Macklemore Gets Real About Balancing Fatherhood and Music: ''It's Tough to Look at Pictures''

Grammy-winning rapper opens up about balancing his growing family and a booming career

By Nikki Levy May 03, 2018 9:24 PMTags
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Macklemore is opening up about fatherhood and family.

In a new interview with Fault Magazine, the Grammy-winning rapper gets surprisingly candid when revealing the difficulty of balancing fame, success and a growing brood. 

"I don't know if pressure is the right word, but it's strange to spend eight days with my newborn and then to leave and go on tour," Macklemore explained. "It's tough to look at pictures, and I feel like I'm missing something... I've been away from her more than I've been there and it's hard, but FaceTime is a beautiful thing in the meantime."

Macklemore, whose real name is Ben Haggerty, also reveals that baby No. 2 came as a surprise to him and wife Tricia Davis.

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"My baby wasn't planned so we're adjusting, and people have been doing this forever so I am looking forward to eventually slowing down and just honing in on family life and being a dad for a good while," he shared.

Despite the added chaos that two kids bring, Macklemore's has no regrets, telling E! News in October, "When you bring another life into this world it does something, it changes you in this magical way that I have never experienced before."

Macklemore also opened up about his struggle with addiction after revealing he relapsed with pills and marijuana in 2015. 

"I think that's the thing that always reminds me that I could lose all of this at any minute," he said of addiction. "If I stop prioritizing the daily recovery program that I do to maintain sobriety—I will lose it all. It's bigger than my career and more significant than record sales—it's my family. It's my happiness, my life."

He also made it clear that while he's grateful for his success, the rapid fame he experienced contributed to his relapse.

"Adjusting to the fame in a condensed period and not staying sober has been the worst," he explained. "There was a rapid transition and to have the world's eye on me all at once with back- to-back number ones, and all the accolades that came with it—I didn't know how to deal with it. I didn't know how to adjust, so I escaped."

Despite his struggles, Macklemore is in control of his recovery today and puts in the work to stay on the right path.

"Recovery helped me discover my character defects and my shortcomings and how I can progress to become a better version of myself. It's there to remind me that this life isn't permanent and I can lose it if I don't work to maintain that sobriety on a daily basis."

The father of two added, "I think my program has been a way for me to get closer to God and for me to figure out who I am." 

Macklemore and Tricia's older daughter, Sloane Ava Simone Haggerty, turns 3-years-old later month. The notoriously private pair announced her birth, as well as their marriage, back in 2015 following a more than two-year engagement.

The couple's second daughter was born in March. Her name has not yet been revealed.