Pawn Stars personality Rick Harrison is reflecting on the death of his son, Adam, at the age of 39.
Adam died from a fentanyl overdose in January 2024. Harrison, 59, addressed the tragedy in an episode of the interview series “In Depth With Graham Bensinger” that was released via YouTube on Wednesday, March 20.
“I think about him every day,” Harrison said of his son. “In his 20s, he had drug problems. I mean, God, I put him in rehab so many times and every time he’d be doing great, and then he would just fall back. I mean, you’ve heard the same story from a million people, and it got really, really bad, and apparently it wasn’t heroin he got — he ended up getting some Fentanyl. It killed him.”
Adam is survived by his parents, Harrison and ex-wife Kim, his brothers, Corey and Jake, and his three daughters. In the aftermath of the fatal overdose, Harrison — who rose to fame as the creator and star of the History Channel’s Pawn Stars — has experienced regrets and what-ifs.
‘Pawn Stars’ Host Rick Harrison Mourns Son Adam After Fatal Overdose at 39
“The thing is, when you lose a kid, you second guess f—ing everything,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Could I have done this? Could I have done this? Could I have done this? Could I have done this?’ And it’s like it goes through your brain constantly. There’s not a day I don’t [think] about him.”
Harrison continued, “I mean, I think I did everything right. You just sit in your head, ‘What if I did this? What if I did this?’ You know what I mean? What if I just grabbed him, f—ing locked him in the back of my truck, drove him to Oregon and put him over to where he couldn’t get [drugs]? I mean, you have a hundred things go through your mind. There is nothing worse than losing a kid.”
Harrison revealed that Adam had once broken into his home.
“I figured maybe if we put him in jail for two months it’ll clean him out, but he just went straight back on it,” he told interviewer Graham Bensinger. “You try to give him tough love but, God, you just never see the OD coming. You want to give them tough love and everything but I never thought that would happen.”
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He added: “It’s hard. There’s no instruction book with kids. They’re all different models.”
Harrison, the owner of the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, said he’s since learned to “appreciate what you got, because … you’re not always going to have it,” he shared. “I spend as much time with my kids as I can. I talk to all my kids on the phone almost every day. I love my kids, love my grandkids. You enjoy life. I mean, I literally know guys that’ve got 10 times as much money as me, and I do all right, that are miserable.”
Harrison, for his part, is embracing optimism.
“It is easy to enjoy life,” he says. “It really is. Just don’t be around the people that are miserable and just enjoy life with your family and your friends and everything. … It’s not that hard to be happy.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
