Cee Lo Green says music saved his life.

The soul singer-and-rapper admits his troubled childhood - including the death of his father at the age of two and his mother when he was 18 - led to him getting involved with gangs and drugs before being sent away to military school.

But it was his love for music which inspired him to follow a different path.

He said: "Without music I don't think I would have escaped that life. I had all this energy - good and evil - and felt like there was some tug of war for my soul. The evil inside me was a lot more urgent and insistent and so was winning quite a bit when I was young."

The 'Forget You' hitmaker revealed it was a slow process to change his bad boy ways but he can now see how much he has progressed simply by listening to his songs.

He explained: "At first music gave my anger a cause. But music meant I could exorcise that fear and pain and anger. Back then I did not have the ability to articulate anything. So now in my songs I can hear my own growth."