Klas Bergling – Avicii’s father – opens up in Netflix documentary about staging an intervention before his late son’s death. The father of the late DJ and producer Avicii has described the “excruciatingly painful” intervention staged for his son as he struggled with his fame and lifestyle before his death.
A new Netflix documentary, Avicii — I’m Tim, sheds light on the mental health struggles that led to the Swedish artist’s death by suicide in 2018 at the age of 28, including an addiction to painkillers exacerbated by anxiety. Avicii, born Tim Bergling, was grappling with the pressures of fame and his own identity when Klas Bergling, alongside Avicii’s longtime collaborator and manager Arash “Ash” Pournouri, organized the intervention. It was a moment of crisis fueled by the young star’s inability to reconcile his onstage persona with his personal life.
“I just felt anxious. I didn’t know where the anxiety came from,” Bergling says in a voiceover in the film. “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.”.
The intervention involved close friends, siblings, and tour management. According to Klas, Avicii was initially resistant. “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 recounts. “Then everyone shared how concerned they were, and Tim… at first, he was pretty furious.”.
