LISTEN | Zola 7 on how fame can 'kill you'

After more than two decades in the showbiz world Zola 7 is entertainment royalty and has definitely seen his fair share of the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with being in the spotlight. 

Over the years Zola himself has made headlines for all sorts of reasons but that has in no way diluted the love fans have for him. 

So it's not surprising that when Zola appeared on Metro FM's Fresh Breakfast on Friday morning he quickly topped the Twitter trends list. 

As fans sat glued to their radios Zola dropped pearls of wisdom including the pitfalls of fame. 

"Fame for me is something I associate with the fact that it can kill you. You can go in so deeply and go into a trance, next thing we are at your funeral."

Zola explained that one of the biggest downfalls for artists was adopting bad habits.

"You can't come and pick up habits that you didn't know or have when you were broke. For example, the cocaine thing was a white problem I don't know how we got tangled up in that or how it became black. Artists suffered because they picked up habits that they don't know anything about."

The Don't Cry hitmaker said such bad habits also affected the music industry as a whole. 

"Because there was a time when people were performing for lines (drugs) down in Hillbrow and R2000. There are still these foolish promoters that call us today and they think they can get you for R10k because they got someone else for that much."

Zola also reflected on what went wrong in his career and why he decided to take a break from the spotlight. 

"What went wrong is that I grew up, I needed to leave and I had to leave and I had every right to. There was never any disclosure about my worth as Zola. I went on to discover things about how I would think my fee is R25k but the organiser would tell me they paid R60k."

Zola explained that when his bank balance didn't add up, he decided to leave which is apparently what led to a "smear campaign" against him.  

Listen here:

While Zola's been through the most he's vowed to never stop making music until he's buried at Heroes Acre.

After eight years off air Zola 7 will return to TV with a new show, Hope with Zola.

The show will be on your screens from Tuesday, October 16 on Moja Love.

"Hola bafethu, this is uncle Zola. I'm gonna be doing exactly what I was born for. I have a new show called Hope with Zola. You'll follow me on Facebook with your hopes. It's on DStv on Moja Love, I'm doing exactly what I was born for and it's gonna be lit. In Jesus name and the devil won't win."