addiction
Denzel Washington Admits To Once Having An Addiction To Wine
Time continues to prove that no idol is not without faults. Denzel Washington has revealed he battled alcohol abuse for a large part of his career. The esteemed actor was recently profiled on Esquire Magazine. The feature chronicles his life as a youth in Mount Vernon, NY all the way up to his beginnings as […]
Kanye West’s Hooked On Laughing Gas Says Milo Yiannopoulos
The Kanye West story continues to get even more bizarre. His ex business manager claims a dentist got the MC hooked on laughing gas. As reported by Page Six YE’s former chief of staff made some very interesting allegations about one of his doctors. On Wednesday, August 7, Milo Yiannopoulos (yeah, that same Milo Yiannopoulos) claimed […]
The Recovery Trip: Park City Song Summit With Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels
The ski resort town of Park City, Utah looks like a movie set. It’s appropriate, seeing as the Sundance Film Festival helped put this town on the map. But Park City is also where a successful trial attorney and musician named Ben Anderson settled for his retirement and came up with an idea based on his gratitude for 15 years of continuous sobriety. Combining his love of music and recovery, Park City Song Summit was born in 2020 — but due to a pandemic delay, its official inauguration happened earlier this month. PCSS brought in 30 musicians — including Jason Isbell, Andrew Bird, Mavis Staples, Anaïs Mitchell and others — as well as mental health specialists and others focused on recovery to participate in panel discussions and interviews where musicians could talk about the demons they hav...
Bourbon & Beyond Isn’t Just Another Booze-Soaked Festival
Bourbon & Beyond descends upon the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville every year, and the boozy music festival is celebrated for its always excellent lineup. This year, fans will be treated to performances from headliners like Jack White, Alanis Morissette, Kings of Leon and Pearl Jam alongside rising stars like Madison Cunningham and S.G. Goodman — and podcast fans get a live taping of The Always Sunny Podcast with Rob McElhenney, Charlie Day, and Glenn Howerton. Of course, one of the main attractions outside of the music itself is in the title: Bourbon. But while Kentucky is celebrated as the bourbon capital of the world (and distillers from all over will be there to offer tastings for aficionados and newcomers alike), the festival is also acutely aware that people who abstain from d...
How Ty Herndon Turned a Stint in Treatment into a Collection of No-Filler Comeback Tracks
Jacob. A biblical name. A common name. Ty Herndon’s newest album name. No, Jacob isn’t the name of Ty’s son or his brother, nor his late father or his grandfather. It’s the name of the man who lost in a wrestle with God, resulting in his newfound purpose as Israel — a role that rewrote the outcome of Jacob’s life altogether. It’s also a name that Ty gives his struggles and triumphs — much of which are detailed in his aforementioned project released last month. In 1995, Herndon debuted his first album, What Mattered Most. The chart-topping record was a success (particularly the titular track), settling the Alabama-raised Herndon comfortably next to other breakthrough artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. Then came Herndon’s scandal. A closeted gay man married to a woman and secretly i...
Blue October’s Justin Furstenfeld’s Sober, Peaceful Life
“That’s what I’m all about–on my bio everywhere–it says ‘recovery advocate’,” Blue October frontman Justin Furstenfeld tells me, adding, “It’s my responsibility to share my experience of strength and hope about recovery.” May 10, 2022 marked one full decade of sobriety for the singer/songwriter/producer/actor, whose recovery journey was poignantly recorded in 2020’s Get Back Up, a documentary made with the specific intention of inspiring others. “I wanted kids in rehab to see for once that somebody lived,” he says, hoping it could counter other well-known stories of tragedy and loss to addiction in the music industry. “I was so sick of seeing all my favorite people go, that I wanted to say, ‘Man, well, how cool would it be if you could capture six years of sobriety on tape and then give it...
Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley Has Gone Through Heaven and Hell to Get to Sobriety
“There is some kind of a misconception where people assume if you’re taking drugs, or you’re drinking a lot, that you have some sort of demon or you’re in a dark place,” Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley says, “But so often, it just isn’t like that”. Whibley is an open book about his struggles with his physical health, his mental state and addiction. The music industry tends to shy away from nuanced conversation about the complicated intersection of drugs, alcohol and the pressures of the road. Whibley is starkly up-front, willing to frankly discuss the issues that have tried to drag him down — and the means he found to instead stand tall. For Whibley, that story goes all the way back to just after 2011, with the release of Sum 41’s sixth record, Screaming Bloody Murder. With a fresh and new record,...
16 Years Later, TWLOHA’s Music-Based Recovery Tools Are Stronger Than Ever
In 2006, Renee Yohe swiped a razor blade from a friend’s kitchen table, entered the bathroom, and carved “FUCK UP” in the flesh of her arm. She was high on cocaine and the listless love of cheap liquor, but she knew exactly what she was doing. She was a 19-year-old addict with physical and emotional trauma filling her veins to capacity. The release was almost required. It was then that she knew there were only two ways out: expiration or exaltation. With the help of a group of friends, some of which were addicts themselves, Yohe decided to enter rehab. Unfortunately (and incongruously), the drugs in her system and the fresh self-harm wounds rendered her unfit for immediate treatment. The center sent her home to detox on her own. For the next 120 hours, that same group of friends surrounded...
Children of Bodom Founder Alexi Laiho’s Cause of Death Revealed
Roughly two months after the tragic passing of former Children of Bodom frontman Alexi Laiho at the age of 41, his cause of death has been revealed. According to Kimberly Goss, his ex-partner to whom he was still legally married, the singer-guitarist died from “alcohol-induced degeneration of the liver and pancreas connective tissue,” along with a “cocktail of painkillers, opioids and insomnia medication in his system.” Laiho’s death was first reported on January 4th, but he actually died on December 29th, 2020. He fronted the Finnish melodic death metal act Children of Bodom for more than 25 years (including their early days as Inearthed) until they split up in 2019. The musician, who formed the new band Bodom After Midnight in early 2020, was considered one of world’s premier heavy metal...
Brian “Head” Welch on Living With Depression, Addiction, and Self-Hatred
Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google | Pocket Casts | Radio Public | RSS Presented by Consequence of Sound and Sound Mind Live, Going There with Dr. Mike is a new interview podcast series in which clinical psychologist and life coach Dr. Mike Friedman talks with musicians about the crossroads where music and mental health meet. Brian “Head” Welch joins the show this week to discuss his struggle with mental illness. The Korn guitarist shares how a history of bullying resulted in extreme self-hatred and isolation that stayed with him throughout much of his early life. As time went on, this self-hatred contributed to an ongoing struggle with depression, which he describes as a “darkness.” The Love and Death founding member also explains that, as a child, mus...
Ricky Byrd on Changing the Conversation Around Addiction
Kyle Meredith With… Ricky Byrd Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Ricky Byrd, formerly of Joan Jett and The Blackhearts, returns with Sobering Times, his latest in a series of records that reflect on addiction recovery. Byrd spoke with Kyle Meredith about playing to recovery music groups and how the conversation and stigma has changed since becoming sober in the late ’80s. The singer-songwriter also discusses making a fun record with a message, his penchant for rough & tumble music, and the possibility of continuing the theme on future albums. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesd...
