Many know American singer Mike Posner for the song "I Took A Pill In Ibiza", which remained at No. 1 for four weeks, in 2016.
This year, however, his name was released for another, very different reason. There is a song in the spotlight again, but this time it is behind it a very personal story, an internal - and external - confrontation and a course, literally and figuratively, of many kilometers.
After the loss of his father by cancer, two years ago, the singer gave up everything, his old habits, "give-and-take" with substances and alcohol, and embarked on a journey that would eventually change his life.
On April 15, he began walking in Asbury Park, New Jersey. And it did not stop until it reached the Pacific Ocean, six months later. Reminiscent of the course that Forrest Gump ran in the film of the same name. Only Mike did it while walking.
"I walked to be someone I am really proud of," he told the BBC. "Before I left, I suspected that I had some limited but real power within me. I was wrong, I had tremendous power hidden».
The pop star's journey was recorded in the video of his new single "Live Before I Die", a product of a collaboration with the British producer Naughty Boy.
Posner covered 4.588 kilometers. He woke up at 4 every morning and sometimes walked more than 48 kilometers a day.
During his journey, he bit her rattler and had to be airlifted to a hospital in Colorado, where he was warned he may need to have his leg amputated. Miraculously though, just three weeks later continued his mission, returning to exactly where he had interrupted her.
The most difficult day, he says, was three months after it began, when floods in Missouri forced him to change course - causing him to move in the "wrong" direction for two days to reach the Kansas border. .
"I was saying to myself, 'Just get to Kansas' and that was ok. Until I got to Kansas. "Because it had created the feeling of this false termination in my head, my brain thought it was all over when in fact I was not even halfway there," he explains.
The prospect of getting up and continuing walking the next day, having crossed this "virtual" finish line, he had a price for his health.
"My body was starting to fall apart," he recalls. "If I did not focus on the next step each time, my body would stop. "And I was so tired that this would happen."
But Posner stuck to his slogan, which was "keep going". For the remaining 186 days of his journey, he set out to take the next "step" and never again. finishing line.
As he continued to grow his beard, Posner became stronger and more accustomed to his plight. He began to dislike cities and suburbs, making him feel claustrophobic "having lived under the stars and in the desert" in Nevada and Colorado.
One of the most special stages of his journey was the 10-day hike in the land of the Navajo, In Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.
The Diné people welcomed Posner with "incredible kindness and compassion", "endowing" him with a sacred eagle wing and helping him reconsider his relationship with the earth.
Going step by step on his journey, the 31-year-old was working on it at the same time music of releasing a new song every time crossed the border of a state.
When he arrived, he had an entire audio record entitled "Keep Going" - his mantra - lots of music and messages from various celebrities, including Diddy and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith- which encouraged him to continue.
The last message was the one his mother had left on his answering machine, very worried, telling him: "You can stop what you are doing if you want, if it is very difficult or if you decide to stay. I think you will be shocked by how difficult it is, but I love you just trying».
Posner's mission was completed on October 18, just as it had begun. With a dip, but this time in Pacific Ocean, in Venice Beach, California, while his friends and supporters cheered.
But having given up all the old habits and crap, there was the question of how he would celebrate this achievement. "I went to sleep. "I woke up at 4. I went to the boxing gym," he says.
Check out this Instagram post.
✅
"I know it sounds crazy because my body was broken and very tired from all this distance, but I wanted to give my body and my mind the message that although the 'journey' is over, not everything is over," he explains.
"Now the 'journey' is over but it is my job to explore what is out thereHe adds.
His epic journey was also the inspiration for his new song "Live Before I Die", in which he concentrates his personal transformation.
"I stopped smoking weed a year ago / Maybe I'm less cool, I don't know / But I finished two more albums / Instead of sitting down / Yes, I stopped smoking weed a year ago," he says, among other things.
"It simply came to our notice then song, finds me in the heart "describes the producer Naughty Boy. "Having seen the video, it's almost like Mike was walking for all of us and now it's time for all of us."
Posner, meanwhile, has not stopped putting himself in trouble. Not long ago climbed two mountains, Mount Hood in Oregon and Mount Adams in Washington.
And now;
"I have many ideas but no plans," he emphasizes. "I am in the process of deciding what to do. Now I am working on the recovery of my body and I am working on some secrets… "he concludes.
