MOTÖRHEAD guitarist Phil Campbell has revealed in a new interview with Andrew McKaysmith of the “Scars And Guitars” podcast that he has been sober for “about three years.” He said (hear audio below): “I don’t count [sobriety days] or nothing like that. I know it’s about three years completely [sober] — without one drop.”
Asked how he finally managed to quit drinking, Phil said: “I just thought that all them years was enough, really. It took me 10 years to actually try and stop completely, but I did it. I just got bored with it in the end. And I didn’t have hangovers anyways. I just got fed up with in the end.
“The first period after you stop drinking, you think you can never enjoy yourself again and you’re really boring and you’re really quiet, but slowly, you get to enjoy yourself more and more and you get into more normal things,” he explained. “Before you know it, you’re having the same fun as you were when you were drinking. Then you think, ‘Shit, I’m not drinking, and I just had a great time.’ But it is difficult. It took me 10 years to finally master it.”
Campbell said that he didn’t get sober in traditional recovery groups like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). “I didn’t go to any meetings or anything like that,” he said. “You’ve gotta really wanna stop. Some people, meetings would be good for them, I guess. Everyone’s different. Some people can do it without any support system. Some people need the support system. But it took me 10 years from thinking about it to actually [developing] the tools [to get sober]. So, it was a bit of a process.”
According to Phil, he was initially concerned how his sobriety would affect his inspiration for making music.
“When I stopped, I thought I couldn’t get my creativity back — like the crazy spark when you’re buzzed [and you] pick up an instrument,” he said. “But it comes back — it definitely comes back, [but] slowly. The first part’s the hardest. The immediate short time when you stop — the earlier months or weeks or years or whatever it is — are a bit harder, and it should get easier.”
PHIL CAMPBELL AND THE BASTARD SONS, the band featuring Phil alongside his sons Todd, Dane and Tyla, plus vocalist Neil Starr, will release its new album, “We’re The Bastards”, on November 13 via Nuclear Blast.
Last October, Campbell released his first-ever solo record, “Old Lions Still Roar”.
