Watch CBS News

Mike Posner overcomes rattlesnake bite to finish his walk across America: "I'm my hero"

Singer-songwriter Mike Posner just walked more than 2,800 miles across America. The musician behind hits like "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" says he pushed himself to live in the present, after coping with depression and the deaths of loved ones.

CBS News' Jamie Yuccas, who spoke with him when he took his first steps back in April, talked to Posner about completing his epic journey.

"Not one morning that my alarm goes off, 4 am, did my body go, 'get up and walk, dude!' Zero times! You go do something hard and you finish it, no matter what, you're gonna find some beauty in yourself," Posner said. What did he find? "I'm a tough son of a gun."

Not even a rattlesnake bite, miles from the nearest town in Colorado, could keep him down.

"That venom, that poison, started going through my body and remember the end of Looney Tunes, the circle gets smaller and they say, 'That's all, folks.'"

Six days in the hospital and two weeks of rehab, somehow Posner stayed positive through it all.

"That day was fun, man. I rode in a helicopter. They put me in the ICU, nice air conditioning and a nice bed," he said. 

Picking up where he left off, Posner kept going and kept growing. His soul leading the way – and no drugs. That's a shift from his monster hit "I Took A Pill In Ibiza" released in 2015.

"I wanted everybody to think I was cool, you know. I still have to battle with that, you know 'Does everybody like me?' It's like, dude, it doesn't matter."

His collaborator, Avicii, took his own life last year. Posner also lost his father to cancer and friend Mac Miller to a drug overdose. Coping with depression and grief pushed him to get his life on a better path.

He said the biggest lesson he learned along the way was not to be a coward.

"I want to become somebody I'm actually proud of. That's why I went on this walk. If somebody said, 'Who inspires you? Who's your hero?' I want to be able to look them in the eye and say, 'Me. I'm my hero."

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.