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\n\tFor all the talk of authenticity in country music, few artists are truly willing to go there when it comes to opening up about tough times in their lives. That\u2019s not the case with Ashley Monroe<\/a>, whose new album, the stellar Tennessee Lightning<\/em>, is informed in part by what she calls her \u201cdark years.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Grammy-nominated<\/a> singer-songwriter and member of Pistol Annies<\/a> reached into her most harrowing experiences when recording the 17 tracks on the album, from the death of her father when she was just 13 to past use of pain pills to her 2021 cancer diagnosis. In a new interview with Rolling Stone<\/em>\u2019s Nashville Now<\/a><\/em> podcast, Monroe reveals that she once overdosed on a combination of substances around 2010. Instead of brushing it under the rug, she\u2019s using the tale to caution others.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cMy deal was that I mixed things, and that\u2019s the thing I want people to know now,\u201d she tells Nashville Now<\/em>. \u201cI always tell people who are younger than me: \u2018Don\u2019t mix things. You don\u2019t have to do a lot of things to die.\u2019 That\u2019s why there are so many accidental ODs. It\u2019s not like you have to take a whole bottle of something. You can take a little Xanax, a little pain pill, and a double vodka, and you just stop breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n