AFRO-POP musician Takura Tendayi, simply known as Takura in showbiz circles, says mental health reasons and drug abuse were the main reasons why he nearly quit music.
Takura made these revelations in a recent interview on The Ollah Podcast show with DJ Ollah.
The MaObama hit maker said apart from mental health issues and drug abuse; he failed to handle matters around fame and relationships.
“Firstly when I talked about it, it was two weeks before I wanted to launch an album,” Takura said.
“So, I was like I’m going to drop the album and take a break because am too passionate that if things don’t work out I will get hurt of which it’s not anyone’s fault, maybe there are things that I am doing wrong.
“When l dropped the album and Davido acknowledged my work, I got hope again and then the album came out.
“I couldn’t do much for it like videos. I didn’t push it as much as I would have loved to so when towards February I was like I think I really need to take a break from music before I start hating my job.”
Takura said because he had been in the music industry for the past 10 years, he always wanted to get recognition internationally and a lot of things were weighing him down.
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“Even if it’s one song that trends, the goal was first, I should get my people to go international,” Takura said.
“I wanted to be one of the first in Zimbabwe like what Tuku did and I thought l wasn’t good enough. The relationships I lost from the people I loved, so there were a lot of things weighing on me.
“I just didn’t know what to do at that time so l was like let me just stop music and try something else then I will come back when l miss it.”
Takura said he allowed fame to get to his head to the point that he became someone who was hard to work with and he neglected relationships.
“I was obsessed with making it. I feel like I would fix anything and everything will be okay, not realising I need to actually love the people who love me so at that time I didn’t see it, we were absorbed (sic)… so I let fame get to me to the point of doing drugs,” he said.
“When I became an artist, and this is the problem with the industry, certain things seem like they are normal like taking drugs because most artists get into it some do it and handle it well throughout their career, but me I couldn’t do it because I thought it was normal.”
He thanked his manager for helping him to go for rehabilitation after eight years doing drugs.
Last year Takura made a shocking announcement on his social media pages saying that he was retiring from music and he also said the same statement early this year.
However, the artist hasn’t stopped making music.
Recently he released a song titled Sofa Silahlane.
Takura broke into the music limelight after forming the group Soul Afrika along his best friend Donald Mapholisa in Gweru. However, Mapholisa left the group when he got married before Takura moved to Harare and was joined by Adrian Tate.
As a solo artiste Takura released hits Zino Irema and MaObama, which made him a household name on the local music scene.
In 2016 he released an EP titled Stripped which carried songs such as Mungandidi, Mari Hairambwe and Ndoda Kutaura Newe before he released an album titled SHTDi (Someone Had To Do it) in 2018.
