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Billy Idol has reflected on his sobriety journey and decided “not to be a drug addict anymore” and is now “California sober”.
The 68-year-old iconic rocker shared that he is now “California sober” – when a person gives up on alcohol and hard drugs but continues to consume marijuana – in an interview with People adding that he doesn’t consider himself to “be a drug addict anymore.”
Idol told the publication that his decision to become sober came after he nearly lost a leg in motorcycle accident back in 1990.
“I really started to think I should try and go forward and not be a drug addict anymore and stuff like that,” he said of the accident. “It took a long time, but gradually I did achieve some sort of discipline where I’m not really the same kind of guy I was in the ’80s. I’m not the same drug-addicted person.”
He continued: “I mean, AA would say, ‘You’re always a drug addict.’ And that may be true, but I don’t do anything that much anymore. I got over it somehow. I was really lucky that I could get over it because a lot of people can’t.”
The ‘Dancing With Myself’ singer revealed that he is at a point in life where he can enjoy himself and not overdo it.
“I can have a glass of wine every now and again,” he said. “I don’t have to do nothing. But, at the same time, I’m not the drug addict that I was in the peak ’70s, ’80s.”
He added: “A lot of my friends from the old days are sober. [My guitarist] Steve Stevens is sober, and [guitarist/singer] Billy Morrison in my band is sober. There are people around me who are sober. That helps a lot.
“I’m, I suppose, ‘California sober.’ I just tell myself I can do what I want, but then I don’t do it. If I tell myself I can’t do anything, I want to do it. So, I tell myself, ‘You can do anything you like.’ But I don’t actually do it.”
In other news, last year, Foo Fighters teamed up with Idol to perform a cover of the Sex Pistols classic ‘Pretty Vacant’.