-Macklemore!
Welcome back to the show.
Looking good, bud.
I like that double-breasted suit.
-Thank you. You know?
-Yeah. You look great, pal.
-You know what? I feel great,
and before -- And I appreciate that.
And before we start, I just want to say
the suit is Gucci. Um...
-No, no, no, you don't have to say that stuff.
-But -- But -- But
the suit is Gucci... -Yeah, yeah.
-...but the socks...
are Nike Dri-FIT.
[ Cheers and applause ]
You know what I'm saying? -Wow.
See, he knows how to do it.
See, that's what I'm talking about.
Dri-FIT. You need the Dri-FIT.
You're getting sporty, by the way.
-I am. -You really are.
You're getting into golf. -Yes, yes.
-And how long have you been into golf?
-Four years? -Yeah.
-Yeah. -Are you getting better?
-No, worse, worse. Way worse.
I was good a year and a half in.
Trajectory, pro.
Now -- trash.
-But what -- what happened to you?
-Thinking. Thinking.
-Yeah, you're just overthinking?
-Well, you know what?
At a certain point, I was like, "You know what?
I should probably finish the album.
I should stop playing golf.
I make money doing this, and I lose money doing this."
-Yeah, okay. Yeah, interesting.
-"Let's focus on the music."
And then I stopped playing, and then you are
only on Instagram, looking at other people
telling you how to play golf,
and you lose all athletic ability.
-You were at the -- -Oh, no.
-The Pro-Am. No, this is good.
Look at this swing. Look at that.
That's a good-looking golfer.
[ Applause ]
Is this your --
By the way, is this your clothing?
-Yes, Bogey Boys. So we started Bogey Boys.
Golf brand -- hat, jacket, shirt, pants, everything.
The sunglasses are Oakley, and they are just there
to prevent anyone from seeing the tears.
[ Laughter ]
-No, that's not true. That is a great swing.
I like -- see, what I do is, when I play golf,
I hold that for too long. -Mm.
-So even if your shot's bad, you just go like -- ffw!
-Yeah, they don't know. -You just hold it and you go...
-They can't tell on TV. -No, yeah, it looks good.
But then, I got another photo of --
Here's you. This is you looking for your ball.
-Yeah. No, no, no. -I just thought that was funny.
[ Laughter ]
That's why I had to -- equal. I gotta show both pictures.
-You know, it was the 18th hole on the last day on Sunday...
-Yeah.
-...when I hit two people, back-to-back.
[ Laughter ]
Then I really had a long, hard talk with myself
later that night of, "Maybe this is not the sport for you."
-Yeah, no, this is the sport for you right here.
-Yes. -We love you.
We love your music. Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
-This Friday -- This Friday it comes out.
You were working on the album.
You had a tour all set up,
and then, everything just changed.
-Yeah.
-Can you talk about that a little bit?
-Yes, COVID happened.
And like everybody, my world stopped.
And, you know, for those of you that might not follow my story,
I am a recovering addict, alcoholic,
and have been for the last 14 years.
And COVID happens -- [ Applause ]
Thank you. [ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you.
And a big part of my recovery community
is going to physical 12-step meetings.
And once those stopped, I was alone,
and the disease of addiction was like, "Yo, this is crazy.
The world has stopped. You can get high."
And eventually, I, um...
I stopped doing the things that prevented me from getting high,
and I listened to that voice.
And it was a couple weeks of a relapse and very painful.
And still working on trust issues with myself
and within my, you know, close circle of friends.
But it definitely was a reminder that whatever I put
in front of my recovery will be the first thing that I lose.
-Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
I'm so happy that you stopped...
-Yeah. -...and got to get help again.
-Yeah. I think, for me, it's not, like --
It's not a linear path, right? It's not like,
oh, once I realized that I had --
It's one disease that tells you, "You don't have a disease."
-Wow. -And I am doing my best,
and I'm making mistakes.
And there's some in the future, too, somewhere along the line,
in some capacity to my life, but I want to be able
to share that with the people that I love and that follow me.
-I appreciate the honesty. -Yeah.
-We love you. -Yeah. I love you, buddy.
-We love you. -Yeah.
-Does that --
It's scary because, yeah, I do want to say it again --
we love you. -Yeah.
-I really love you so much. -Thank you.
Thank you. I feel the same way.
[ Cheers and applause ] -You've been great to us.
I've known you for -- I've known you for a decade.
-A decade. -I really do.
Does it change the music?
Does it change the album and the tour?
And you're like, "Oh, wait.
Maybe I should go back and re-record that?"
-You know, I think that it creates some moments
of introspection of, again, "Who am I?"
That's kind of --
The stripping away is the part of the process
of writing an album.
It's not adding more to, but peeling back layers.
Uncovering the veil. Getting to the heart.
And the relapse was an opportunity for me
to get back to the place of, "Okay. What went on?
Let me talk about it. Let's get vulnerable.
And what are you afraid to say right now?"
That's what you need to lean into.
-Congratulations on the album and getting everything.
-Thank you. -We love you so much.
-Thank you. -Give it up for Macklemore
right there, guys. [ Cheers and applause ]
Congrats. The new album, "Ben,"
comes out this Friday,
and you're gonna be back on our show next week.
-Yes. -So, yeah, so come right back.
Don't leave. Macklemore, everybody.
More "Tonight Show." Stick around. Come on back.