JoJo talks about late father’s opioid addiction in new ‘Why I Vote’ video
New England’s opiate crisis killed more than 1,000 people in the area in the last year—a number that is more than a statistic to Foxborough native JoJo.
The now 25-year-old “F— Apologies” singer — who released her new comeback album, Mad Love, last month — talked about her father’s addiction in a Vevo “Why I Vote video released Thursday.
In the video, she talks about her father’s addiction, saying she was around 12 when she first learned of his demons stemming from a workplace injury that left him disabled.
“After he stopped working is when he really got into narcotics,” JoJo explained in the video. “I never knew why he was out of it or why he would fall asleep at the wheel or why he would slur his words. I didn’t understand that, and my mom kept that from me because she didn’t want to upset me and she didn’t want me to look at him in a certain way, and I really respect that.”
JoJo said her father’s addiction ultimately put a strain on their relationship, and they lost contact. But in 2015, when she received a call saying he was not going to make it this time after another overdose, she immediately hopped on a flight from Los Angeles to Massachusetts to be by his side.
“He was hooked up to a bunch of machines, and he had fallen, and he was out of it; he didn’t know what was going on,” she said, tearing up. “Me and my aunts had discussed what we were gonna do this time: We were gonna practice tough love, and we were gonna cut him off because it was too much for us as a family to keep going through. But I looked at him and saw him hooked up to these machines, and I just couldn’t give up on him…that’s my one dad. I just couldn’t do it. In that moment, I felt like, who am I to give up on you? I just decided that I was gonna love him, and I’m really glad I did.”
“I don’t feel like he had the resources or tools available to him to help himself,” she later added. “I don’t want other families to be broken up and have their lives ruined as a result of their addiction.”
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The singer ended the six-minute clip saying she is voting on an absentee ballot this year because the opioid epidemic “is affecting all of us.” And she’s not the only celebrity to join the movement to get people to the polls this Tuesday. Kesha, John Legend, and Andra Day are all also featured in Vevo’s “Why I Vote” video series.
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