Dennis Quaid on how Christianity helped him battle with ‘cocaine addiction’

Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid has recently explained how his Christian faith helped him battle with cocaine addiction.

In a new interview with PEOPLE magazine, The Parent Trap actor confessed, “I'm grateful to still be here, I'm grateful to be alive really every day.”

The actor and musician asserted, “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.”

The Day After Tomorrow star was enjoying his fame in the 80s and 90s and during this time, he gradually got into cocaine.

Dennis revealed, “The drugs were included on some movie budgets and I was doing pretty much on a daily basis during the 80s.”

In those times, the Breaking Away actor explained, “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.”

“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,” recalled the 69-year-old musician.

Following this event, Dennis checked into rehab and returned to Christianity as he pointed out that addiction “compels 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?” stated the actor.

It was this time that Dennis “started developing a personal relationship with faith”.

“Before that, I didn't have one, even though I grew up as a Christian,” said the actor.

However, at present, the father-of-three is set to release a 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. 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,” he mused.

Dennis concluded, “We're all looking for the joy of life, and drugs give that to you. But the actual gift is the relationship with God that we all have and want.”