Country music star says alcohol addiction almost killed him

When it comes to country music there are few artists as talented and authentic as Jamey Johnson.

And as he rolls out his first new music in quite some time with the release of his "Midnight Gasoline" album, one song has caught folks' attention. That song — "Sober" — gives a real-life look into Johnson's battle with the bottle years ago.

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And Johnson told Billboard that alcohol was "leading him down a dark path of self-destruction."

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"I barely survived," Johnson told the site. "Alcohol was an incendiary way of destroying myself. Everything just went up in flames and you couldn't put the fire out, you just had to wait for it all to come to ashes and then try to rebuild when you get done. And it seemed to me like I owed myself a better way to live than that."

Johnson told Billboard he took his last drink in September of 2011 and quit smoking marijuana in 2015. These days, he said he will, from time-to-time, indulge in the devil's lettuce, but that he is "sober for the most part."

"But I don't play games with alcohol," he added.