MercyMe’s Bart Millard opened up about his battle with depression, as well as the doctor who “got [him] on a different path.”
“Right when the movie [I CAN ONLY IMAGINE] came out, just unrelated, I was getting to a healthy place,” the singer said on an episode of the “Unashamed” podcast. “What’s weird is, like, this sequel, all that stuff about…depression, that was what was going on [right before the movie was made].”
Millard explained that he suffered from severe depression for many years, saying, “From the time Sam [his son] was 2 until he was about 15, I was deeply depressed that long. I got up to about 370 pounds…I would say yes to every show because that was a distraction, or I would just be home and not present in the same room.”
When he turned 40, his doctor told him a change needed to be made with his health, saying he had “every red flag in the book.”
The doctor counseled weight loss surgery, which Millard said “changed my life.”
“It got me on a different path, and then just in, you know, not realizing that spiritually and emotionally, I was getting fixed as well, like, going to counseling and all that kind of stuff,” he explained.
In an interview with the Alabama Baptist, Millard spoke further about how I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2 explored this dark time in his life.
“That 100% was me for years,” he said. “I would be the funny ‘aww shucks’ guy in public, but I would come home and turn that switch off and just was dealing with a deep depression for years. It was difficult and challenging to show that side, but there’s no point in making the movie if we can’t be honest.”
Millard is currently promoting I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2, which details his struggle balancing his career success with his problems at home, as well as his burgeoning friendship with a fellow musician who is carrying struggles of his own.
In an interview with Mama’s Geeky, the singer-songwriter talked about how the movie tells his story.
“I know we’re dealing with some heavy material, just like the first film,” he shared. “And I love how much ground we cover. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I mean, we cover everything from type one diabetes to birth in the family to loss of faith to trauma. I never would have thought that we were going back into this. Like, I think most people would never think their story’s worth being told that way.”
I CAN ONLY IMAGINE 2 is now playing in theaters.
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