SANTA MARGHERITA DI PULA, ITALY – JUNE 24: Dennis Quaid attends the red carpet of the Filming Italy 2023 on June 24, 2023 in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy. (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images)

Dennis Quaid told People in an interview published Wednesday (July 26th) that he attributes his sobriety to finding faith. The Day After Tomorrow actor struggled with an addiction to cocaine in the early years of his career.

“I remember going home and having kind of a white light experience that I saw myself either dead or in jail or losing everything I had, and I didn’t want that,” he told the outlet. The Right Stuff actor added that he checked himself into rehab, which he referred to as “cocaine school,” following this revelation.

Quaid added that religion helped him stay sober. “When you’re done with the addiction, you need something to fill that hole, something that really works, right?” he said.

In 1990, he wrote a song for his mother Juanita called “On My Way to Heaven,” as a way to “let her know I was okay, because I wasn’t okay before then.” It was during this time that he started reading religious texts such as The Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Quran.

“That’s when I started developing a personal relationship,” he shared. “Before that, I didn’t have one, even though I grew up as a Christian.”