Pete Wentz has never been one to keep secrets and now the Fall Out Boy bassist has opened up about his battle with prescription drugs and divorce from Ashlee Simpson.
In the May issue of Rolling Stone magazine, the 33-year-old reveals that he was abusing anti-anxiety medications Xanax and Klonopin at the height of Fall Out Boy's fame.
“I was probably physically and mentally addicted. It started from insomnia and anxiety from flying, then it spiraled," he told Rolling Stone, adding that he was able to get the problem under control when his son Bronx was born in 2008.
Wentz soon found himself abusing pills once again when his band decided to go on an "indefinite hiatus," in 2009, which was soon followed by the unraveling of his marriage to Simpson.
"I felt like a loser already. I’d basically gone from being the guy in Fall Out Boy to being the guy who, like, hangs out all day. I didn’t see how I’d ever come out on the other side," he told the magazine, adding that his highly publicized divorce took a toll on him as well.
“I was scared of everything. I thought there were always people listening to me. Like, I had my house searched for bugs. It was crazy," he admitted.
It's not the first time Wentz has opened up about his issues with drugs, as he's often spoken about his 2005 suicide attempt in which he took a handful of the anti-anxiety medication Ativan, but his admission to Rolling Stone also seems to clear up rumors as to why he and Simpson split.
While there were claims that it was Simpson's alleged drinking problem that caused a rift in their marriage, there were also reports in 2011 that their marriage problems were due to Wentz's drug use.
Wentz says he finally addressed his addiction issues after the divorce, when he stopped lying to his doctors and went back to therapy, but it's his devotion to his 4-year-old son that seems to have helped him pull himself together the most.
"You’re up in the morning, and you have to really be there. It’s not like getting up for a radio interview. In some ways, that was superhelpful for my soul," he told Rolling Stone. "There was a jump-cut in my life. I started thinking -- like, being old would be cool."
For more on Pete Wentz, pick up the May 2013 issue of Rolling Stone, on sale at newsstands now.
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