Steve Angello Talks About How Avicii’s Death Has Affected Him
Following the untimely deaths of celebrities such as Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, and Avicii, mental health is finally a conversation being taken seriously. Avicii’s longtime friend Steve Angello recently chimed in on Avicii’s death during an interview with Aftonbladet.
When asked “how did the Avicii situation affect you,” Steve Angello opened up. “For us, Tim wasn’t an artist, he was a friend, so it’s ab it different when you look at this ‘just the artist’ situation. For me it’s more about thinking about the siblings, the parents losing their child. I can’t even imagine how that can feel.”
Angello continued to say “We artists, don’t feel well, we are a bit unstable and crazy. I know how tough and taxing it can be when you are coming from 60 gigs, meeting your family, barely had anything to eat in 2 months. It gets a bit unhealthy in general.”
Photo via Rukes
Tim Bergling, known to the world as Avicii, passed away on April 20, 2018, in Muscat, Oman, at just 28 years old. The news hit the dance music community especially hard, given how deeply his sound shaped the genre’s crossover into the mainstream — records like “Levels,” “Wake Me Up,” and “Hey Brother” introduced an entire generation of listeners to EDM. Angello, as one of the founding members of the Swedish House Mafia and someone who had known Bergling personally for years within Sweden’s dance music scene, was one of many artists who spoke out publicly in the weeks that followed, choosing to focus his comments on the human cost behind the music industry rather than on the circumstances of Avicii’s death itself.
In the years since, Avicii’s family has worked to turn that loss into something constructive, launching the Tim Bergling Foundation to support mental health awareness and suicide prevention initiatives, along with research into the pressures facing young people in high-stress careers. Angello’s comments to Aftonbladet echoed a broader reckoning that swept through the touring and festival circuit around that time, with numerous artists and industry figures speaking more openly about burnout, isolation on the road, and the toll that a relentless touring schedule can take. It’s a conversation that dance music, an industry built on nonstop travel and back-to-back gigs, still hasn’t fully finished having — and tributes like Angello’s are part of why it hasn’t gone away.
