Mick Hucknall admits his "playboy" lifestyle almost made him lose "the plot" in the 90s

Speaking in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper, he recalled: “I was really unhappy from about 1996 to 1999.

"I don’t know if I was depressed, but that was the worst time of my life since school. I

"I was really close to losing the plot and I just pulled myself back.

"I realised I couldn’t go on like this, rolling out of nightclubs at 4am every morning, week on week, basically wandering around like a playboy. I would have burnt out."

The 59-year-old star says living a life of excess partying and drinking until the hours became "boring" and he needed to find a "more enriching" way to spend his time.

He added: “It’s fun for a while, then it gets boring and is just emptiness, with no rewards.

"There is no substance to it.

"You are on a treadmill of excess — of sex, drugs and rock ’n’roll. "For me, it was just basically a lot of alcohol.

"You either decide to stay on it and go out with a bang, or you decide to find something else that is more enriching.”

Mick - who admitted to taking cocaine and heroin - has been happily married to his wife Gabriella Wesberry since 2010.

The pair had previously dated in the mid-90s, but went their separate ways for a few years, before they started dating again 2002, and Mick credits his "amazing" spouse with saving him from self-destructing.

He said: “A whole new world began.

"Instead of a destructive future, it became positive and productive, based on happiness.”