The rock and metal world has lost far too many stars to addiction and drug use, but a large handful have been able to leave that life behind. In this Loud List, we pay tribute to the rock stars who are still with us because they got sober.
Slash legitimately died and came back to life during his hard partying days, but he’s still here and crushing it with both Guns N’ Roses and his solo project. “I found that when I got sober, sort of looking back from the time that I started playing up until 2006, my partying thing was really a matter of killing time in between things,” Slash recently told Loudwire. “I wasn’t really using when I was on the road. I wasn’t really using when I was in the studio; I was always focused on music. So when I got sober, all that effort that I put into what turned into a massive addiction at that point, I took all that and just put it straight back into the music and it wasn’t really reliant on me being buzzed, or should I say inebriated, to be able to create stuff.”
Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe found that once he got sober, his mind launched into overdrive, so he focuses on creativity to keep himself grounded. “I was still creative when I was drinking, but there was a damp filter on it. When I got sober, that was ripped away, so my mind is on overdrive all the time,” Blythe told us. “I’m writing, I’m shooting photos, I’m making music — becoming really engaged with life … As long as I’m moving forward and creating things that I think have artistic merit, I’m generally a pretty happy guy.”
For more testimonials on how these musicians kicked their habit and their personal strategies for remaining sober, check out these 10 Rock Stars Who Got Sober… and Stayed Sober in the video Loud List below.
10 Rock Stars Who Got Sober… and Stayed Sober
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