Charlie Puth couldn’t contain his emotions as he struggled to fight back tears while speaking about his close friend Mac Miller, who tragically passed away on Friday, Sept. 7.
During a recent interview with E! News , Puth, 26, got teary-eyed as he spoke about the rapper’s untimely death due to a drug overdose at just 26 years old.
“We talked almost every day and I don’t get a lot of friends who come into my life who I hit it off with so quickly,” he said.
Puth and Miller met while working out with personal trainer Harley Pasternak. Following the training session, the two artists kept in touch. Following the news of Miller’s death, the “See You Again” singer admitted that he had hoped he would be the person to ultimately help his friend achieve sobriety, despite only knowing him for a short amount of time.
“I had known him for about six months, but we became really close, we became really good friends and I always thought I’d be the one to help him get clean and to lead him onto the path of a good, clean, sober life.”
As Puth got wrapped up in his own touring commitments, he briefly lost touch with Miller and felt a sting of regret for not reconnecting with his friend sooner after his tour had ended.
Like many other celebrities, the “We Don’t Talk Anymore” singer took to his Twitter upon learning the news of Miller’s death.
https://twitter.com/charlieputh/status/1038168823520669697
Emotion got the best of Puth as he mentioned his odd tradition of texting love ones after they die and revealed he did so with Miller, telling him “I love you man.”
“Every time someone close to me passes away I always text their phone and—I don’t know why I do this often—I just wrote, ‘I love you man,’ and I knew he wasn’t going to write back but I just felt like I had to do it anyway.”
Following his initial Twitter post, the “One Call Away” singer went back to his social media page the next day.
https://twitter.com/charlieputh/status/1038301295352791041
As he continues to mourn the loss of his friend, Puth does find comfort in knowing that although Miller’s “body might have left this earth, his soul and spirit has gone into so many people and to me.”
Born Malcolm McCormick, Miller was found dead in his home after going into cardiac arrest following a drug overdose. The rapper had always been open about his battle with drug addiction and his struggle to remain clean.
Puth ended the interview saying, “He was one of a kind, there was no one like Mac.”
