Alcoholism, a heroin habit and an expensive addiction to cocaine that left him sleeping on the streets of Hollywood Boulevard——Charlie Wilson had weathered it all. But in 1995, as he rebuilt his life and made a committment to sobriety, the R&B legend decided to not merely survive, but to triumph.

“I’ve always been a praying kind of a guy,” Wilson related recently by phone. He’s crossing the country to promote his seventh solo CD, Forever Charlie. “My father was a preacher, my mother was a state Minister of Music at [Tulsa’s] Oklahoma Northwest and my siblings and I were all raised up in the church. Somehow I ended up getting out of control, but I never stopped praying. One day, I just said out loud, ‘Father God, if you’re the same God my father used to pray to, help get me out of this.’ He took those drugs away and those blessings are already out there, all we gotta do is go out and get em’.”

Overcoming the addictions, however, were only half the battle. Despite selling millions of CDs as one-third of R&B’s The Gap Band, many executives considered him too ‘old-school’ for a comeback.

“It was rough,” the 62-year-old musician admits. “Radio [program directors] had just gotten to that point where they were saying, ‘…we congratulate you on doing your thing, but you’re kinda over the age limit.’ I would say,’ but what does my age have to do with me singing? I’m not trying to be a pin-up.’ A lot of doors were closed to me for 10 years because people kept telling me ‘no,’ but my wife [Mahin] told me, ‘you can’t give up.'”

After a breakout hit in 2000, “Without You,” the hip-hop community reached out to add his smooth and energetic tenor to their song’s hooks (Snoop Dogg’s “Signs” featuring Justin Timberlake and “Beautiful” with Snoop and Pharrell Williams). But feeling loyalty to his Urban Adult Contemporary supporters, Wilson decided to fully return to his R&B roots.

But in the midst of his burgeoning solo success, life wasn’t through handing “Uncle Charlie” challenges: in 2008, Wilson was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a disease that disproportionately affects African-American men. Now in remission, Wilson enourages fans to get tested regularly and joined up with The Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Now headlining the Forever Charlie Tour (he’s scheduled to perform at Grand Prairie’s Verizon Theatre with Kem and Joe on March 13th), the singer, songwriter, producer and instrumentalist is adding yet another title to his enviable repertoire: author. His first-ever memoir, I Am Charlie Wilson, will be released on June 30. Within its pages, Wilson will detail his humble ‘country boy’ beginnings, becoming the lead singer of his family-built funk and soul band with older brother Ronnie and younger brother Robert (now deceased) and the forces that threatened his personal and professional success.

“There’s a thin line between messing it all up and creating a sound that my fans will enjoy,” he says of Forever Charlie, which debuted at No. 17 on The Billboard 200 chart upon its Jan. 27th release. “There are so many generations who love me, so I try to give them all something they can feel. Uptempos, ballads, it’s all about keeping that balance.”

It’s a well-crafted formula that’s kept Charlie Wilson at center stage and in the public eye, with fans from the school-aged set to senior citizens. Wilson considers his life as both a cautionary tale and a testimony of how it’s never too late to start over and succeed.

“I was spinning out of control and landed in some really crazy places, but God can take you out of any situation if you pray and don’t give up,” Wilson says. “If He will do it for me, He will do it for you. Trust me on that.”