Trace Adkins performed at the Rockin’ Country Thunder 106’s Guys with Guitars Under the Stars concert in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, according to PEOPLE. During his performance, he was reportedly slurring his words and barely able to make it through his set. It was clear to concertgoers that he was drunk onstage.
“Very sad,” Jill Zangara, a concertgoer, posted on the Country Thunder Facebook page. “Felt so bad leaving but too hard to watch. Such a hard disease to conquer. Hope he can make it work.”
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To make up for his performance, Adkins donated the performance money he earned from the concert to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Adkins has been struggling with alcohol addiction. He completed a rehab program in 2014 after an incident on a cruise ship and completed a 28-day rehab session in 2001. However, it’s clear that he is still struggling with this disease.
“This illness is an everyday fight,” a source told PEOPLE. “Trace is a fighter and everyone is pulling for him.”
At one point, Adkins’ family staged an intervention for the country singer. His daughters and then wife Rhonda, who he split from in 2014, sat him down and discussed how they were feeling and what he was doing to them with his alcoholism.
“I wish for anybody out there to never have to go through one of those intervention things where you sit down there and people start telling you what you’re doing to them,” he admitted. “You’re so weak that it’s come to this. Man, I hated myself at that moment.”
Good luck in fighting this battle Trace.
This story first appeared at Womanista.
