P!nk opens up about drug overdose at age 16

P!nk has shared the story behind the drug overdose she suffered at age 16 just weeks before signing her first record deal.

In a recent appearance on 60 Minutes, the singer opened up about her troubled home life, sharing: “I was a punk. I had a mouth. I had a chip on my shoulder.”

“Basically, I grew up in a house where every day, my parents were screaming at each other, throwing things, hated each other. And then I got into drugs, I was selling drugs – and then I was kicked out of the house, I dropped out of high school. I was off the rails.”

The pivotal incident occurred in November 1995, Pink recalled. “Thanksgiving of 1995, I was at a rave, and I overdosed. I was on, oh boy – ecstasy, angel dust, crystal, all kinds of things,” she shared. “Then I was out. Done. Too much.”

Host Cecilia Vega asked the singer if she almost died from the overdose, to which Pink responded, “Yeah.”

Shortly after the overdose, she was offered a performance slot at a hip-hop night in exchange for a deal with the DJ. “Come back tomorrow, I’ll give you a guest spotlight,” she says he told her, with the caveat: “But you can never touch drugs again.”

She was offered a record deal with LaFace Records as part of the short-lived R&B girl group Choice soon after, before launching her solo career in 2000.

P!nk recently postponed tour dates in Canada due to a respiratory infection, citing her doctor’s advice to take time to recover. No new dates for the postponed concerts have been announced as of the time of writing, though tour promoter Live Nation is currently working on the situation.