Award-winning music producer and artist Timothy Zachary Mosley, better known as Timbaland, has helped dozens of well-known musicians reach success over the past twenty-plus years.
Despite the mass success, the forty-seven-year-old eventually found himself in a place of emptiness. In the January issue of Men’s Health, Mosley opened up about his battle with drug addiction, the chaos of always being in the spotlight, and how God saved his life.
In 2011, Mosley had a root canal and was prescribed a round of painkillers that would change his life. He shared with Men’s Health that he quickly became addicted to OxyContin and Percocet, and started using it as a coping mechanism to deal with his busy life.
“It put me in a great feeling of not caring, of just being free,” Mosley shared in the interview. “I’m like traveling, doing shows, popping ’em, having fun, just being ignorant.”
Around the same time, Mosley and his wife divorced after 5 years of marriage. The divorce dragged on and not only took a toll mentally but placed him $4 million behind on taxes.
Mosley began taking pills to cope, which in turn, made him tired, sluggish, and foggy. He kept up this lifestyle until one night when he had a dream he died, and he realized he needed to fight the addiction to stay alive, mainly motivated by his three children.
“It’s like a bright light going on in your brain,” he said about his children. “That’s how you know what true love really is.”
Mosley, who sits under nondenominational pastor T. D. Jakes, realized that he needed the help fo God to pull him through the addiction.
“Just me and God,” he says, saying it was the only option. “This was the path chosen for me. God was rebuilding my character.”
Mosley slowly weaned himself off of the pills, taking fewer and fewer until they were completely gone.
“One of the toughest things I’ve been through,” he says, sharing about the withdrawal he went through. “The only things that got me through it were my kids, my girl, the help of God keeping my mind still.”
This happened five years ago, and since then Timbaland has worked to stay drug-free, as well as lose over 100 pounds.
“God has me under construction, which I’m still under,” Mosley explained. “I don’t feel like I’m complete. I don’t want to ever feel like I’m complete, ’cause my mind would probably get idle.”
“God needed me to be clear so I could see what is needed, not what I want,” he added.