Juice Wrld Had Intervention Week Before Death, Agreed to Rehab

In a new interview with GQ, the friends and mother of Juice Wrld have expressed the growing concerns they had over the fallen rapper’s drug use before his untimely passing in 2019.

On Monday (May 3), an article written by Dan Hyman, a writer for the American men’s magazine, was published about the Legends Never Die rhymer’s life and death. During the conversation that took place about the 21-year-old Chicago native’s battle with addiction, Max Lord—a longtime collaborator of Juice—reveals that an intervention for the rapper was held a week before his death where he agreed to attend rehab.

“We had just broken down a lot of barriers with him,” Lord says. “I and a couple other people had come to him in tears, like, ‘We’re worried about you, and we’re scared we’re going to lose you if you keep up these habits. And we have to do something.’ And he agreed.”

As the conversation continues, Lord also divulges that Juice Wrld agreed to admit himself into a rehabilitation center with a visit booked for December 22, 2019.

“And we had treatment booked for later [starting on December 22],” Lord adds. That was the soonest they were available to get him in. It hurts. It really hurts.” Unfortunately, Juice died of an accidental overdose two weeks before his admission date.

Before Lord discloses information regarding the intervention that took place for Juice Wrld, the Grammy-nominated mixing engineer explains how Juice snuck around to do drugs like prescription opioids and lean—codeine mixed with soda—to keep his friends from noticing he had a problem.

“He was hiding and compartmentalizing how much he was doing with different people,” Lord tells. “He’d come into the studio room and act like he hasn’t gotten high at all that day, and do a certain amount in there before I tell him, ‘Bro, no, chill.’ Then he was going upstairs and hanging out with the guys and doing the same thing.”

Juice Wrld’s mom, Carmella Wallace, also shares that she knew the cause of her son’s death before the official autopsy results came in.

“Even before the tests came back, I knew what [he died] from,” she explains. “And I made the decision from the beginning that I’m not going to hide it. I want people to know the seriousness of it.”

In honor of Juice, Ms. Wallace launched the Live Free 999 Foundation in April of 2020 to support youth struggling with mental health.

According to The New York Times in December of 2019, Juice Wrld passed away after experiencing a seizure following an accidental overdose at Chicago Midway Airport on December 8, 2019. Juice had a long history of struggling with drug addiction and he often used his lyrics to paint pictures of his struggles with songs like “Lean Wit Me.”

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