Survivor 50<\/em><\/a> came calling.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen they first called me, I thought, \u2018Should I go?\u2019 I\u2019m a very spiritual person, so of course, I prayed about it, and I didn\u2019t feel convinced I should go,\u201d Coach, 54, exclusively told Us Weekly<\/em> ahead of the Survivor 50<\/em> premiere on Wednesday, February 25. \u201cAnd in the back of my mind, and I was very clear with the powers [that] be, I\u2019m not going to say yes to [season 50.]\u201d<\/p>\nCoach added that he was \u201cofficially retired\u201d from Survivor and was \u201chiding out in Northern California.\u201d However, after mulling over the offer, Coach started to have a change of heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cRegret is probably one of the strongest emotions that we have. [It] sits around the corner of our mind after the fact and whispers little lies of what we should have done or what we could have done,\u201d he explained. \u201cSo I started thinking about that regret. Would I eventually regret not saying yes?\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Coach\u2019s last appearance on Survivor: South Pacific<\/em> in 2011, the musician has grown a lot. He tied the knot with wife Jessica Newton<\/strong> in December 2011, and the couple have welcomed three children.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m in a great spot in my life. I\u2019m very content. I\u2019m not that ego-driven person that you saw on the screen the last few times,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI feel grounded, and I want to share that with the world. The world can be, sometimes, a dark place, and I want to share those fundamental truths that I feel, that I\u2019ve learned over the last decade and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach added that becoming a \u201cfamily man\u201d led him to become the best version of himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I was grounded in who I was as an individual. But I was grounding myself, in myself I was grounding me and me, instead of, \u2018Hey, let me be a servant, let me have a family.\u2019 And it really shifted my perspective with life.\u201d<\/p>\n
After getting the call for Survivor 50<\/em>, he \u201cshifted\u201d again and ultimately said yes. Coach added that his return to reality TV was not just for himself \u2014 but for his family.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of sacrifice for everybody to be out here, but I feel at 54, you know, my sacrifices are really difficult for me to be out here, away from my family,\u201d he told Us<\/em>. \u201cI can\u2019t get this time back, and it\u2019s something that gnaws on me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n