Avicii’s father has paid tribute to his "brave" son to raise awareness of mental health.
The ‘Wake Me Up’ hitmaker took his own life in April 2018 while on holiday in Oman aged 28, and his dad Klas Bergling says he wants his boy, who struggled with depression and anxiety, to be remembered "as a good person, and as a good producer".
Klas admits Avicii – whose real name was Tim Bergling – first showed signs of anxiety during his teenage years.
He said: "When you have a child that’s not feeling well, you try everything to get the situation right again.
"And you try to understand what’s going on. So, we went to a psychiatrist.
"I think he was 14 or 15, yeah. And he sort of calmed Tim down."
Avicii had opened up about his anxiety and depression in a documentary filmed before his death, and Tim said: "I think it’s brave of him to open up that way.
"He had a good heart."
Klas admits his son’s suicide came as a "shock", because she thought the ‘Levels’ hitmaker was heading in the right direction.
He said: "The suicide came as a shock to all of us. And we thought that he was really on a better way before."
Asked on ‘CBS This Morning’, ahead of the show’s special episode ‘Stop the Stigma: A Conversation About Mental Health’, how he is coping now, Klas said: "Well, it’s ups and downs. It’s a life before. And now it’s a life after. That’s the best way you can express it."
Klas recently admitted he doesn’t think Avicii planned his death.
He said: "Our theory is not that he planned this suicide – more that it was like a traffic accident.
"Many things happened and came into the same station, so to say, and brought him out of his control."
Avicii’s dad opens up about ‘brave’ son
