

Urban discussed his feelings about how the singer is the only one in charge of changing her own life path during a July 30 appearance on the Australian morning show Today Extra.

“I don’t know anything about her personally,” Urban said of the singer.

He then said that if given the opportunity he’d tell Lovato, “Just (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.”

Urban struggled with his own addiction issues. The country superstar and husband of Nicole Kidman checked into rehab for substance abuse in 2006. The singer opened up about his addiction struggle in a 2016 Rolling Stone interview.

“I didn’t seem able to stop. There was no stopping this time. I’d go to sleep, wake up a couple hours later, go at it again, drinking to take the edge off. I remember thinking, ‘I’m probably not going to make it until tomorrow,'” Urban recalled.

The country superstar then added a frightening footnote to the conversation, “And then I thought, ‘F**k it, I don’t care. It’ll be a relief to not have to. I’ll take an Ambien and at some point, I’ll pass.”

The father of two daughters – Sunday, 10, and Faith, 7 – said that using drugs and alcohol had “sucked up so much creative time,” which he could have devoted to music and his family. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Urban shared, “I wished I had gotten sober many years before I did, but I’m glad I finally got here.”

CNN reported that Lovato’s hospitalization came just weeks after the singer, who has struggled with substance abuse, revealed she had recently suffered a relapse. She spoke about the setback in a single, “Sober,” released in June of this year. Lovato said in March that she was celebrating six years of sobriety.

The singer has been candid in interviews about her use of cocaine and addiction to alcohol, as well as mental health issues and an eating disorder.

Demi Lovato remains in the hospital and continues to receive medical treatment in the aftermath of her overdose.