Avicii’s father speaks on camera for first time since son’s death
While Avicii’s untimely death sent tremors throughout the entire music industry in April of 2018, an individual among those who undoubtedly felt the loss most poignantly is his father, Klas Bergling. Earlier this year, he appeared as a guest speaker at IMS Ibiza, where he gave insight into the focus behind the Tim Bergling Foundation, founded by the Bergling family themselves, erected to bring awareness to a number of mental health topics like suicide prevention.
In a recently aired CBS News special segment, labeled “Stop the Stigma: A Conversation About Mental Health,” Klas Bergling appears for his first-ever live camera interview since losing his son nearly a year and a half prior.
In the piece, Klas emphasizes that he wanted Avicii to be remembered as a good human with a good heart. In Avicii’s 2017 documentary, True Stories, the landmark Swedish producer was more than open in speaking on his chronic and pervasive battle with anxiety, which began in his teenage years, preceding severe bouts of depression and cycles of addiction as a response.
Klas, within the episode, touches on the fact that Avicii’s passion towards DJing manifested into a burden once he began appearing at more than 250 shows in a single calendar year: an improbable feat for any touring musician. When he quit the DJ lifestyle to focus on music in 2018, his family believed that he was on a path to permanent stability. Naturally, his death came as an unfathomable “shock.”
Klas states that the ultimate goal behind the Tim Bergling Foundation is to dispel “the stigma away from talking about mental illness and suicide. We hope we can be a voice through Tim, because Tim has so many millions of fans.”
On December 5, an Avicii tribute concert will be held in the artist’s hometown of Stockholm, Sweden, featuring 19 of his original collaborators, a 30-piece band and performances from the likes of David Guetta, Kygo, Laidback Luke, and more.
Via: CBS News
Featured image: Rukes
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