Juice WRLD did not keep it a secret that he was self-medicating to help him cope with the pain of his depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns. Throughout his musical career, the late Chicago rapper was open about his struggle with substance abuse, as well as addiction and more.
On "Wishing Well", which appears on his posthumous studio album Legends Never Die, Juice WRLD sings: "If it wasn't for the pills, I wouldn't be here/But if I keep taking these pills, I won't be here". The line is a sad view of how the artist, whose real name was Jarad Higgins, saw his battle.
His mother, Carmella Wallace, has spoken freely about her son's death, as well as his addiction issues. In a new interview for ABC 7 Chicago, she explains the purpose of the Live Free 999 organization, as well as the reason why she continues to remind people about Juice's addiction.
"It was devastating, but one thing I decided early on was, I was not going to hide the fact that he died from a drug overdose," said Carmella Wallace about her son's death. "I didn't want to keep that secret because a lot of people deal with that every day".
She says that she and Juice often spoke about his struggles with mental health. She even asked him to seek professional treatment instead of continuing to abuse pills.
"I said, 'if you have anxiety, then you need to get medicated properly for it instead of medicating yourself,'" added Wallace. "I talked to him about it. I told him my biggest fear was him overdosing on the stuff. That's why I made the decision I have to talk about it with other people. I can't keep that as a secret."
She goes on to say that, while Juice was a superstar in the eyes of his fans, to her, he was just Jarad.
"Juice Wrld was an icon but Jarad was my son," she said. "I didn't treat him like a celebrity. In fact, the first time I saw him perform, it was in Chicago. I forget where, but I saw the crowd and I saw the girls and 'take a selfie with me.' He was pumped up. He was still living with me at the time and when he came home, I said, 'take out the garbage,' because I just wanted him to stay humble."
As of late, a collaboration between Juice WRLD and XXXTentacion has been teased by DJ Scheme and Cleopatra Bernard, XXX's mom. Ally Lotti, Juice's girlfriend, stated on Twitter that she "doubts" it will ever come out though. Read more about that here.