By Alan Duke
(CNN) — Country singer Trace Adkins suffered “a setback in his battle with alcoholism” and has entered a rehab facility for help, his representative told CNN on Thursday.
Adkins, 52, was on the “Country Cruising” cruise in the Caribbean this week, according to the cruise line’s website.
On Sunday as the ship sailed out of Miami to start the trip to Mexico, Adkins posted a tweet: “Up here in my suite, overlooking the pools. Behave yourselves.”
His shipboard shows and the voyage were scheduled to end this weekend, but his representative confirmed to CNN that the singer is no longer on the cruise.
“Trace has entered a treatment facility after a setback in his battle with alcoholism,” his rep said. “As he faces these issues head on, we ask that his family’s privacy will be respected.”
Adkins, who towers above most people at 6-foot-6, worked as a pipe fitter on an offshore drilling rig before becoming a country music star in the mid-1990s. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry.
He’s sold about 10 million albums in the past two decades. His top hits include “Ladies Love Country Boys” and “You’re Gonna Miss This.”
His autobiography — “A Personal Stand: Observations and Opinions from a Freethinking Roughneck,” published in 2007 — details a long list of close calls with death and battles with personal demons.
His tough-guy image helped when he was cast as a biker in the movie “The Lincoln Lawyer” with Matthew McConaughey in 2011.
He is the father of five daughters, but told CNN’s Piers Morgan in 2011 that he would never win a father of the year award because of the demands of his career keeping him from his family.
Adkins was a finalist on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2008, but lost out to Piers Morgan.
CNN’s Carolyn Sung contributed to this report.
The-CNN-Wire
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