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It’s no wonder Alex Warren’s current life has him “kissing the ground,” as he sings in his hit song “Ordinary,” given all he’s survived so far to get to this point.
Appearing on the Friday, December 19, episode of the “Jay Shetty Podcast,” the “Carry You Home” singer, 25, gave a candid account of his tumultuous past.
From watching his dad fight cancer and ultimately succumb to the disease when Warren was 9 years old, to navigating growing up inside an abusive home with an alcoholic mother, he faced tough situations from an early age.
As he grew up, Warren faced other challenges such as being homeless and almost losing his life when he was accidentally shot by a friend’s dad while living out of a car – all of which Warren said made him “who I am and what I know.”
Keep scrolling for every eye-opening detail Warren revealed about his upbringing and personal life on the podcast.
Watching his dad die at 9 years old
Warren’s dad died following a cancer battle when the “Before You Leave Me” singer was still just a kid.
Speaking to Shetty, Warren shared what it was like watching his dad die and the profound effect it had on him.
“He had cancer four times, I mean the entirety of when I was born, but he beat it three times and the fourth time got him and he died when I was 9. So I probably remembered it from 5 to 9,” he said.
Warren added there were moments of levity towards the end and recalled joking around with his father when he was heavily medicated.
“I remember the night before the last conversation I ever had with him is, he was puffed up on drugs, and I was messing with him. I was like. ‘Dad will you buy me a Ferrari?’ and he was saying yes to everything,” Warren said.
The singer added: “It’s weird to think about it back then and kind of be like, that was my goodbye. I was kind of f**king with him a little bit. All I know is like, you know, he died joking around with us.”
Warren added that at the time it was hard to get his head around the fact that his dad had died, even though he understood his father was gone.
“It was quite hard to actually come to terms with it. It took a few years to even process the reality of the situation. Like I don’t think my brain could at 9,” he explained.
He continued, “I remember when he died I was doing the stereotypical wake up wake up like he was dead in front of me. And um I think it was just a whole moment of me trying to be like, ‘Stop joking around.’ I was 9, but I understood he was dead, but I didn’t understand what that meant, of course. And so, for a good 20 minutes… I was slapping him. I was shaking him, begging him to wake up.”
Alex Warren. (Photo by Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for MTV)
Growing up with an alcoholic mom
Warren also detailed his “toxic” relationship with his mother, who battled an alcohol addiction until she died in 2021.
“I grew up in an abusive household,” Warren admitted. “My mom would sleep during the day and stay up all night. And so she’d be drunk at 5:00 a.m. driving us to school at 6:00 or 7:00. And she would sleep when she got back home. She never had a job since my dad passed away.”
Warren claimed he was one of the only ones who would call out his mother’s drinking, threatening to call the cops when she drove drunk – and added that he “clashed a lot” with his mom because of this.
“I’d wake up and I’d find what alcohol she was hiding and I’d throw it away. I can’t tell if I was petty for that or if I just truly wanted to see her stop, you know, but every addict needs a surrogate,” he said. “They need someone to blame that isn’t themselves. Or at least that’s what I think growing up with it.”
He added, “I was the person who made it difficult for her to have the addiction ‘cause I didn’t want to see it anymore.”
Warren went on to describe the dynamic as “really, really toxic” as well as accusing his mom as being “abusive.”
“She was abusive. There was one time she elbowed me in the face so hard that I have a deviated septum now from it,” he added.
Being homeless as a teenager
Tensions eventually reached breaking point at home, culminating in Warren’s mom throwing him out of the family home after a physical altercation.
Speaking of his experience being homeless as a teenager, Warren claimed he was “lucky” because he was sleeping in cars instead of on the street.
“I slept in cars. My friends would sneak into their houses and I would sleep like, you know, on their floors, hiding, hoping no one walked in,” he explained. “There was only a few nights where I actually slept,like on the road like, probably two.”
Alex Warren. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
Getting shot by friend’s dad
In another dramatic turn of events, Warren shared the story of being shot by his friend’s dad during his homeless period.
“I would sleep in a car and then I ended up getting shot by my friend’s dad with a 177 which is like a BB. It’s like a… you know, you hunt deer or rabbits or something with it and it’s the way it’s shaped is supposed to do as much damage in the animal,” Warren recalled. “And it was an accident. He didn’t mean to or he didn’t understand the scope of it.”
Warren went on to explain how getting shot almost killed him and he was rushed to hospital in immense pain.
“He nailed me right in the liver and it went up. It missed my heart by a few centimeters and it’s stuck in my lung today. It’s still there today,” he said
Warren added, “I remember that was probably the worst pain I’ve ever felt in my entire life is feeling the pellet burn or bullet. Technically, it’s a bullet burning in my body. That was hard. That one sucked.”
The singer has since forgiven the friend’s dad for his “mistake”, revealing that the man eventually officiated his wedding to wife Kouvr Annon in 2024.
Over the years, stars including Jennette McCurdy and Macaulay Culkin have discussed hitting rock bottom with their parents. Jennette broke down the abuse she faced because of her mother, Debra McCurdy, in her memoir, I Am Glad My Mom Died. “Of course, there are moments where I fantasize that my mom would’ve apologized or that […]
Experiencing sibling estrangement
Due to their upbringing, Warren said he and his siblings were estranged for a period of time once they grew up and just went their separate ways as adults.
“My mom was an alcoholic who wasn’t present. So I realized I was raising myself and having to, you know, all of us,me and my siblings were raising each other,” he said.
“And that was something for us that we didn’t realize wasn’t normal for a very long time. And we struggle with today. I think we struggle with having a normal sibling relationship because we were so busy trying to parent each other.”
However, Warren added that they’re all much closer now and make an effort to strengthen their family bond.
