METAL AND SOBRIETY

Heavy metal has often celebrated the hard-partying life, but as many metal musicians have gotten older, they’ve embraced sobriety and credit rehab with saving their lives.

One of the most prominent metal musicians who got sober is Metallica frontman James Hetfield, who had a big drinking problem before he cleaned up his act fifteen years ago. As the told Loudwire, “Fear was a big motivator in that for me. Losing my family, that was the thing that scared me so much, that was the bottom I hit, that my family is going to go away because of my behaviors that I brought from the road.”

Hetfield’s wife kicked him out of the house until he cleaned up his act. Hetfield said she “did the right thing…that scared the shit out of me. She said, ‘You’ve got to go somewhere and sort this shit out, so that’s what I did.” Hetfield went into a recovery center and has been clean ever since. 

Metal legend Rob Halford, lead singer of Judas Priest, also has thirty years sobriety under his belt, and as he told Blabbermouth.net, “You can’t do it by yourself – you have to use the tools that you’re’ given by other people who have got your back and look out for you.”

Halford gives his fans a lot of credit for keeping him clean. “I have to go out there night after night and do my work in the way that’s expected from me. I can’t go out there drunk. I can’t go out there smashed and drugged. That’s cheating my fans…That’s part of my daily spiritual ritual – keeping clean and sober for my own well being, but also for my fans and everybody else.”

Halford also told fans out there who may need help, “If you’re going through the same difficulties that I went through, you know it can be a matter of life or death, quite frankly. So be aware there’s people out there, there’s great organizations out there to help you start on a path to a brand new life that’s full of wonderful things waiting to happen.”