Shepard says that being sober for so long has allowed him to recapture an energy and a joy for life that he hasn’t felt since he was a child.
Dax Shepard of Punk’d and various comedy films including Hit and Run and CHiPs sat down with Talib Kweli on a recent episode of People’s Party and talked about his former cocaine use and how he feels after spending 15 years sober.
After being asked about the subject by Kweli, Shepard began by crediting his sobriety to his current marriage to actress Kristen Bell and their two daughters.
“I wouldn’t have a family without sobriety first and foremost,” he said. “Bell would’ve never signed up for the old version of me.”
Beyond that, Shepard says that being sober for so long has allowed him to recapture an energy and a joy for life that he hasn’t felt since he was a child.
“I just thought if I could ever get back to the point where when I walk out my door I’m thrilled to go on an adventure with nothing in me but oatmeal? That’s the goal, and I can honestly say for about the last seven years, I’m on fire to be alive.”
In spite of his enthusiasm for sobriety, Shepard believes that everyone should try certain drugs at least once, if they can.
“I don’t think anyone should leave planet Earth without doing mushrooms and ecstasy. I hope my children do mushrooms when they get older.”
He stressed that he does not, however, want his children to do cocaine, as he feels that the intense stimulant “will make you not allowed to do all the other things.”
Moderation & Marriage
Shepard has expressed support for moderate drug use in the past, hitting back at a tweet from CBS’s The Talk that questioned Kristen Bell’s smoking cannabis around her sober husband.
“That would be like a diabetic expecting their partner to never eat dessert,” Shepard replied. “Get real!”
Shepard first started using drugs in high school, though he maintains that he did not have a problem until after he turned 18. In 2012, he opened up to Us Weekly about his drug use in young adulthood, saying he took “cocaine, opiates, marijuana, diet pills, pain pills, everything,” along with drinking.
“Mostly my love was Jack Daniel’s and cocaine,” Shepard said. “I lived for going down the rabbit hole of meeting weird people. Of course, come Monday I would be tallying up all the different situations, and each one was progressively more dangerous. I got lucky in that I didn’t go to jail.”
After fighting frequently with Bell over his substance use, Shepard got sober in 2004 and has been going strong ever since.
