Former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley's pregnant girlfriend forced the rocker to seek professional help after he developed suicidal thoughts during a tour of South America.
Bayley was struggling to find the money to get from one gig to the next and could not afford to complete the Blaze Bayley Band album. He had even started selling memorabilia to raise cash.
The pressures got the better of him and he started to worry his girlfriend with desperate talk about ending it all.
He tells Scandinavian rock website Critical.Mass.se, "I was under a lot of strain, and to get the album out we had to borrow money. I had to beg all my friends to lend me money... I couldn't pay my rent.
"I wanted to start a family with my girlfriend, as she was pregnant, and there was one day when we had no electricity and no food. I had to sell my silver album, the first silver album that I ever had from Iron Maiden. I had to sell that and I started to sell all my stuff... My stereo, everything... I got back from the tour in debt.
"When I was in Brazil in January, I was having suicidal thoughts and when I got back, my girlfriend made me go to the doctor and see a psychologist. I felt like a fraud, because all my lyrics are about 'fight, carry on...' But I felt crushed at the time and I just didn't want to carry on at all with my life.
"It was terrible and it was just getting worse and worse, so I couldn't carry on. I lost my will to live, really, and I wasn't comfortable in darkness."
In a bid to end the desperation, Bayley agreed to scrap his solo project and reunite Wolfsbane - the band he fronted before joining Iron Maiden: "When it finished, I just started to feel myself coming back to life and I went to see the doctor. I started my medication and all of this and I started to feel like maybe there is a future. Maybe I can make another album. Maybe I have got something to say."