Marvin Sapp Opens Up About His History with Drugs and Alcohol Abuse

*Gospel star Marvin Sapp is opening up about his long history with drugs and alcohol.

“After my mother and father got divorced I started smoking marijuana daily at the age of twelve,” the preacher and singer told Page Six.

“I started drinking and popping pills at the age of sixteen and at eighteen I snorted my first line of cocaine.”

The star said most of the people he experimented with drugs with are now dead. Hear more from Sapp via the clip below.

READ MORE: The Pulse of Entertainment: Marvin Sapp Preps for ‘Substance’ Album – Single ‘All in Your Hands’ Out Now

“One of my friends is an alcoholic now, one of my friends is still strung out on crack,” he said. ”One of my friends is in prison for twenty-seven years for second-degree murder and another one of my friends died about fifteen years, because he had a kilo [of drugs on him when he was arrested].”

Sapp is promoting his upcoming TV One biopic, “Never Would Have Made It: The Marvin Sapp Story,” which premieres Sunday, August 21. Additionally, his new album Substance is available now and features the current top 10 gospel hit, “All In Your Hands.”

Per press release, the Marvin Sapp biopic chronicles the prominent gospel music artist and preacher’s Michigan upbringing, battle against teenage alcohol abuse, love for MaLinda Prince, rise in the music industry and growth in his faith. Chaz Lamar Shepherd (“Marvel’s Luke Cage” “The Game”) will take on the lead role as Marvin Sapp. Joining Shepherd is Ambre Anderson(“Power Book II” “Manifest Evil”) who is cast as Sapp’s wife, MaLinda Prince Sapp.

“I’ve always sung gospel music but [that was] because my mother made us go to church,” Sapp told Page Six, “But just because we went to church did not mean the church was in us.”

He said he wants his biopic “to show… that just because somebody goes to church does not make them perfect. We are all flawed in some shape, form or fashion. People need to see that because for some strange reason when they think of Marvin Sapp, people think I walk around with a halo but they don’t know my story.”

“Never Would Have Made It: The Marvin Sapp Story” premieres Aug. 21 at 9 p.m. ET on TV One.

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