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Avicii on quitting touring: ‘I really should have stood up for myself more’

The Swedish EDM star opens up...

Avicii has opened up about his decision to quit touring last year, ahead of his forthcoming ‘Avicii: True Stories’ documentary.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone he spoke about how it felt to relive memories from the time on the road that saw him hospitalised multiple times.

“It was hard,” Avicii said. “I looked at myself like, ‘Fuck, you should've really stood up for yourself more there. Come on, Tim!’ Why didn't I stop the ship earlier?”

He went on to explain how he felt a kinship with artists like Brian Wilson and The Beatles, who also gave up touring at the peak of their powers.

“I watched the new Beatles documentary and seeing certain parts I was like, ‘Oh, it's not just me who felt like that.’

“The one thing that kept me from stopping was that I felt weird – like, ‘Why the fuck can’t I enjoy this like all the other DJs?’

“But I'm starting to realize that a lot of the DJs who look excited at every show have the same thoughts.”

To celebrate Avicii's birthday last week (Friday 8th September), DJ Mag counted down our 10 favourite Avicii moments.

That was after Avicii launched his Avicii FM show earlier this month (September).

Rob McCallum is DJ Mag’s deputy digital editor. Follow him on Twitter here.