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"My mom was a heroin addict, and she missed big moments in my life," the performer, 21, said of his mom, Shawn Hardaway, in the September issue of Seventeen magazine. "I love my mother will all my heart – she's the one who got me into music," he added. "But she put me through a lot when I was a kid."
Hardaway, who raised Mario in Baltimore, Md., was addicted to heroin for most of his childhood, he has said in the past. Last October, MTV aired "I Won't Love You to Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom," an in-depth documentary on Mario's relationship with Hardaway.
As a teen, Mario also found himself on the wrong path. "I even sold drugs for a short period of time," he revealed in the new interview on newsstands now.
But, after watching friends "die and go to jail," Mario decided to make a change. In 2007, he founded Mario's Do Right Foundation, which serves underprivileged youths who come from homes where drugs are abused.
His foundation is "about teaching kids that anything is possible," he said.
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