'Many Things' Led to Avicii's Suicide: Dad

"If you are very happy or extremely happy, it's not so far to be unhappy. ... Small things can make you sad or move your balance and I think this is what happened," Klas Bergling tells CNN a year after the death of his son, superstar DJ-producer Avicii. Born Tim Bergling, Avicii had long battled depression and addiction, and struggled with stage fright and a grueling touring schedule. It "takes a lot out of these people—the traveling, waiting at airports, late nights," says his father. Still, Bergling says his son was "happy" prior to his suicide in Oman at age 28. "Our theory is not that he planned this suicide—more that it was like a traffic accident," he says. "Many things happened … and brought him out of his control."

Bergling now urges politicians to address mental health issues at an early age, perhaps even in schools. "The most important thing [is] trying to catch the problem earlier. It's really a political question that has to be solved, not talked about for 10 more years," he tells CNN. Avicii's first posthumous single, "SOS," currently No. 1 on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart, offers a peek inside the DJ's mind with lyrics like, "I get robbed of all my sleep/As my thoughts begin to bleed/I'd let go, but I don't know how/Yeah, I don't know how, but I need to now." It's featured on the album Tim, which will help raise money for mental health causes. So, too, will the Tim Bergling Foundation launched in March, per Rolling Stone. (More Avicii stories.)