Demi Lovato on Philip Seymour Hoffman and Being a Former Addict

“Extra’s” Mario Lopez sat down with Demi Lovato, as she prepares to launch her Neon Lights tour, to talk about her former struggles with addiction in the wake of the death of Philip Seymour Hoffman.  

Demi opened up to Mario about her passionate response on Twitter to Hoffman's death, saying, “People don’t take it as seriously as it really is, it’s a mental illness and it’s a disease… there’s no pill that’s gonna change it. People need to have compassion for it. Being a former addict, looking at it as I had a choice, because at some point in my disease I didn’t, I physically and emotionally couldn’t live without it, that was my medicine to my pain.”

The former "X Factor" judge, who has been very open about the importance of her support group, also reacted to news that Selena Gomez spent time in rehab last month. "Selena and I have such and amazing friendship and have known each other for 14 years, and I love her to death.”

When asked about rumors she was engaged to boyfriend Wilmer Valderrama, Lovato said, "I’ve heard the rumors, even people who were really close to me called me and were like, 'Are you engaged?' No, I tweet one thing… I think the tweet was ‘I never felt more incredible in this moment than I have in my entire life,’ honestly, it was just because I was healthy and happy and at peace in my mind, and I was looking at the future."

She continued, "I was like, wow, I have so much going for me and people were like, 'She’s engaged.' I was like, 'Honey, if I was engaged, I would be showing the rock off, I’m not gonna be one of those girls that hides it.”

With her tour kickoff just days away, Demi tells us everyone traveling with her will be sober to make the best shows possible. “Everyone on the team is required to stay clean and focused, it's not about trying to party, it's about putting on the best show and everyone needs to be in tip top shape to do so…. I’ve never had a show like this in my life and I’ve never been so fired up for a tour.”