[announcer] Give it up for Avicii!
[crowd cheering]
[serene electronic music]
[Avicii] The first four or five years,
everything was awesome...
because you get a kick out of it,
the same thing you're...
If you're jumping out of a plane,
you get a kick, too.
Because you're playing
with the feeling of almost dying.
And when you're up on stage,
I have been playing
with the feeling of being...
special, and finding a connection with
people in the sense of being accepted.
The way I went into DJing
was I'm... I'm gonna give it 100 percent,
no matter what happens.
And I kept giving 100 percent
all the time.
It was all around, in general, that
sense of more and more and more.
I didn't give myself enough time
to really figure out
what about the touring didn't I like.
The only time I had was...
a few... a few weeks here and there,
and... and then I was out
on the road again.
And the few weeks I had,
I never really got to get home anywhere,
and I was out for eight years.
So that meant, after four years,
when I started to come home,
it didn't even feel like home anymore.
I just know that it got to a point
where I didn't like it anymore.
And it got to a point where it's too much.
After that, I just decided:
"Fuck, I'm gonna quit."
[man singing in Swedish]
I grew up in Stockholm.
My whole childhood
up till I was, like, 19 years old
was in between, like, five blocks.
Like, all my schools that I went to were
all in the same... same area of Stockholm.
I knew that whatever I wanted to do
later in life,
I knew that
I wanted to do something creative.
A friend of mine told me about FL Studio.
And I remember I downloaded it,
so I started playing around with it.
It was very easy because... 'cause
you could, like, draw out the notes.
[Otto] He had his studio in his bedroom,
which was his apartment.
It was only one room.
And it was like a bed, I remember,
that was supposed to be folded,
so you got more space,
but it was always down.
[Lucas] It was, like, covered in plates
with, like, old spaghetti and pesto.
That's all we could afford.
[Otto]
We always met, you know, around noon,
then when I looked at the clock,
one o'clock in the night,
I would say: "Yeah, maybe we should see
each other again tomorrow and continue",
and he was like:
"Ah, we need to finish now.
It's better to finish now, then...
Then we can do a new song tomorrow."
He worked during the night, basically,
and then when he had sleep,
he often walked up to his roof
and slept in the sun.
And he was like: "Yeah, its so smart,
because then I get a tan,
I get sleep,
and then I can go back to... to work."
["Hang With Me - Avicii Mix"
playing on stereo]
[Avicii] The first half year was me just
trying to rip off other people's sounds.
And once you've done that
a thousand times, you start improvising.
Maybe I can do these two chords first but
then go to that chord and that, you know.
That's when I started coming up
with... unique stuff.
And then I just sent my music out
to blogs.
I remember I went to Laidback Luke
and I went to his forum
and I contacted him,
sent him a bunch of my demos.
I could already tell his melodies
were awesome
and the way he combined bass lines,
chords, and... and leads,
it was alre... already in there.
He really liked 'em,
and he started feedbacking me on them.
And from that moment on,
I sent every new track I did,
I sent to Luke.
I remember not getting one demo a week
but at least five every week.
And every track,
and I got better and better and better
until they started playing
some of the tracks.
That was the biggest thing for me ever.
He was one of the reasons
I got into house music.
Hi, this is Tim Berg.
Uh, I'm just doing some, uh,
final, uh, touches
on my, uh, upcoming single
on Joia Records...
[Lucas] When he made his first few tracks,
we were a bunch of people at his place.
We must have been around 18.
We were dreaming about, like,
what would happen if we made it big?
We were super into Entourage back then.
We forced him to, like, sign
this really shitty, like, contract
we... we hand painted
with crayons or something.
"Hereby, I, Tim, solemnly swear
that if I ever make it big,
I'm gonna bring all my friends to L.A.
and we're gonna live in a huge mansion,
and it's gonna be awesome."
[Avicii] That's... That's kind of around
that time when I met Ash, initially.
I followed some blogs,
that was part of my job,
and there was this kid that was not really
that hyped on any blogs or anything,
but I-I fell for something.
[Avicii] He sent me, like, um,
like, a message on Facebook,
saying: "Hey," uh,
"my name is Ash Pournouri,
and I have some friends in the industry.
I'm a promoter in Stockholm.
Think I can help."
So I kind of went to the meeting,
you know.
I-I didn't know what to expect.
It was this, you know,
like, 26-year-old Persian guy
and I'm... I'm, like,
a 17-year-old, you know, kid.
I think he had Coca-Cola or something,
um, and he brought his friend
'cause he was too scared to meet me alone.
He said, like: "Name one Swedish D.J.
that you think is big right now."
I remember naming someone.
He said: "I'll make you bigger
than him in one year."
Um, and my ambition level
was... was to make him not a D.J.,
not a producer, but a... but an artist.
From that moment on,
he kind of started, you know...
he kind of started being my manager.
And soon I found a project for us,
I-I found a remix.
The first big remix I got was from, uh...
uh... Roger Sanchez.
It was the first big remix I got to do
from a... for a big artist.
And then we did another remix,
and that went even better.
He made a remix for a Bob Sinclar record,
and I heard it,
I was like: "Oh, my God.
This is so amazing!"
Uh, but he wasn't...
He wasn't, like, a big producer yet,
you know, and I was shocked,
and I, uh, I got in contact with him
and I think I've asked him
for a remix, too.
He was making amazing mash-ups.
Like, every week, he would send me a new
mash-up, and I really liked his style.
I really loved all his tracks. I started
playing them every week in my show.
[Avicii] My first Avicii show was in Miami
for, uh, Laidback Luke's
"Super You and Me" party.
It was then and there I, uh,
I met a... a very shy
and... and just a held-back type of a kid.
[Avicii] It's, like, a 200-people,
200-capacity club.
He was just so nervous.
He had prepped his set and everything,
and, um, in the end, he ended up
opening the night for three people.
[Avicii] Then, towards the end,
people started coming.
I didn't mess up, I-I survived.
Everything went okay.
I started doing small shows
here and there. It was single clubs.
It was, you know, whatever Ash
had been able to bring in.
At this time, it wasn't many, so he was
coming with me to most of the shows.
- Are you ready for Avicii?
- [cheering and whistling]
He's never managed anyone before.
He'd been a promoter, he loved the music.
He... He had a wife and kids.
You know, like, he knew that
he didn't really have the time
to pursue being a D.J.
I was doing one or two shows a month
at this point.
I was mainly still focusing on the music.
We spent a summer together in Ibiza.
He was staying in my house,
he was playing before me every week.
And, um, yeah, he was very
into... into, uh, to music and producing.
[Guetta]
He really developed his own sound,
and, uh, and then, a little later,
when we'd been to the studio together,
I was like:
"Wow, okay, this guy is very serious.
Like, he's really, really special."
[Avicii] My first track that really
started getting buzz was "Alcoholic",
and then "Bromance" came,
which was the first song that I think
got, like, commercial attention.
[blows]
["Something's Got a Hold on Me" sample
playing on laptop]
[speaking Swedish]
We'd found a clip, um,
of Etta James singing the hook...
And Tim tried to place it over different,
um, songs, and we couldn't really find
anything that sounded quite right,
and then Tim had this, um, loop.
["Levels" playing on stereo]
[Avicii laughing]
It had the right energy,
the right uplifting melody,
um, that... that we were looking for.
All of a sudden, it just made sense
for that vocal to be there.
[Avicii] That's kind of when things
really started kind of taking off.
Seeing that people come to your show
to hear your songs,
like, when they knew the songs.
And I remember the first time
I ever heard that
was when I played Governors Island
in New York.
[announcer] Give it up for Avicii!
[cheering]
And I remember that they were singing
along to every single one of my songs.
["Drowning - Avicii Remix" playing,
crowd singing]
I was just blown away
'cause this, like, never happened before.
And "Levels" just started spreading.
["Levels" playing]
[chanting to song]
[crowd cheering and whistling]
[chanting] Avicii! Avicii!
[laughs]
[laughing]
Eventually, you know, uh,
it was discussion with Ash,
who has... has been my main challenge
when it comes to discussing the deals
for "Levels" and Avicii.
I'll send you the big, you know,
the big rough outline of
whatever it is I'm looking for
and what I have on the table,
and then we can take it from there.
[Per] There is no person like Ash.
His obsessiveness of taking Tim
to the next level,
or to three, four, five levels up.
Uh, I think he will continue to be
very successful
because he is obsessed
of having success.
I'm not sending...
I'm not sending the vocal to anyone.
[exhales heavily]
[man laughing]
"Just tell him we will match EMI's offer."
[man exclaims]
Every day I'm hustling!
- Fuck you!
- [man laughs]
And but the... the impact of the song,
as just an instrumental song,
was so huge at the club scenes,
at YouTube.
So we just felt this is gonna be huge.
- Hey, it's Ash.
- [man] Hello.
Advance has been put in at 500,000 euros.
Um...
Okay, thank you very much, everyone.
And, uh, speak on e-mail.
- Listen, thank you.
- Thank you, bye.
- Bye-bye.
- Thank you. Goodbye.
["Hustlin'" by Rick Ross playing]
I'm the fuckin' boss.
He is a... He is a warm family man,
hardworking,
and, um, I mean, uh,
I call him a friend, yeah.
[Avicii]
Like, everything has gone in steps.
With "Levels", everything just kind of,
[imitates rocket] really took off.
We got these opportunities that
we'd never been presented with before.
Like, headlining Ultra was one of
the first dreams that really come true.
[helicopter whirring]
[dramatic string music]
Avicii is the headliner on the main stage.
He's coming up right now,
and, as you can see, there's a lot of hype
around him. There he is!
[people exclaiming]
[man] Tim, Tim!
[siren blaring]
There is a major surprise appearance...
[echoes]
[Avicii]
For her to come to Ultra Music Festival
just kind of shows how far dance music
has come.
- Hi.
- Hi, Im Tim. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
- An honour.
It's a big honour, obviously,
to share the same stage as Madonna.
[cameras clicking]
She's the queen of pop.
- Are you ready? [chuckles]
- I am ready.
This is the first time I'm headlining,
so I'm nervous.
- Your first headline?
- Good?
- Yeah, the first one.
- Cool.
Are you ready for Avicii?
[cheering]
And then, after that,
I-I could afford a tour manager.
We're doing a lobby call
at 2:00 a.m. in the lobby.
- 2:30 in the lobby and then...?
- 2:00 a.m. in the lobby.
[both laugh]
I didn't have to fly coach everywhere
by myself.
The only thing that makes sense is
just making the flying and the travelling
as comfortable as possible.
I was young, I was single, I was partying.
Every show was a big party, you know.
It was really a big party.
It was amazing. I didn't even realise
before that you could actually do Monday,
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, you know?
But then, once that opened up,
like, you could tour a whole year,
and that's kind of what we did.
[upbeat electronic music]
Avicii!
Yes! Yeah.
[announcer] Make some noise for Avicii!
[cheering]
[exclaims]
[crowd chanting] Avicii! Avicii! Avicii!
Avicii! Avicii! Avicii...
[Jesse]
At the time, Tisto was staying with me.
So I walked into my bedroom,
there's, like, cigarette butts
on my counters and beer cans.
I'm, like, shaking off little spit,
like, chew tobacco, the snus bags.
And there was this guy in bed
with these two girls
and I was like:
"You know, who the fuck are these guys?"
I'm like:
"Show 'em the door, get 'em out."
Another month goes by,
I-I walk up with Tisto to the D.J. booth
and I see this guy playing and he looks
over at me and, like, stops DJing
and starts apologising to me,
that was the guy in my bed.
And then since then, we, um,
we just became, you know, best friends.
In my eyes, best friends.
And with somebody like Tim,
he was very innocent and nave
and really genuine.
[Nile] I love Tim.
He is the most natural, melodic
music writer that I've ever met.
Electronic music has gotten to the point
where you don't have to sample it anymore.
You can just make it new.
Do you know what I mean?
- [both] Yeah.
- [Nile] Okay.
Such a different experience
to be a part of the whole process.
I've worked with Tim.
We walk into the studio, we have nothing.
We walk in, it's like:
"Yo, man, what do we do?"
[Nile] You can go like... [playing guitar]
And I play a little idea, and he'll go:
"What are the notes in that chord?"
It's... It's adding an octave
along with it,
- so it's not taking away...
- Okay.
This creative process, this ebb and flow,
as we call it, is what we live for.
That's the exciting moment.
I mean, I could play you... I could play
you a bunch of the shit I've done so far.
Yeah, let me hear
where you're coming from.
This is one I did with Al.
This is like, I don't know, country folk.
["Wake Me Up" instrumental playing]
This has a lot of, like,
acoustic elements throughout.
Yeah, I like it a lot. It's great.
A mixture of the acoustic element,
then going into, like, kind of blending
- into the electronic vibe.
- Nice, it's cool.
[Mike] It's obvious to nobody that
Tim and I would mesh together like that.
I don't think anybody would have said,
like: "Oh, you're gonna get,
you know, like,
this guitarist from a rock band
and then this, like,
electronic music producer/D.J. together
and then, like, this cool stuff
is gonna happen."
We're very different musically
but we have a similar philosophy in,
like, sort of putting songs together
and taking elements from different places
and seeing how they can fit together.
He probably got here at about four o'clock
in the afternoon,
and by about like seven or eight o'clock
at night, we had "Wake Me Up". [chuckles]
That was the first thing that we did,
was we wrote "Wake Me Up".
[beats playing]
[Avicii] I think every artist of any kind,
like, the ultimate goal,
is to find your own mark,
something that makes you stand out
from all the rest.
Not afraid to close my eyes
[piano playing]
Or... Yeah, those ones, yeah.
[Aloe vocalising]
Yeah.
Not afraid to close my eyes
I wanna be there
and be a part of writing the vocal.
I wanna make a song from the ground up,
basically.
It's more like you don't expect it.
- That's the one you want?
- Eyes...
[Mike] He's so specific about what
he likes and what he doesn't like.
- All this time I was finding myself...
- When you find somebody like Tim,
who absolutely knows what he wants,
things get done.
Don't jump straight to, like...
All this time, I was finding...
[Aloe] All this time, I was...
All this time
I was finding myself and I...
Yeah, something like that.
I was lost
There you go. I really like it.
Well, we can perfect this,
but I love that.
At like 4:00 a.m.,
I got an e-mail from him saying:
"It's... It's all together, check it out."
I remember opening it up, listening, and
being like: "Fuck me, this is awesome."
["Wake Me Up" playing]
This is so good.
- This is hot, man.
- Yeah.
[Avicii]
We did so well with the musical side
and everything went so fast
from that point on.
[Guetta] I love him as a person.
He's really humble, super nice person.
I'm also, like, super shy in reality.
So I have this kind of
balanced personality.
He also has this, I think, you know.
Like, getting a little nervous and things
like this, you know, I'm also like this.
In the beginning, I was too afraid
to drink 'cause I didn't wanna screw up.
But then I realised how stiff I was
when I wasn't drinking,
so then I-I found...
the... the magical cure
of just having, like,
a couple of drinks before going on.
It's very easy to go that road,
especially if, like him or me,
you're a little bit of an anxious person.
But I think, to a part,
that... that's what kind of
helped me be able to do all those shows
without feeling completely exhausted.
For an artist, it's very easy,
uh, to be tempted to use something to get
away from the pressure a little bit.
I saw how other D.J.s drank
and I saw people like D.J.s who's been
in this industry for... for ten years,
and they're still drinking, like,
you know, every show that they're doing.
I started getting stomach pains
on my way into Australia,
and I had about three or four more hours
to go until we landed.
[radio host] Touring around Australia
with Future Music Festival,
he had to pull out of Brisbane
and Perth last weekend,
uh, 'cause he was taken to hospital.
[Robb] There's no sense in sending you
if we're not doing the show.
Yeah, we'll make a final call, and then
tomorrow morning, if we're not going,
we will just reroute your flight
back to Sydney.
Um, he's... Yeah, I mean, he's all right,
but he's at the hospital right now.
Yeah, tonight's not gonna happen,
and we'll see about tomorrow.
[loud beep]
Um, all right, I spoke with some of
the nurses in charge of the area.
They don't think you're well enough to do
the shows.
- Yeah.
- But if you wanted to do them,
they would discharge you
and give you pain medication.
Pancreatitis, notoriously,
is very painful.
When the pancreas becomes inflamed
like this,
some of these enzymes can leak out
of where they're supposed to be
and start digesting the body,
essentially, from the inside. Uh...
If... If I'm able to do the show
without worsening the pancreatitis...
The show won't worsen it.
It's whether you can physically do it,
- whether the pain will limit you.
- Yeah.
[Avicii] It's the worst stomach cramp
you can imagine, pretty much.
It feels like someone's stabbing you
in... in the stomach
and the back simultaneously,
at the same time as it's escalating.
For me, definitely,
the... the most pain I've been in.
You can't do anything about it. You just
need to not drink water and not eat.
And to be able to survive the pain,
they give you pain medicine.
- [door opens]
- What's up?
This is ketamine, just to...
Want me to change any syringes?
You know, I've took on a mentor role
with him that doesn't stop anywhere,
whether it's his personal life
or if it's his... his career.
I felt that I had to guide him,
so that he wouldn't even have to think
about anything but the music.
[Robb] Now, the reason Ash rates Australia
higher than Ultra...
Were missing both Ultras, though?
[Robb stutters]
Then there's no way he would rate...
The second Ultra is main stage.
The reason they're saying to you now...
The first Ultra doesn't really matter
the same way.
He wouldn't have
to think about anything else.
That's a freedom I think a lot of people
would appreciate, myself included.
If they also said,
based on how I've been feeling today,
and the pain levels I've been at t-today,
they don't think I'm gonna be fit for...
- The shows that...
- The shows this weekend, anyways.
That's what they were saying.
So they were... they were saying,
if you're gonna miss these shows anyways,
we might as well take your gall bladder
out now and have you ready for...
I guess that's what I'm for,
to guide him into
making the right decisions
and... doing the right things.
A conventional teaching
and professional wisdom, worldwide,
is to take the gall bladder out
before you go home, on admission,
the reason being that you don't
get an attack in the meantime.
Yeah.
But I understand your situation,
that you're in the middle of a world tour,
and there are things you need to do.
We, um, think at some stage
you need your gall bladder out.
Whether that be, you know, while you're
here or on tour or when you're home
is up to you, is what we're saying.
I would be there for him to tell him,
this is the way you have to do it
and then you'll be successful.
How long have the crew been here for?
Two days?
No, the crew's been here since Monday.
It's Thursday now.
- They flew in Monday morning.
- Oh.
[Robb coughs]
- The show is tomorrow?
- Tomorrow.
- What time?
- Your set's 9:30.
Suits.
So, we'll be picked up
for like 8:00, 8:30.
Future is asking if there's
any chance you could do a, like...
phone interview... with...
What they're asking for
is a 30-minute, for one o'clock,
for a couple of different radio stations
just to call you,
to show that you're back on track,
coming out.
Yeah, sure.
But... would you be up for them
in like two hours, 12:30?
[sombre music]
[crowd cheering]
When we on stage, man,
it's like a fantasy.
We are gods.
In a strange way,
that feels like our reward.
[Wyclef] We feel no pain.
Tim is a hard worker, man.
I can't eat anything.
[Wyclef] 'Cause as an artist, they just
want us on the beat like a machine.
Duh-duh-duh-duh-duh...
And then you burn out.
[Avicii] The hospital visit has stuck
in my mind as
an extremely terrible experience,
but it didn't bother me as much
as the pain afterwards did,
which was much less,
but it's every day when you wake up.
The second you open your eyes,
you're like... [imitates click]
Your stomach is hurting.
When you're moving, you're hurting.
The pain medicine made me feel shitty.
To me, it felt like I was constantly
in, like, a haze.
And you don't know how long that's gonna...
It's gonna be like that for,
and the doctors don't know
how long it's gonna be.
[Ash] All of a sudden,
"Wake Me Up" becomes huge.
[Per]
Everything took off in summer 2013.
Here we go!
["Wake Me Up" playing]
[cheering]
[Avicii]
My life was a dream to so many people.
I am including myself. It was a dream.
House music and... and dance music
really had such a... such a rise
at the same time I had my rise.
[chanting] Avicii! Avicii! Avicii!
Avicii! Avicii! Avicii...
[cheering]
You know, it was a lot of work,
a lot of heavy tours,
and I just kind of went
with all the punches that came along,
because I was so extremely lucky
to be able to do what I am doing.
But I didn't take the time to really
figure out what I wanted to do,
and how I wanted to do it.
I just kind of went along with the flow.
But I only focused on music
and the touring, really,
and then I just watched everything
kind of happen.
And I had to obviously do
whatever I said I was gonna do.
If it's, you know,
promotion, this or that,
but it was never really my plan.
I think I was... I was
running after some...
Like, another... like, an idea
of happiness that wasn't my own.
["Carry On" demo playing on stereo]
- Oh, so this vocal isn't part of...
- Yeah. This is the vocal...
What I learned from Michael Jackson was
the orchestra lives in his head.
His neuro fully understands every dot,
and how everything should go,
so it's like an inside symphony.
So you have those that are like me,
that have to physically touch the piano.
Then you have Tim,
similar to Michael Jackson.
This is so important
that the world understands this.
The actual symphony now lives
in his entire head.
He's doing this
like as Bach did what he did.
So I do think that there's something
we might be missing,
the fact that we're making a separation
from D.J.s and musicians.
Tim, to me,
he's a hardcore music theorist,
and that's what makes a great composer.
- Let's try one more, just for sure.
- Mm-hmm.
[track playing]
Carry on, carry on,
carry on, he said
Carry on, carry on, carry on
Won't be long, won't be long
Won't be long, he said
Carry on, carry on, carry on
When the day will be mine
Will be mine...
[Tisto] What I think is unique about him
is how he approaches the songs.
He's very innovative in his melodies.
You know, he did "Levels", "Wake Me Up".
And those two songs were not with,
like, famous singers, or collabs, or...
It was just him
putting something special together,
and I think he was the first D.J.
that broke into the mainstream, like
that big, in an authentic kind of way.
["Wake Me Up" playing]
And the American Music Award goes to...
[both] Avicii!
[cheering and applause]
Um, I just wanna say thank you
to everyone who voted for me,
um, and thank you to my manager, my label.
Um, thank you so much.
[people chattering indistinctly]
I recovered
from my first kind of pancreatitis.
I was off the pain medication.
Everything was fine,
I w-wasn't on any medication.
- Then I got back to...
- See you tomorrow, man.
Uh, Miami for the Ultra show.
My appendix ruptured
and my, uh, gall bladder ruptured as well.
[clears throat]
I need to get some sleep.
I was feeling like shit, and then
the only solution that I got was...
Uh, when... when does
my next pain medication come?
I have here...
to take, like, a medicine for it
or to battle through it.
Every time I went into the hospital,
it was like that.
Take this and you'll kind of feel better.
Maybe you're just used
to taking the Percocet?
You've built up a tolerance.
But I've never used...
I've never taken Percocet before.
Percocet is fucking heroin!
- You're getting Percocets?
- Yes, we are, but they're not helping.
Well, yeah, they will...
It didn't help my pain,
that was the weird thing.
So he gave me something
that didn't really help with my pain,
but if the doctor says so,
I guess this is hospital,
I guess he still knows what he's doing
and, you know, kind of like that.
What happened was, uh,
your blood pressure started dropping.
But it started dropping when I started
to add the... all the other things into it,
when I started adding the, uh,
the anti-anxiety thing for headache,
and the other headache things,
which I would be fine
to try to take everything else off,
but don't take the only things
that are working...
- All right.
- for me.
This doesn't feel right.
These pains could last for a very long
time, that was the fucked-up part of it.
I understood when I was in...
When I had my pancreatitis, that it...
I had to be on the medications...
during that, when I was in the hospital,
when I was hospitalised.
That wasn't really the big problem.
The big problem is... that the pain...
the... the pain stays with you.
For me, it was different each time.
The first time, [stammers]
it stuck with me for a month.
The second time, I think it stuck with me
for like four months.
It... It kept not... It didn't stop.
I di... I didn't see
the alternatives to this.
You might feel pain free with high doses,
but your body starts...
Your blood pressure starts going down.
But we'll see, we'll try.
If not Dilaudid, something else...
I wasn't even alerted
that my blood pressure was...
There was no communication. No one said:
"Your blood pressure has gone high."
- No, it just...
- It's just being moved and then...
Okay, we'll contact you.
- It's a code blue, okay?
- Okay.
[rock music]
[Avicii]
I was on all these kind of medications.
So they were saying:
"You can take this, this is fine.
This is not addictive,
this is not addictive."
And then I was, like, taking
20 pills of some fucking gabapentin here.
All these different medications
that weren't supposed to be addictive.
And it made me feel more anxious.
This kept going
and I started touring again.
Hey, guys, this is Avicii back on Capital.
I think this year is possibly
gonna be bigger than last year.
[string music]
So I'm really excited, um,
now we're starting
to kind of come into the summer months,
and kind of get back to touring.
[jarring music]
One of the hottest acts in music
is coming to New York this weekend
with troubles following on tour.
At the Avicii concert
in Boston last night,
three dozen young people
had to be taken to the hospital,
and many more were treated at the scene
for problems related to drugs and alcohol.
- The thing is, I don't...
- CNN, Fox, CBS releasing reports saying
there's a theme on Avicii concerts
with kids being sent to hospital.
[man] And there was a theme
at Led Zeppelin concerts, too.
Yeah. Yeah, and they brought EDC up.
They're like: "800 people were also sent
to the hospital in EDC,
where Avicii was also performing."
[chuckles] Like I had anything to do...
It was, like, a three-day festival.
- I was one out of 40 people.
- No, no. Here's Tim...
[woman] Avicii! Avicii, get a picture
with us. Can we get a picture?
[radio host] How is it to be you? [laughs]
How is it to be Avicii?
[on phone] It's weird. It's weird.
I mean, obviously, I am Avicii,
but then at the same time,
people's perception of who Avicii is
isn't who Tim is.
- [stammering] I'm a little bit shy.
- Yeah.
I don't really like
being the centre of attention. [laughs]
But you are. [chuckling] You are, Tim.
Exactly!
But I am. That's... That's the thing.
That... That's what makes it so, so weird.
[chuckles]
I didn't believe
I could actually slow down.
I didn't believe that I could tour
any differently than this.
I also looked around and I saw
everyone else doing what I was doing,
and they were doing fine,
you know, seemingly.
I know I-I can't read minds,
but they looked like they were doing fine.
Then I started to feel... I mean,
I started to feel crazy, in a sense.
Everything on the checklist is there,
so I should be happy.
[pensive music]
I didn't have time to give myself
to properly stop.
What I should have done, obviously,
is to fucking stop,
take four months,
five months, half a year,
recover from...
recover from
not just the pain medicine,
but from the fucking illnesses,
recover from all the years of touring,
all the stress.
But I kept going.
[dramatic string music]
[Avicii]
After that summer, that wasn't good.
I felt... I felt like shit.
[playing notes]
I did a concert the other day
in this tiny bar...
uh, with no crew,
and when I tried to tune my own guitar
on stage, I couldn't do it.
It was so embarrassing.
[laughter]
- It was really embarrassing.
- That's perfect.
It brought it right back
to the beginning.
That's great.
My passion for music was always there,
so I loved making music.
That was the one thing
I could come back to.
- [Chris] The one above that.
- Yeah, I'm gonna do...
I'd say... I'd say, maybe one, maybe...
It just does it like a transition thing.
["A Sky Full of Stars" playing on stereo]
[exhales]
- Do you like it more when it gets...?
- Huh?
Do you like it better when it's,
like, more with the higher...?
You're so talented, man.
- Do you like the synths?
- What?
- Do you like the new synth?
- I love it.
[track playing faintly]
Hoo-hoo-hoo!
Here you come to raise me up
When I'm beaten and broken up
And now I'm back in the arms I love
- [exhales]
- [Avicii] Really good.
Really good. I've got everything.
[Avicii]
Time went on, and I didn't feel better.
And it kept happening,
even though when I went into...
To periods of just
purely taking care of myself,
it kept happening, I kept feeling bad.
And my body kept feeling bad.
[Magnus speaking Swedish]
There was never an end of shows.
Even when I really felt like
I was gonna hit a wall or something,
I gave myself a couple of months just to
kind of relax and... and not do anything.
And even in those months,
I couldn't get myself to relax,
because my mind was still focused on
when I was gonna start up touring again.
Mm.
Mm.
In the beginning of the year,
I get presented with all the shows
of the upcoming year,
and I have to say
which I want to do and which I don't.
And then, along the lines of the year,
stuff pumps up.
You know, my manager might want
to push something in,
someone else might want
to push something in,
then is pushing my manager to push it in.
I might want to push something in.
You know, all these things kind of come in
and they cause a shit ton of stress.
[serene music]
[Tisto]
Tim decides to rent a big, giant villa.
He's, like, using this as his base,
flying out all over Europe doing shows.
[Ash] He was touring, I think it was
three or four times per week.
And, uh, he was working on,
uh, his second album as well.
[Avicii] Even though the shows got harder
to do, the touring got harder to do,
there were always moments,
during the touring moments,
during the shows,
when I could find a genuine happiness
from music.
[Fredrik] To be able to do the music or,
uh, to be able to go out for the touring,
he was taking medication.
[Ash]
By this time, Tim was...
He was supposed to, like, be over
all, uh, the medicines and stuff.
[Avicii] I went to psychiatrists,
I went to doctors.
I tried so many different diets.
You know, we... I even changed...
I changed the way I toured,
not enough at all, [chuckles]
but I changed it,
and I-I thought I did enough, you know.
But by my standards,
that was a chilled schedule.
But then the other five days
was working on the album.
When you start, you just wanna make...
cool beats and have fun, you know?
You're not thinking like:
"Oh, I need to have a hit record."
You make those cool beats, you have fun,
you wanna play those... those beats,
and then, it's just positivity,
it's just fun, it's just entertainment,
and sharing your love.
But then, after, when you had, like,
let's say, three massive global hits,
everybody expects you
to come every time with a global hit,
and this is really hard.
[Avicii]
I've been working on Stories for forever.
In... In my time schedule, it was forever,
because it had taken two years,
and, I mean, the first album took me
three months to make the majority of it,
and this was a completely different thing.
["Sunset Jesus" by Avicii playing]
[speaking Swedish]
- [man yelling on stereo]
- [man 2] Yeah! Yeah!
[children cheering]
[sombre music]
[Fredrik] He's just like a shell
of what he used to be.
The guy I used to know
wasn't really there anymore.
[Avicii] It was so over the top,
'cause I wasn't drinking when I woke up.
I wasn't... Y... I didn't...
I know all my ideas
of a problem wasn't there.
So it didn't... I couldn't connect
my problem with my lifestyle. [chuckles]
Finally, when the album was done, he, uh,
he had to do this, uh, promotion tour.
Hey, guys, this is Avicii.
Follow my profile to get updates
from my latest album, Stories.
Hey, everybody...
Hey, everybody, it's Avicii.
Check out my new single...
[man] Mm?
"Insert artist's name."
[door slams shut]
[Wyclef] The best thing about falling
is getting up.
A-And the fact is, Tim is up.
[Carl] When we were finished with
the therapy, Tim wanted to go to the U.S.
[pensive music]
Early morning, like four o'clock
in the morning, we got on the plane.
[seatbelt sign beeping]
We start flying over Los Angeles.
Wow, this is awesome.
We get in the cars
and we drive towards Malibu.
And we kind of arrive
at this insane house.
Right by the beach, green grass.
We come down and we see the sunset,
this beautiful Malibu sunset,
and we're like: "Wow!"
[Magnus] We met up in Malibu again.
[chattering in Swedish]
You could tell that he... he had been
working on... on himself a lot.
[grunts]
He was a lot different.
He was determined to change his life.
[dramatic string music]
[Carl] We built a studio
with the most amazing view ever.
We really took out the best in each other.
[Avicii] We started kind of figuring out
how we were gonna plan this and that.
[Carl] We shut off Tim's e-mail,
we shut off his phone.
That was a really good time for him.
[Carl]
It was a very, very, very nice period.
[laughing]
[squealing]
[speaking Swedish]
[laughter]
[clapping]
[cheering]
[laughter continues]
I felt a lot more collected and I thought:
"I've taken my time now, gone to therapy.
I've been through this and this.
I feel a shit ton better."
And I wanted to get started
on my new album,
so I got a bunch
of my songwriting friends.
We decided to go from L.A. to Miami
on a bus and stop on different places
and kind of do some sort of
outdoor awesomeness studio
in the most kind of epic settings
you could think of.
["Lord" by Avicii playing]
[whirring]
["Lord" continues]
[music stops abruptly]
[camera clicks]
Mm.
[Ash laughs]
[Ash continues laughing]
[both laugh]
["Without You" track playing on stereo]
[Avicii hums]
[guitar playing]
[imitating chords]
[playing]
[laughing]
My heart is beating. I can't see clear.
[on stereo] My heart is
beating, I can't see clear
[mimics chords]
[Sandro] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
[all humming]
[Sandro singing "Without You"]
[both singing]
- [Sandro continues singing]
- [cheering]
["Without You" continues]
Nice.
[Carl] I was like:
"Wow, this is gonna be so great."
And then... the road trip ends in Miami.
And the Ultra gig is... is happening.
[horns beeping]
[indistinct chatter]
[Avicii] There was something wrong
with the computer before the show.
[fan speaking indistinctly]
- Can I have a picture with him?
- Not now.
- No?
- No way. Sorry. No, no way.
Yeah, I'm here.
Yeah, sure.
[slow-motion speech]
[Avicii]
I'll start getting more and more nervous.
Things are becoming closer to the show.
Someone comes and tells me: "Okay,
now it's time. It's like five minutes to."
So I'm like: "All right, fuck it."
[dramatic music]
[all speaking Swedish]
[man] Okay.
- Sorry. Can I take a picture?
- No, no, no, not now. Not now.
[heartbeat]
[man] Like, he was pushing himself
for, like, every single day
for whatever how long this was,
and it felt like it was a ticking bomb
and it just exploded at a show.
[jarring music]
[chattering indistinctly]
[crowd cheering]
I thought the other one was great.
There were two tracks...
[tense music builds]
[music stops abruptly,
high-pitched ringing]
[announcer]
I see you. I see you out there...
[continues speaking indistinctly]
[serene music]
You good? Okay,
I'll be stage right if you need anything.
[crowd cheering]
[low rumbling]
[Avicii] I'd been away for... for...
It's eight months, six months.
Now, I've... I've literally done
everything I can.
And straight away,
I still... I still get stressed out.
I still don't like this.
[tense music builds]
[music stops abruptly,
high-pitched ringing]
[heartbeat, light switch clicks]
[typing]
Thank you to all artists
who've helped me develop
musically and personally.
Thank you, Semi Badreddine,
for all your personal support, talks,
and helping me growing up.
I have a feeling I'd be dead if not
for you, and I will always love you.
[laughter]
And last but not least, a thank you to
every fan who's ever bought a ticket,
or snuck in...
[friend chuckles]
bought a song or downloaded it,
loved...
It's your thoughts and ideas
about the music that helped me evolve,
- and I do owe everything I have to you.
- [friend speaks Swedish]
Special thanks to everyone who's...
been a part of the team since day one.
Our journey is far from finished.
[sighs]
[friend speaks Swedish]
[continues sighing]
[gasps]
[friends chattering indistinctly]
[plate clinks]
[inhales]
[Avicii]
I felt shitty, I felt terrible,
because I saw how... how happy all
the fans are, and I don't fucking like it.
I'm standing up there, pretending
I like something that I don't like doing.
That... That was just it for me,
because I just knew that there's...
I can't see a way for me to do this
and be happy about it.
After that, I just decided:
"Fuck, I'm gonna quit."
[dramatic music]
- [fan] I think I'm gonna cry.
- [fan 2] We are very sad.
[fan 3] It's unfair, Avicii. Unfair.
[reporter] Dance music D.J. Avicii
officially retires from touring.
Very sad.
He stands out above anyone else,
and that's why it's so sad to see him go.
It's been a great five years, good music,
and, you know, jam after jam, nice tracks.
If this is what he has to do,
then so be it.
[reporter]
In a letter posted on his website,
Avicii told followers he would:
"Continue to speak to fans
in his music."
Doo-doo-doo...
[laughing]
[laughter continues]
[Nile]
Tim's life almost revolves around him
being able to create his own music.
Was he doing that part
to get to the concert,
or was he doing it because
he actually just loved making the music?
I think he loved making the music.
[pensive acoustic guitar music]
[music continues]
[dance music playing on stereo]
[laughter]
[groans]
[Carl] Yup.
[speaks Swedish]
[Obama on laptop] ...Legos.
Our homes and lives are infused with
Scandinavian furniture and design.
Um, some of us dance and sing
- to Abba and Avicii.
- [laughter]
[piano music playing on stereo]
[growling]
Hee-hee!
[laughing]
[wind whistling]
[Fredrik] Even though he decided
to quit with the touring,
he still had a lot of shows to do,
so he had the whole summer
that he had to tour still.
He had to do Ibiza.
He had to do all these places in... around
Europe and he started with... with Vegas.
["Levels" playing]
[crowd cheering]
[jarring music]
[low rumbling]
[high-pitched ringing]
Mm.
[breathes heavily]
[Fredrik] He, uh, he went to speak with
[bleep] who is the owner of the hotel,
together with Steve Wynn.
Mr. President.
[laughter]
[man] Mm-hmm.
[Fredrik] They had a great talk
and [bleep] understood completely,
and, uh, that was,
uh, it with the Vegas shows.
[dramatic string music]
[Avicii] When I decided to stop...
I was expecting a completely different...
I was expecting support in stopping.
I was expecting to,
especially with what I'd been through.
And I'd been very open
with every... everyone I worked with
and everyone who knows me.
I've been very open with what
I've been through, what I've felt, and...
what I've done.
You know, everyone knows,
uh, that I've been anxious and, you know,
everything, and that I've been trying.
So I-I... I didn't expect people to try
to push me to... to do more shows,
when it really...
When they'd seen
how shitty I felt... doing it.
So... So I did get a lot of resistance
when I wanted to stop doing the shows.
[Avicii] Yeah!
[exclaims]
[laughter]
Liam!
[Ash] Anyone that... that goes
from... from being in school
to all... to having a career
and being successful
misses a big part of growing up.
Obviously that comes with challenges.
He doesn't... You know, there's a...
[people chattering in Swedish]
What's your name?
[speaking Japanese]
- Tim. [laughs]
- [both] Nice to meet you.
- [man] One, two, three.
- [camera beeps and clicks]
[laughter]
[crowd cheering]
- [announcer speaks Japanese]
- [cheering intensifies]
I'm so happy I'm finally here.
[cheering continues]
I've had the best five days
in Japan ever.
You guys have
the most beautiful country ever.
[bleep]
[bleep]
[bleep]
[acoustic guitar music]
["Ten More Days" by Avicii playing]
[indistinct chatter]
[both chuckle]
[plane roaring]
[laughing]
[crowd whistling and murmuring]
[plane roaring]
[cheering and murmuring]
Hm? Yeah, sure.
[camera clicks]
- [murmuring and whistling]
- [dance music playing on stereo]
[whistles]
[high-pitched whistling]
[chuckles]
[clock ticking]
[friend] Move.
[ticking continues]
[chattering in Swedish]
[laughter]
[heartbeat]
[crowd cheering and whistling]
[cameras clicking]
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic string music]
[cheering]
[crowd chanting] Avicii! Avicii! Avicii!
Avicii! Avicii...
[screaming and cheering]
[string music intensifies]
Ushuaia.
[cheering and whistling]
Thank you so much for tonight. [chuckles]
[chanting] Avicii! Avicii...
I couldn't have asked
for a... a better last show.
Thank you so much for tonight,
you were awesome.
[string music continues]
[music fading out]
[waves crashing softly]
[Nile] The... The performance part of it
is one part of the artistic arc.
And if you cut that out of it,
you still have the life
of the creative composer,
the person who puts it all together.
That is a beautiful,
wonderful, rewarding life.
["Feeling Good" by Avicii playing]
[Wyclef] I watched his ups
and I watched his downs,
and I can understand that because...
you know, I too had success
at a very, very young age.
So, it's hard for people
who don't have success
in their twenties to understand
what comes with,
you know, anything you want to buy in
your twenties, anything you want to have.
And then you're gonna have, like, a gang
of leeches, you know what I'm saying?
Then you got people who just gonna just
try to suck you up, you know what I mean?
And now, you know,
it's almost like sometimes
you feel like you in a world
all by yourself.
So, for you to find a way out of that
and to still say: "You know what?
I'm Tim, I love music, but you know what,
right now, I just need to find myself."
[Avicii] But now it's only been
a month since I did my last show
and I feel...
[stutters] I mean, like, I feel like
I did when I was like 18, maybe.
I feel I'm in the same
kind of spirit as I was then.
["Feeling Good" continues]
I started making music
and I started DJing.
I just quit my job
and I dont really have a plan yet.
[revving]
["Feeling Good" continues]