Kevin Gates says he’s convinced he could’ve prevented his father’s AIDS-related death. The 39-year-old rapper addressed the topic during his recent appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast, in which the titular host questioned Gates about his dad’s illness.
“I read your father passed of AIDS. Was he gay? Was he an IV drug user?” Sharpe asked around the 14:30-minute mark. “Did you ever find out how he contracted it?”
Gates simply replied, “needle,” suggesting his father had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, after sharing syringes with an infected individual.
“Did you find out later he died from AIDS?” Sharpe asked.
“He never lied to me about nothing,” Gates responded. “He was so beautiful. If you could’ve seen my dad, he was beautiful. It’s crazy you asked me that. Nobody ever asks me this.”
Gates was in his early teens when his father died from complications of AIDS. The Baton Rouge rapper told Sharpe he remained by his father’s side “up until he passed.”
“I was with him. I was with for a long time,” he said. “He taught me a lot of beautiful lessons. If I could go back in time — it’s sad what I’m about to say — but I could’ve cured him.”
Gates said his father’s death is what spurred his interest in “holistic medicine," implying he could’ve “cured” his dad from AIDS if he knew then what he knows now.
“I ain't Dr. Sebi or no shit like that,” he said, referring to the controversial self-taught healer who claimed to have cured a wide range of diseases through an alkaline diet. “I ain't trying to act like that, but I could have cured him. He's the one who made me take health so serious.”
Gates has been relatively vocal about his health journey, which has included everything from intermittent fasting and sobriety to daily yoga sessions and bodyweight exercises. He shed more light on his fitness routine in a 2019 video for Men’s Health.
“Today, we're gonna work out in a gym, but I also love hiking," he said in the outlet’s Train Like series. “I use hiking as recovery, because when you’re hiking up the mountain, you touch the stabilizer muscles — the muscles that you normally wouldn’t touch when you’re doing gym workouts. There’s nothing like being in a natural environment.”