Los Angeles, Sep 11 (IANS): Singer Will.i.am almost drowned in a swimming pool because he failed to listen to his mother Debra's advice.

The 38-year-old nearly lost his life when he was a youngster and decided to go for a dip in the pool, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I was like, 'Ma, can I go swimming?' She was like 'no, boy, you ain't going in no swimming pool'," Daily Mirror newspaper quoted the "Scream and shout" hitmaker as saying.

"So my mom said no but I did the opposite. I've never been in a swimming pool and so I don't know the difference between 3ft and 9ft - I'm thinking that everything is at the height that I'm at.

"So I'm walking and I start sinking and then I drown. I'm under water for about three or four minutes," he added.

After the incident, someone gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation before rushing him off to a hospital.

"They gave me mouth to mouth and then I'm, like, dead. And then I come back. They took me to hospital and I'm in there for about a week or something. I almost lost my life.

"I did lose my life but when I came to and I was in the hospital... to see the worry on my mom and my uncle's faces... And just the reminder of, like, don't do things that you know you shouldn't be doing. I shouldn't have been swimming because I never knew how to swim," he said.