Find A Way
Written by: Kris Ex
Photography by: Timothy Saccenti
(Cover story for Complex Magazine Aug/Sep 2015)
“And after the success of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ The Heist—the debut at No. 2 on Billboard’s album chart, the two number-one hits in “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us,” the four Grammy wins, and the true people’s choice award as the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2013—Ben relapsed into taking pills and smoking marijuana.
“I held it together for a while,” he says. “But, eventually, I stopped going to my 12-step meetings.” “I was burnt out,” he continues. “I was super-stressed. We weren’t sleeping—doing a show every day, zigzagging all over the country. In terms of the media I was getting put into a box that I never saw for myself. The pressure and the fame—everything. All the clichés, 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.”
He gave over to his addiction. At first, he hid his backsliding—“everyone knew, but they didn’t necessarily know,” he says. Tricia found some sleeping pills that he had hidden in his shoe at SXSW, so he sobered up for a bit. But when he got off the road and came back home, he found himself running through the motions: trying to fill himself by purchasing sneakers and jewelry and the other trappings of newfound fame and wealth.”
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