People News

Urban's 3 month sojourn to sobriety

By Stone Martindale Jan 22, 2007, 21:41 GMT

welcome back mate.. EPA/TRACEY NEARMY

It isn't easy fighting personal demons, and most all of us have them.  Whether it is weight, alcohol, drugs, behaviors or other addictive sirens, many of us struggle our entire lives.  Try and do it as a celebrity under the glare of the limelight. 

Singer Keith Urban has publicly praised his wife, Nicole Kidman, and thanked all his fans for their support during his three-month stay at a rehab center for alcohol abuse treatment on his web site.

Urban was a three month guest at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California.

The 39-year-old country singer, who had addictions to both drugs and alcohol, extended his stay deliberately.

"Learning about abstinence was one thing, but then there was all this other area of my life to start learning about, and so 30 days became 60, and 60 days became 90, and with each week that passed I found myself really learning how to surrender," he said on his website.

The timing was hard for Urban, who missed the release of his latest album, "Love, Pain & the whole crazy thing," and wasn't present to accept his second male vocalist of the year honor at the Country Music Association Awards.

"There was no big cataclysmic event that happened right before I went in," Urban said. "It was a lot of small things that were happening in my life, a lot of small moments that were starting to accumulate that were telling me very loud and clear that I was a long way from my program of recovery, and they were making my life unmanageable."

Urban gave thanks to all who took time out of their own lives to sends him letters and cards of support. "It helped so much. Especially through a lot of the lonely days, which there was plenty of those in there," he said online.

"But my wife stayed extraordinarily strong and loving, and my friends and family were there, and man, it's just been really overwhelming. I feel so much gratitude, and it feels really good to have gone through it and be where I am right now."