Aaron Carter claimed he may have narrowly avoided a fatal overdose in an interview he gave just weeks before he was found dead in his bathtub.
Carter said he turned down a pill offered to him his friend and club promoter Mark Fogerty — who took he pill and died that same night, Carter told the US Sun.
“I was in the midst of my disease essentially,” Carter said of the 2015 incident. “Unfortunately Mark the promoter, he gave me a Percocet. And I ended up giving it back to him. And he took it and he died.”
“Mark Fogerty died of a drug overdose in the room right next door to me.”
The late superstar, who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction throughout his life, said his manager Taylor “Louie” Helgeson advised him not to take the fatal pill that night.
“I showed Taylor. And Taylor took it and he was like: ‘No do not do that,’” Carter remembered.
“I said, ‘OK no problem.’”
Carter had told the outlet he was close to celebrating five years sober and was dedicated to staying clean.
He said his doctors enrolled him in the FDA-backed Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System, which prevents him from seeking to abuse prescription pills. Carter claimed he would never buy drugs off the street after his sister, Leslie, died of a drug overdose in 2012.
“I am not a 20-year Soundcloud rapper, I am gonna be 35, I am a father and a homeowner,” he said. “I get highs [from] these accolades and these accomplishments that I’m doing now. I’m working on my new album, after having a very successful album.
“I have a lot to change and make sure I stay on point together with my doctors.”
Carter checked into outpatient rehab in September to regain custody of his son after a judge gave on-again, off-again fiancée Melanie Martin temporary custody because of concerns about domestic violence and drug use.
Just three days before his death, he was pulled over by police who suspected he was driving under the influence. Officers cleared him after conducting a field sobriety test.
Carter, 34, was found dead in his bathtub Nov. 5, though no cause of death has been released yet.