Charles Kelley went to rehab when his wife threatened to divorce him.
Charles Kelley got sober last year
The Lady A singer spent a month in treatment last summer and he's now recalled the turning point in his struggle with alcohol abuse came during a difficult vacation to Greece, where he hit the bottle following an argument with his spouse Cassie.
He said on 'CBS Mornings': "I just turned my phone off in the middle of nowhere and just took off and stayed up drinking with all these random people I didn't know.
"We had got in an argument, and I had one of those moments where I just was like, 'I'm so sick of being told what to do.' "
The 41-year-old star woke the next morning at 7am and called his wife, who hadn't slept after her husband "disappeared" and she gave him an ultimatum.
She said: "The next morning I said, 'You need help. You have to deal with this.' And he said he knew, and he made a plan with his manager and he flew directly from Greece to treatment. But at that point I fully thought I was flying back to the US I was gonna meet with a divorce attorney, like, that was it."
Charles then spent a month in rehab.
It is unclear when the couple - who have seven-year-old son Ward together - went on their vacation, but last June, Cassie had posted a photo of them in Mykonos on her Instagram in June, and in August last year, Lady A postponed a number of tour dates to accommodate the fact the 'As Far as You Could' hitmaker had "embarked on a journey to sobriety".
Cassie believes alcoholism is a "family disease" and she has had to work as hard as her husband on his recovery.
She said: "When he was in rehab and I went out there for family week, one of the first messages you receive is, 'You're gonna have to do just as much work here.'
"And I remember being so mad. Like, you did this. And now I have to do all of this work too? But… it affects every person in that family system.
"So I could've chosen not to do the work, but then I have to live with the way that I've been affected and unhealed.
"So whether Charles and I were in a marriage or not, whether I saw him again for the rest of my life, I still had to deal with what I had gone through."
Asked why she chose to stay with her husband, who she married in 2009, Cassie cited their family and admitted she was "really proud" of her husband for the efforts he has put in to staying sober.
She added: "It's not easy to walk through and it's not easy to stay connected and just put your head down and do the work, 'cause it is a lot of work.
"And because he keeps showing up every day, I get to keep showing up every day and our family gets to be intact, so I'm really, really proud of him."
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