How Faith Saved Dennis Quaid from Addiction: ‘Grateful to be Alive’
By Moveiguide® Contributor
Actor Dennis Quaid recently revealed how finding faith in Christ saved him from addiction and has continued to be the foundation of his life since then.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Quaid revealed how his struggle with addiction early in his career motivated him to return to his Christian roots.
“I was in a band,” he added, “and we got a record gig… They broke up the night they got it, and they broke up because of me, because I was not reliable.”
“I remember going home and having kind of a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he recalled.
Addiction forces people to “fill a hole inside us,” the Movieguide® Award nominee added. “When you’re done with the addiction, you need something to fill that hole, something that really works, right?”
The actor decided to read the Bible. While he also read the Bhagavad Gita, the Quran and other religious texts, he returned to the Bible.
“That’s when I started developing a personal relationship,” he said. “Before that, I didn’t have one, even though I grew up as a Christian.”
“We’re all looking for the joy of life,” Quaid added. “Drugs give that to you and alcohol and whatever it is for anybody give that to you really quick. Then they’re fun and then they’re fun with problems, and then they’re just problems after a while.”
“We’re looking for…the joy of life,” he continued. But a relationship with God is “at the bottom of it, the joy of being alive.”
“I’m grateful to still be here, I’m grateful to be alive really every day. It’s important to really enjoy your ride in life as much as you can because there’s a lot of challenges and stuff to knock it down.”
Now, Quaid is releasing a Gospel-centered album called “Fallen: A Gospel Record for Sinners.”
“I grew up at the Baptist church; I love the hymns that I remember from being a kid,” he stated. “The songs are self-reflective and self-examining, not churchy. All of us have a relationship with God, whether you’re a Christian or not…You may not even believe, but you’re still in relationship.”
Quaid is known for his roles in Movieguide® award-winning movies including I CAN ONLY IMAGINE and SOUL SURFER.
Movieguide® previously reported on Quaid’s work in the music industry:
Actor Dennis Quaid recently shared why he returned to his faith in God after being “disillusioned” as a teenager while in the Southern Baptist Church…
The gospel album is a slight departure from the past 20 years of Quaid’s career with his band, The Sharks.
According to THE ROOKIE actor, the album will feature “spiritual songs I grew up with in church.”
Featured on the album are Billy Ray Cyrus, Tanya, Tucker, Kris Kristofferson, and Brandi Carlisle.
“I’ve always been spiritual. I grew up in a Southern Baptist church, became disillusioned with it as a teenager. I turned to Eastern religions and philosophies,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times. “I read the Bible twice, read the Koran, went to India nine times. Along the way, I came back to Christianity.”
