Nathan Carter has revealed he’s struggled with depression over the past few months, after the coronavirus pandemic left him out of work.
The country music singer is used to performing 200 shows a year, but all that changed when the Covid-19 outbreak hit Ireland.
Speaking to Joe Duffy on RTE’s The Meaning of Life, Nathan said: “It was grand at the start, I needed a break. But I’ve struggled with it over the past six months.”
“There’s days when I wake up thinking, ‘What’s going on here? I’ve nothing to look forward to’. I was going from playing in front of thousands of people.”
“It’s a drug, being on stage, the crowd in front of you, the rapport, the applause. It’s a massive drug,” he continued.
“So to go from doing that to literally doing nothing is a real come down. I thought, ‘There’s nothing to be getting up for, I might as well lie in bed for a few more hours’.
“I did that every morning for about two months. I wasn’t clinically depressed but I was in a depressed state. I didn’t tell anyone because I hate to be a burden.”
“I was probably drinking a bit too much as well which didn’t help. It was probably a bad escalation of just drink and nothing to do,” he confessed.
Nathan admitted he has questioned his drinking habits in the past, as his grandfather died after falling down the stairs back in 1999, following “a few too many” drinks.
Nathan said: “Yeah, I have done [questioned my drinking], a few times. The music
business leans towards that type of stuff – after the gig you’re on the bus, you’re having a few and next minute it’s three in the morning.”
“You’re up partying the night away. I’ve often had a few words with myself and said, ‘You need to rein it in a bit’.”
The musician spent lockdown in Fermanagh with his brother Jake and his dancer girlfriend Karen Byrne, and Nathan praised the couple for helping lift his mood.
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