Avicii’s father reveals ‘excruciatingly painful’ intervention to Late Star

Avicii’s father reflects on the difficult moment he was forced to stage an intervention for the late music producer.

The new Netflix documentary Avicii – I’m Tim sheds new light on the star’s mental health issues leading up to his 2018 death by suicide aged 28 – including an addiction to painkillers fueled by anxiety.

In the documentary, Avicii’s (né Tim Bergling) father Klas says he once arranged an intervention for the “Levels” producer with the help of Arash “Ash” Pournouri, the star’s longtime co-producer, co-writer and manager.

The intervention came amid a pivotal point in Bergling’s career, when he was unhappy about having to balance his persona on stage with who he was in real life, and he had developed an addiction to painkillers, which he “justified as suppressing his anxiety,” close friend Jesse Waits says in doc.

“I just felt nervous. I didn’t know where the anxiety came from,” says Bergling in a voiceover. “I could feel it physically in my stomach. It was like a stone in my stomach, that’s how it felt. And it was constant. A constant feeling.”

Klas’ intervention included the star’s friends, siblings and tour management – and he wasn’t happy about it.

“As he approached, he could see us all there. It was excruciatingly painful to see the look in his eyes. Oh man, it was really rough,” Klas recalls in the documentary. “Then everyone said how worried they were and Tim… at first he was pretty furious.”

Klas says the operation lasted “for hours” and that for a long time his son would not budge.

“He refused to give in. But finally something made him say, ‘Okay, I’ll get help.’ I said, ‘Okay, thanks,'” he recalls. “It finally registered. We were thrilled. It got through to him. I think he realized it was time he did something about it.”

In a voiceover, Bergling says he started seeing psychiatrists and doctors and even tried changing his diet and exercise routines to get better. He explains that he no longer enjoyed making music and as a result he changed the way he operated by clearing his schedule completely.

“I try to find balance,” he says. “Balance in life and with my friends and family.”

For a time, Bergling seemed to have found some semblance of that balance, as he says in another voiceover that he felt “really happy” to be “free” from the constraints of his grueling tour schedule and record label. In the fall of 2017, he began practicing transcendental meditation and began creating what would become the posthumous 2019 album Hours.

In addition to following Bergling’s rise to DJ superstardom on the back of hits like “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother,” the documentary chronicles the star’s struggles with life in the spotlight — and the aftermath of his tragic death in April 2018 while on vacation in Muscat, Oman.

“I don’t think anybody really knows why or what happened. Nobody knows what was going through his head,” Waits says. “Everybody can speculate. He seemed good to everyone I talked to who (was) around him. He was just in a good place. It is difficult to accept.”

Klas, meanwhile, says that “none of us imagine that something like this could happen.”

The documentary offers narration by the late Bergling himself, as well as new interviews with friends, family and collaborators such as Chris Martin and Aloe Blacc. The film, directed by Henrik Burman, also features home video footage from the star’s childhood as well as behind-the-scenes clips of him creating some of his greatest hits.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.