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

Mar. 15, 2025

Avicii in Los Angeles in May 2015.Photo:Michael Kovac/Getty

Michael Kovac/Getty

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

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.

Avicii performing.Rich Polk/Getty

“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.”

Avicii’s father Klas Bergling gives a speech live on stage during an Avicii tribute concert to raise awareness for mental health at Friends Area on December 5, 2019 in Stockholm, Sweden.Michael Campanella/Redferns

Michael Campanella/Redferns

“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 albumTim.

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.”

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

source: people.com