David Tucker Puts His Addiction in the Rear View on New Song 'Forgetting Her' (Exclusive)

David Tucker has spent a good part of his life in some kind of pain.

The pop/country artist lost his 10-year-old brother when he was just 12 years old. He dealt with a long undiagnosed and often misunderstood autoimmune disease called HLA-B27. He lost friends and family and done he lost his life in a car accident just five years after moving to Nashville to pursue a career in country music.

Tucker has also struggled with addiction on and off.

“All I wanted was to get rid of the pain,” Tucker, 27, tells PEOPLE of her addiction to painkillers, which only got worse after a serious car accident. “And when you’re on stuff for that long, your body becomes addicted. Your body is the fuel for it.”

David Tucker.

Doltyn Snedden

And it was that addiction that almost caused the Kentucky resident to lose everything. “I lost almost everything in my life, my career was delayed, everything was put on hold,” says Tucker. “I was just in a very dark and lonely place. I didn’t know how I could put the pieces back together. They felt so broken where that was not possible.”

But through intensive work on himself and everything that bothered him, Tucker is now on the other side of it all.

“I went through therapy for a few years and did a lot of training and exercises so I could move forward from those moments,” he says. “Now I can start a new chapter in my life because I always had a fire burning inside me. He never gave me the option to quit.”

Not only will Tucker release his debut EP this fall, but his new single “Forgetting Her” showcases his wide vocal range and unparalleled vulnerability.

David Tucker.

Doltyn Snedden

“We wrote ‘Forgetting Her’ in about 30 or 40 minutes,” Tucker recalls of the song he co-wrote with Jake Saghi and Qvinto premiered exclusively on PEOPLE. “I’ve just always thought about this song a lot. It kind of changed the whole game of how I write things and how I put songs together and even how I sing. Being able to find those little moments where I can throw down a cool vocal run or something like that which is a bit of a game changer.”

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Tucker is also actively changing the game for others, as he often talks to students in the DARE program about his past struggles with addiction.

“Not only did I have to go through it, endure it and then figure out how to get out of it, but now I’m helping other people who are sometimes going through very similar shoes,” Tucker says. “In a way, I can be a light to their path and their darkness and just show them that it’s possible to come back and put the pieces back together. I think that’s kind of cool to hopefully help them see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

David Tucker.

Doltyn Snedden

However, Tucker admits that his addictive tendencies haven’t completely disappeared.

“At the end of the day, it’s really a choice, whether you’re an alcoholic, a drug addict, whether you’re an abuser in a relationship,” he says. “Whatever it is, you decide and make a choice whether to take a step forward from it or a step back into it. It’s hard to put one foot in and the other out. You have to be out there with both feet.”

He takes a deep breath, admitting, “It still hurts occasionally, and it’s almost like a trigger.”

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Source: HIS Education