“Glee” star Cory Monteith admits he battled with drug addiction

Cory Monteith, who plays the jock turned singer, Finn Hudson, on Fox's hit show Glee, admitted that his teenage years were somewhat troubling.

The 29 year old actor told Parade magazine that he would regularly cut class to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. He quit high school at the age of 16 after he moved around to different school and even attended an alternative program for troubled teens.

I'm lucky on so many counts - I'm lucky to be alive, Monteith said. I burned a lot of bridges. I was out of control.

He admitted that his drug addiction included anything and everything, as much as possible.

When he was 19, his mother and friends staged an intervention. After a stint in rehab he relapsed.

He got in a lot of trouble once again after he stole a significant amount of money from a member of his family.

I knew I was going to get caught, but I was so desperate, I didn't care, he said. It was a cry for help. I was confronted and I said, 'Yeah, it was me.' It was the first honorable, truthful thing that had come out of my mouth in years.

Monteith said that the family member he stole from gave him the option of sobering up or them reporting Monteith to the police and charges would be pressed.

It was then that Monteith moved to the small town of Nanaimo in Canada to live with a family friend. There he became a roofer and did some acting and performing.

I don't want kids to think it's ok to drop out of school and get high, and they'll be famous actors, too, he said. But for those people who might give up: Get real about what you want and go after it. If I can, anyone can.