EXCLUSIVE: 360 Sober After Recent Stint In Rehab

Rapper 360 has revealed that he spent a three week stint in rehab late last year and believes that being completely sober now probably saved his life.

Ahead of his new album Utopia, which will be released later this year, 360 – real name Matt Colwell – dropped in to theMusic's HQ recently and said, “I'm trying to keep busy all the time, I used to really like having time off but because I'm recently sober and not partying or anything like that I have to keep busy to keep my mind occupied… I went really downhill. About four months ago was probably the worst I've ever been. I was 67 kilos, grossly underweight – I'm six foot four so that's really thin. I was a mess and just had to stop everything otherwise I probably would have died, so now [I'm] clear-headed, no drinking, no anything.”

He added, “I went to this little private rehab place and went up there and detoxed for three weeks, and my girlfriend that I'm with now helped me like crazy. She put up with some absolute bullshit from me, which is a credit it to her – it was amazing that she could even put up with that and stay with me, you know, it's great… I'm a big believer in anything in moderation, but I've proved that I can't do that. And I think if you're doing something for a bit of fun that's fine, but once you do it to escape I think that goes into a negative, which is what I was doing.”

In the interview Colwell said that he's learnt to be a better role model for his fans, particularly the younger ones, and had struggled to stay grounded when his previous album, Falling & Flying, became one of 2012's most talked-about records.

“I think if you surround yourself with good people and genuine people you stay grounded – you just can't surround yourself with 'yes' men,” he told theMusic. “It's funny, I've learnt a lot in the three years – or whatever it was – since the success of the album.

“People were coming into my life who weren't genuine and were taking advantage of me and trying to get me to give them money and shit like that. Things get pretty rattled, you start not trusting anyone and getting paranoid about who cares about you or wants you for who you are. I've found that surrounding myself with people I was friends with before, they're my true mates and I felt grounded the whole time.”

He's also becoming comfortable in being a role model

“I wanna make a positive impact and do positive stuff,” he said. “I don't want to lead people to do stupid shit. I wasn't ready for it at the start but I've changed, a lot.”

Colwell credited the team around him – manager Rae Harvey and his girlfriend – were instrumental in pulling him out of the hole he found himself in and wanted to express hope and support for anyone going through something similar.

“I was such a mess and such a party animal and now just completely opposite,” he said. “I feel a lot better. Hopefully it can make people see that it's not cool to be fucked up all the time.”

Watch a snippet of the interview below:

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