Michael Ray Details the 'Dark' Depression He Faced After Divorce: 'I Was Getting Very Angry' (Exclusive)

The country star says he's found happiness and hope in a move to small-town Georgia, and is eagerly awaiting the release of his new EP 'Dive Bars & Broken Hearts'

There’s a song on Michael Ray’s new EP called "Workin' on It," one that echoes words of wisdom often repeated by his grandmother.

The song, which is co-written by Morgan Wallen, is an upbeat ode to putting aside time for the things in life that need fixing, which can sometimes includes ones' self, and is one of six new tracks that'll appear on his EP Dive Bars & Broken Hearts, out Friday.

"My grandma always said, 'Make tomorrow better than today.' These lyrics really hit home to where I'm at in my life, and also where I feel like everybody is as a whole over the last few years," Ray tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "There's no manual on this thing called life. We're all figuring it out."

It's taken him time, but it seems Ray, 35, has finally figured things out — or, at the very least, put himself in the best possible position to achieve something that looks a whole lot like happiness.

The country star, who's notched four country No. 1s, including "Whiskey and Rain," packed up and left Nashville for Dallas, Georgia, a small town outside of Atlanta that has given him a place to recharge and refocus in the wake of a difficult few years that included a high-profile divorce from fellow country star Carly Pearce and the deaths of several loved ones.

"It's allowed me to get back to my roots," he says, noting that the town reminds him of his small Florida hometown. "All of a sudden, you're in a creative place because your mind isn’t so cluttered."

Fair enough if Ray's mind was a bit cluttered. In June 2020, he and Pearce, 33, announced they were getting a divorce after just eight months of marriage. Then, in the middle of the divorce proceedings, he lost his uncle to a heart attack and his aunt to suicide eight months later.

"When those things happen, when real-life scenarios hit you like that, all of a sudden all this other stuff isn't as serious," he says. "I started seeing life in a different way."

Even so, the stress of the split took its toll, especially considering it was happening in the public eye.

"You're human, and people all of a sudden have an opinion on something they knew nothing about. People use things for personal gain,” he says. "It does get you in the beginning, and you definitely want to react a certain way because it’s human nature."

His parents also divorced when he was a child, which sent him spiraling further.

"I come from a broken family. So a little bit for me was like, 'Am I repeating the process?'" he says. "I never understood depression or had depression. All of a sudden, I was getting very angry. I didn't trust anybody."

Related: Michael Ray Can't Wait to Play Boots & Brews with Tim McGraw: 'I'm Like a Giddy 13-Year-Old Kid'

With encouragement from his friends and family, he realized he needed help, and Ray eventually sought therapy. He checked into a seven-day retreat that he says helped him make sense of the cards he'd been dealt, and more importantly, look inward and make some much-needed adjustments.

The singer credits therapy with helping him work through not only the divorce, but other things he'd previously dealt with by not dealing with at all, and just putting his head down and touring, like the death of his grandfather in 2015.

"Two people were involved in something, and two people dropped the ball individually," Ray says of coming to terms with his split. "However I dropped the ball, I don't want to continue that. I did a lot of introspective work."

Related: Michael Ray Details Toxic Relationship — and Features a Carly Pearce Lookalike — in 'Get Her Back' Music Video

Ray is now dating someone he met through mutual friends, though he's keeping things more low-key this time around ("I've realized the things you keep private mean the most," he says).

And although he didn't find his happily ever after with Pearce, he's still open to the idea of marriage, and optimistic that it could work.

"I think maybe down the road, for sure," Ray says. "Obviously we weren't getting married with that intention of how things ended. But I believe that that's what we're put on this world to do, is to find somebody that you connect with that makes you better and create a family and leave a legacy. So for sure, one day."

For now, though, he's feeling motivated by his new neighbors in Georgia, who he says provide inspiration with their life stories and homegrown passion for country music.

Ray's even co-written a track on his new EP called "Don’t Give a Truck," which is a play on a family joke not to give boys trucks when they turn 16 because of the responsibility that comes with them.

"Everything I went through the last three years got me mentally ready for where I'm at now. I am not at all the same person that I was then. It gave me confidence,” he says. "This record is, in every way, what I’ve been through the last few years, just me as a person and going through what really matters in life. I don't think I've ever been more excited for music to come out."

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