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Eric Benét shares how he persevered in the music industry with help from his supportive family

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AMC NetworksEric Benét shared personal details about his nearly three decades-long career on the docu-series, A Closer Look.

The Grammy-nominated R&B vet says his family served as a “huge component” in helping him achieve his dreams.

“A huge component of that ability for me to persevere with my family. I am so blessed to have this incredibly close and tight knit and supportive family,” Benét tells ABC Audio.

“In the interview, we talk about how my first daughter, India, [and] her mom, my ex-girlfriend, who died in a car accident when India was just like fourteen months old. So I had to immediately…learn how to be mother and father while I continue to pursue this dream that I knew in my heart was my destiny.”

“And I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t have my mom and my sisters to be like, ‘OK, baby brother, you got to go out to L.A. for four months. India is cool right here with us.’ And that peace of mind made it possible for me to keep making those little baby steps,” he continues. 

The husband and now-father of three admits he’s made “many” sacrifices since becoming a single father and being dropped from his label in the nineties.

Benét recalled returning to his Milwaukee hometown, where he got a “regular job” and a call from an A&R person, who wanted to “hook [him] up with some producers.'”

He remembers driving cross-country with a “five-dollar-a-day food budget” in his 1978 Nissan Dotson, “that kept overheating.”

“But that’s a small sacrifice,” says Benét. “The hardest sacrifice is tearing yourself away from that person who is the most important in your life, my daughter. And that was hard…really hard.” 

By Rachel George
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