Hollywood Star Dennis Quaid Reveals How His Christian Faith Saved Him From Drug Addiction

The Hollywood star Dennis Quaid, who is playing Ronald Reagan in a biopic that is set to come out late this year, is speaking out this week to reveal how his strong Christian faith saved him from a brutal addiction to cocaine.

Quaid’s Christian Faith Rescued Him From Addiction

“I’m grateful to still be here, I’m grateful to be alive really every day,” Quaid, 69, told People Magazine. “It’s important to really enjoy your ride in life as much as you can, because there’s a lot of challenges and stuff to knock it down.”

Quaid was only 25 years-old when he became a household name after starring in the 1979 hit film Breaking Away, and he proceeded to take on a hard-partying lifestyle in the 1980s that saw him become addicted to drugs. It was his faith in God that finally inspired him to check into rehab, which he describes as “cocaine school.”

“I remember going home and having kind of a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he recalled. “I was in a band, and we got a record gig… They broke up the night they got it, and they broke up because of me, because I was not reliable.”

Quaid believes his strong Christian faith is what saved him, explaining that addiction forces people “to fill a hole inside us.”

“When you’re done with the addiction, you need something to fill that hole, something that really works, right?” Quaid said.

Quaid’s Faith-Based Music

In 1990, Quaid wrote the faith-based song “On My Way to Heaven” for his mother “to let her know I was okay, because I wasn’t okay before then.” From there, he started to read the Bible religiously.

“That’s when I started developing a personal relationship,” he stated. “Before that, I didn’t have one, even though I grew up as a Christian.”

Quaid is now preparing to release his new album “Fallen: A Gospel Record For Sinners.”

“I grew up at the Baptist church; I love the hymns that I remember from being a kid,” he said. “The songs are self-reflective and self-examining, not churchy. All of us have a relationship with God, whether you’re a Christian or not.”

Quaid Portrays Ronald Reagan

Quaid has also completed his work portraying the former President Ronald Reagan in the biopic Reagan, which is set to come out sometime this year. In a previous interview, Quaid described this as “maybe the most challenging role … in my career.”

“For one thing, he was my favorite president,” Quaid said. “I mean, he’s an icon. I’m really looking forward to it.”

“I didn’t understand why they were offering me Ronald Reagan because I just didn’t see it,” Quaid previously told Entertainment Weekly. “I admired him so much, and so I had a chill of fear go down my spine when I was offered it. That’s usually kind of a sign that maybe I should do it, because it’s out of my comfort zone.”

Watch Quaid talk more about this in the video below.

Related: Dennis Quaid Gushes Over Playing Ronald Reagan In Biopic – ‘He Was My Favorite President’

Quaid Praises Trump

Quaid was also one of the only stars in Hollywood who wasn’t afraid to say positive things about Donald Trump during his presidency. Back in 2020, Quaid praised the way Trump responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I think the president is handling it in a good way,” Quaid told The Daily Beast at the time. “We see him on television every day, he’s involved, and the travel ban early on was a great idea–which he did in spite of protest about that. But I don’t want to get into the protest.”

“I’m an independent—I’ve voted both ways throughout my life, swinging like a pendulum toward what the country needed at the time—and I think this might be an opportunity for the country to come together again,” he continued. “World War II did that for that generation, and this might be our defining moment of a generation. It’s going to be a different world, for sure, when all this is over, and hopefully we can all be a bit more unified.”

Full Story: Dennis Quaid Risks His Hollywood Career To Praise Trump For Coronavirus Response

Unlike the vast majority of Hollywood stars, it’s clear that Quaid actually has a good head on his shoulders. We’re so glad that Quaid was able to overcome his addiction struggles by finding God, and we wish him many years of happiness to come!