Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody has opened up about his struggle with depression.
The 41-year-old musician revealed that he could be performing to packed arenas yet be crying on the floor of his hotel room just hours later.
Lightbody would rely on alcohol every day to get him through his depression as he was “quite a happy drunk”.
He said he had learned that he had to stop running away from it and look his mental health struggles in the eye.
“I have a depressive personality that has no relationship with reality,” he told Big Issue magazine.
“I could be having the best time on the surface and yet my depression goes ‘You’re still a c***. Don’t forget that. I’m dragging you down into the ink and the dirt and the darkness’.
“I could be playing to 15,000 people and three hours later be in a hotel room, crying on the floor. That’s happened a bunch of times.”
His confession follows the release of Snow Patrol’s first album in seven years, which is set to hit the top of the charts.
Speaking about his reliance on alcohol, Lightbody said: “I started drinking with a gusto that a professional boxer might train for a prize fight.
“There was a hell of a lot of fun. Until it wasn’t.
“I’d get to 2am sitting on my own, have a cry, and then a glass of something.
“I didn’t have any relationships and I wasn’t having sex either. I was very hermetic. Around 2015/2016 I was drinking every day and also I was hating it.”
He added: “I’ve learned that, rather than running from it, which you can never really do – you can never run away from yourself – is you have to turn and face it and look it in the eye and say ‘I’m not afraid of you anymore’.”
Snow Patrol have teamed up with the magazine to release an exclusive 7in vinyl of the band’s new track, Soon.
Read the full interview in the Big Issue, out on Monday June 4.