Answer Addiction

Tag: rock stars & addiction

  • Ex-Kiss Guitarist Ace Frehley Details Phone Call That Made Him Get Sober

    Ex-Kiss Guitarist Ace Frehley Details Phone Call That Made Him Get Sober

    “She goes, ‘Dad, it’s time to stop.’ She goes, ‘You better call your sponsor and tell them to take you to a meeting tonight.’”

    In an interview with Eddie Trunk, ex-Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley opened up about getting sober and the unlikely phone call that helped him realize it was time to get help.

    Frehley, who has been sober for 13, revealed on SiriusXm’s Eddie Trunk Live!, that he first used alcohol at the age of 13 and didn’t stop until he got a life-changing phone call in 2006.

    The Call That Changed His Life

    “I ended up with five girls in my room in Vegas. I think I kept it going for another month. And then I got a phone call from my daughter, Monique, and she was living in Florida at the time,” he detailed, according to Ultimate Classic Rock. 

    “A lot of alcoholics talk about how they had that moment of clarity… Monique called me up and she goes, ‘Dad, I heard you been drinking again.’ I go, ‘Yeah, but I haven’t done anything else bad, you know? I haven’t done any coke yet, I haven’t done any pills.’ She goes, ‘Dad, it’s time to stop.’ She goes, ‘You better call your sponsor and tell them to take you to a meeting tonight.’”

    Frehley took her words to heart and after a few beats he relented.

    “I looked in the mirror and I looked like shit. I just said to her, ‘Alright, honey, I’ll give Jimmy a call.’ … he came and picked me up right after dinner, he took me to my first meeting, and that was 13 years ago,” Frehley said. “He’s like my guardian angel on earth; I got a lot of them floating around me – after 10 car accidents, someone’s got to be helping me!”

    His fans have expressed their gratitude to Frehley for being so forthcoming about his sobriety.

    “[E]very time I perform a concert I usually have meet-and-greets after the show… at least one person comes up to me and says, ‘Ace, I’ve been sober two years,’ ‘Ace, I’ve been sober five years,’” Frehley shared. “I’m helping people live longer lives, more fruitful lives, because I’m a power of example. Go figure!”

    Other Kiss Members

    Back in 2017, Frehley’s former Kiss bandmate Gene Simmons, who’s no stranger to controversy, said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune that he attributres his success to the fact that he does not imbibe.

    “I’ve never done drugs or alcohol, never smoked cigarettes, so my soul is intact,” Simmons told reporter Allison Steward. Drummer Peter Criss battled cocaine addiction during the band’s peak and beyond but hasn’t taken drugs since 1984. 

     

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Nikki Sixx Pens New Song About Addiction Stigma, Opioid Abuse

    Nikki Sixx Pens New Song About Addiction Stigma, Opioid Abuse

    The song is part of the National Opioid Action Coalition’s campaign to end the stigma surrounding addiction.

    Motley Crue founder Nikki Sixx has a well-storied history of addiction and recovery, and with his current band, Sixx:A.M., he’s composed a new song, “Talk To Me,” which deals with opioids and the stigma surrounding addiction.

    Earlier this year, Sixx tweeted, “We are very proud of something we just wrote/recorded. It will be part of a campaign helping in the fight against the opioid epidemic worldwide.”

    Ending Stigma

    As Blabbermouth reports, the song is named after a hashtag, #TalktoMe, launched by the National Opioid Action Coalition, which is hoping to eventually eliminate the stigma surrounding addiction.

    As Sixx tweeted, “#TalktoMe is a movement by National Opioid Coalition to use the power of conversation to overcome stigma plaguing opioid use disorder. Join us in conversation.”

    Sixx, the chief lyricist of Motley Crue and SixxA.M., wrote in one verse, “Look at your hands as you’re dripping those pills. You dance with the stigma, then wake up in chills. You’re not alone. Not alone. Don’t be afraid to survive. You know you can. Talk to me. I’ll be right by your side.”

    Sixx Moderated A Conversation About The Opioid Crisis

    In addition to releasing the song, Sixx also moderated a panel organized by Advertising Week, where influencers, government and global business executives have talked openly about what can be done about the opioid crisis, and the stigma surrounding it.

    Having struggled with addiction throughout his life, Sixx has been outspoken about the opioid crisis. Last month, he told MSNBC, “People are talking about it, and they’re not hiding in the shadows anymore. Addiction is horrible, but suffering in silence is even worse. [Awareness] is the number one thing.”

    Sixx has been especially worried about how easily people can access opioids through prescriptions and unethical doctors.

    “It’s the prescription thing that’s really severely scary to me,” he said. “It’s the scariest. I had to go to the street to get it. We were just partying, and then it turned into addiction. But now the kids are just talking, just carrying in their pocket. It is a pill. You can wrap it up in a tissue, stick in their backpack and no one knows. It’s not like a syringe…So there’s a lot of opportunity for really horrible things to happen in secret. A lot of the young kids are getting into it and they’re trading it in the schoolyard.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Discusses Addiction in New Memoir

    Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy Discusses Addiction in New Memoir

    In his new memoir, “Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back),” the singer-songwriter details his struggles with alcoholism and Vicodin.

    Jeff Tweedy, singer and guitarist in the band Wilco, has penned a new memoir, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back). In it, he recounts his descent into addiction and eventual decision to get clean.

    Tweedy’s troubles began young.

    “I honestly do not remember a time in my life when I didn’t have headaches,” he wrote. “I think I was six when I learned they were called migraines and that it wasn’t something that happened to everybody.”

    Tweedy suspects the migraines are hereditary as he remembers his mother and sister also suffering from them. The severity and frequency also tipped him off they were linked to an undiagnosed mood disorder, which ran in his family as well.

    “Every school year I’d end up missing many, many days because of migraines. In addition to the pain, I’d get sick to my stomach and end up vomiting so much I’d have to sleep by the toilet…” he recounted. “One year I missed 40 consecutive days of school because of my migraines and vomiting.”

    On top of the migraines and mood disorders, alcoholism was yet another hereditary hurdle Tweedy was saddled with. His grandfather on his father’s side died in a bar before Tweedy ever got to know him. He was frequently left in the care of his grandfather on his mother’s side, who he says never did not reek of alcohol. But perhaps the greatest impact on young Tweedy was his father.

    “My dad was a lifetime drinker. He’d come home from work every day and drink a 12-pack of beer. That was his standard beer consumption,” remembered Tweedy. “If it was a day off or a weekend when he wasn’t on call, he could down a case of beer. This wasn’t just over the course of a rough year or two, this is how he subsisted for the majority of his life.”

    Eventually, his dad was able to quit drinking, but in doing so allowed his mood disorders to manifest again.

    “He got sober at 81 years old, on the advice of his doctors, and he did it on his own, without rehab or any type of AA support group. He had to stop, so he stopped,” wrote Tweedy. “Then he started having panic attacks for the first time since he was young.”

    Tweedy himself picked up the bottle despite promising his mother he would never drink. Breaking a vicious cycle of guilt, he was able to quit drinking at 23, but soon found himself chasing new addictions. He started with Diet Coke and cigarettes, but in seeking avenues to medicate his anxiety—and migraines—he was led to Vicodin. Soon he was seeking out the pills wherever he went, but they eventually his migraines and anxiety outpaced the drugs.

    Tweedy attempted to quit cold turkey, but became a wreck.

    “Five weeks later—theoretically, I was clean by virtue of the fact that I wasn’t on drugs—I suffered a serious mental collapse,” Tweedy remembers. “My brain chemistry crashed, and my body was revolting against me.”

    His wife took him to the hospital, where he begged nurses to put him in a psych ward. Today, Tweedy is clean with his memoir set for release on November 13, 2018.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Steven Tyler On Addiction: I Hurt My Family, I Hurt My Band

    Steven Tyler On Addiction: I Hurt My Family, I Hurt My Band

    “I went down the worst path. I went down the rabbit hole. I went chasing Alice.”

    In a new interview, Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler revealed that his drug use got to a point where nothing mattered more.

    “I have an addictive personality so I found certain drugs I loved and didn’t stop to the point of hurting my children, hurting my life, hurting my family, and hurting my band,” he said in a new interview with OBJECTified. “There was a point where I didn’t have a band and I didn’t care.”

    The 70-year-old rock star, who’s said he “snorted half of Peru” in his career, was once one-half of the “Toxic Twins” with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry, a nickname earned for their rampant drug use.

    “I went down the worst path. I went down the rabbit hole. I went chasing Alice,” said Tyler. “I think rock stars… I felt like I had an obligation to keep that alive. I certainly had my way with women and women had their way with me.”

    Tyler once boasted that over his career, he “easily” blew $5 or $6 million on drugs. “I gotta tell you, if it wasn’t for cocaine, I don’t think the band would have played every state in the United States nine times in seven years. Because there was no MTV back then, Peruvian marching powder, it was like, ‘Iowa, three in a row?’ Give me that,” he said on Ellen in 2012.

    But, he added, “It’s what we did, but you know there is no end to that. It’s death, jail, or insanity.”

    In 2009, Tyler entered his eighth rehab stint, after relapsing on pain medication after more than a decade of sobriety. But he’s been very open and active in his recovery.

    In February, he was a special guest at a drug court graduation in Maui. “You’re my heroes here today because you have come from somewhere that I lived myself,” he told the graduates. “To come out through the wormhole like you’re doing today is a true beyond-belief miracle. I’m so proud of you, each and every one.”

    By talking about recovery, and reflecting on his past, Tyler has a platform to inspire others to value sobriety as well.

    “I want to be in touch with what it means to be in this band and stand for something in the rock and roll community or you fall for anything,” said Tyler. “I don’t want to do drugs anymore for that reason… That place lost me my kids, a marriage, a band, a lot of things and it’s for real. That’s how dangerous that is. So, I take it serious.”

    View the original article at thefix.com