August Alsina – Jada Pinkett Smith Helped Me Battle My Percocet Addiction

August Alsina, Jada Pinkett-Smith

August Alsina Says Jada Helped Him Battle Percocet Addiction

R&B singer August Alsina has shied away from the spotlight for at least three years after the release of his second album, “This Thing Called Life.” After an array of family and health issues, a much healthier looking Alsina, 25, revealed the shocking reason he’s been away from the music industry – he was addicted to drugs.

On Jada Pinkett Smith’s Facebook talk show, Red Table Talk, August revealed he struggled with an addiction to Percocet pills after his stage fall at a show in New York, which landed him in a three-day coma.

Pinkett Smith revealed that August asked for the help of the Smith’s after meeting at one of Jaden Smith’s concert. He became a fast friend of the Smith family. She says:

He asked me that day, ‘Man I could really use some help dealing with life.’

She continued:

August and I and my mother and the family as a whole has been on this journey with August towards his healing.

August gave details on how his addiction started. He said:

I was pretty much doing way too many shows, not taking care of myself. I was drinking so much liquor. Smoking so much weed. Just one night at a show in New York, I literally passed out and fell off the stage.

He was given Percocet to deal with the pain of his injury:

I literally had an endless supply of Percs. If you asked my brother, anybody…I’m like, raining Percs. Off my body, off my house. I was literally raining pills like Skittles.

Jada revealed the moment she realized August was an addict:

I remember you telling me, ‘I do six Percs a day, [but] my buddies do 20.’ That was an eye-opener for me. And he said he’s not addicted.

August’s first look at addiction where from his immediate family. He says:

My step-father was addicted to crack, my father was addicted to crack and an alcohol, so my introduction to drugs was that.

August Alsina

He continued:

And seeing my step-father pawn the whole house for some drugs, pawn the car, whatever, and my idea of an addiction was that. I would see him sweating, shaking, and really having to get his life back, and I went through that experience thinking I had it under control.

Lastly, he revealed Jada urged him to get sober:

I was on tour or something and you called me and you literally broke down about it. That was the thing. To feel your emotion and to hear you bawling. That was a reality check for me. I was like, ‘Wow, if someone else can love you that much that it hurts them, why doesn’t it bother you that you are actually hurting yourself?’ That moment really changed the trajectory of my life.

By: Miata Shanay