Avicii’s Dad Reveals He Staged ‘Excruciatingly Painful’ Intervention for Late Producer Prior to His 2018 Death

Avicii’s father is reflecting on the difficult moment he was forced to stage an intervention for the late music producer.

The new Netflix documentary Avicii — I’m Tim sheds new light on the star’s mental health struggles ahead of his 2018 death by suicide at age 28 — including an addiction to painkillers spurred on by anxiety.

In the documentary, Avicii (né Tim Bergling)’s father Klas says he once arranged an intervention for the “Levels” producer with the help of Arash “Ash” Pournouri, the star’s longtime co-producer, co-writer and manager.

The intervention came amid a pivotal point in Bergling’s career, as he was unhappy having to balance his onstage persona with who he was in real life, and had developed an addiction to painkillers, which he “justified as suppressing his anxiety,” close friend Jesse Waits says in the doc.

“I just felt anxious. I didn’t know where the anxiety came from,” Bergling says in a voiceover. “I could feel it physically in my gut. It was like a stone in my gut, that’s how it felt. And it was constant. A constant emotion.”

Klas’ intervention included the star’s friends, siblings and tour management — and Avicii was not happy about it.

“As he approached, he could see all of us there. It was excruciatingly painful to see the look in his eyes. Oh man, that was really rough,” Klas recalls in the documentary. “Then everyone shared how concerned they were, and Tim… at first, he was pretty furious.”

Klas says the intervention went on “for hours,” and that for a long time, his son would not budge.

“He refused to give in. But eventually something made him say, ‘Fine, I’ll get help.’ I said, ‘OK, thank you,’” he recalls. “It finally registered. We were thrilled. It got through to him. I think he realized it was time for him to do something about it.”

In a voiceover, Bergling says he started seeing psychiatrists and doctors, and even tried switching up his diet and exercise routines in order to feel better. He explains that he no longer enjoyed making music, and as a result, changed the way he operated by totally clearing his schedule.

“I’m trying to find balance,” he says. “Balance in life, and with my friends and family.”

For a period, Bergling seemed to have found some semblance of that balance, as he says in another voiceover that he felt “really happy” being “free” from the constraints of his grueling tour schedule and record label. In the fall of 2017, he started practicing transcendental meditation, and started creating what would become the posthumous 2019 album Tim.

In addition to following Bergling’s ascent to DJ superstardom on the back of hits like “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother,” the documentary chronicles the star’s struggle with life in the spotlight — and the aftermath of his tragic death in April 2018 while on vacation in Muscat, Oman.

“I don’t think anybody really knows why or what happened. Nobody knows what was going through his mind,” Waits says. “Everybody can speculate. He seemed good to everybody I talked to that [was] around him. He was just in a good place. It’s hard to accept.”

Klas, meanwhile, says that “none of us imagine that something like this could happen.”

The documentary features narration by the late Bergling himself, as well as new interviews with friends, family and collaborators like Chris Martin and Aloe Blacc. The film, directed by Henrik Burman, also features home video footage from the star’s childhood, as well as behind-the-scenes clips of him creating some of his biggest hits.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.