“If You Were Here Tonight” singer, Alexander O’Neal, has recently come clean about his addiction to drugs. He admitted to being an addict over the past 30 years and he also addressed the judgement and hypocrisy he says he experiences in the music industry regarding his drug use versus other successful singers.

He’s addressing his drug use just a few months after his blow up on the show, Celebrity Big Brother, on which he was a contestant. After having a big argument with fellow Big Brother contestant, blogger Perez Hilton, O’Neal called him a “faggot,” and then stormed out of the house and that’s when people began speculating about the current status of his drug addiction.

O’Neal later admitted that the stress of being on that show is what caused him to relapse on crack cocaine again. Immediately after the blow up, O’Neal binged on the drug while staying in a London hotel. It was reported that during his brief stay there, he paid for two deliveries from a dealer within a 14 hour span of time.

Now Alexander O’Neal has finally spoken for the first time since that news surfaced in February (2015) and here is what he revealed about his current addiction (via Mirror):

The soul legend reveals he has fought a desperate 30-year struggle with drug ­addiction and confesses:

“It happens to the best of us and the worst of us. I’m an admitted addict. I don’t make any bones about my life. A relapse is part of addiction. When you are an addict of 30 years you’re a long-term addict, this isn’t a Friday night, out on the town, go get a little something and have a good time. This is very methodical. But it’s also very private. I didn’t go to rehab because I am rehab, I’ve been to enough rehab to teach that shit.”

I know that it’s you against yourself, it’s you against your own morals and values. When you fall, you just got to keep getting up and keep going.”

Alexander on how the music industry holds his drug use against him, while praising other artists who also have a well-known drug history:

“If I’m man enough to say this is one of my demons, surely that’s enough? I didn’t know the music industry was going to hold me hostage with it though for the rest of my career, the rest of my life. I didn’t know they were never going to allow me to go straight or grow up. Everything I do is based on drugs”.

Even today it’s 30 years on, every time they say something about Alexander O’Neal they say seven good things and one thing about drugs. Everything I do has always got drugs attached.

He admits now that in between visits to the recording studio, he was indulging his addiction. But he criticizes A-list stars who use ­interviews to claim they are sober but are secretly abusing drugs.

“I hate celebrities who do ­interviews and lie, sit there and try and pretend they’re some person that they’re not. I’ve come a long way but you can’t give yourself credit for that. Every day I don’t use (drugs) I’m getting closer to where I need to get to.”

Alexander on taking responsibility for his actions:

“At the end of the day it’s still a decision, I don’t use drugs because I need to, I use drugs because I want to. It’s my decision, I don’t let drugs affect my job, I will not let my addiction affect my job, because I learned many years ago that if you’re true to the game, the game will be true to you. I don’t go on stage high. Back in the day? Shit, I’d go on there any way I want to. But when you’ve been blessed to have great fans like in the UK, they deserve better”.

“When you’re a long-term user that sh*t is like breathing.”

With soul gems like “Fake,” “Criticize,” “A Broken Heart Can Mend,” “All True Man,” and more, Alexander O’Neal has proven that he is an extremely gifted artist. Sometimes artists have really bad afflictions within their personal lives, but that doesn’t make them any less of a great artist. Listening to Alexander give the details of his 30 year addiction now explains a whole lot about his career.

There is such a thing as in a functioning addict, as Alexander has described himself as, but a functioning addict always leaves the unspoken wonder of what could have been, had drugs not been their affliction. In the case of O’Neal, maybe we’ll never know, but he seems like a really genuine soul, so at this point we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that he can continue to push forward with his career and hopefully eventually overcome his addiction for good. In the meantime, let’s keep jammin’ to those Alexander O’Neal classics.