KENOSHA ⏤ For months now, I’ve made Saints Radio playlists without explaining the name’s meaning. Therefore, this week’s installation focuses on the band that it is inspired by.
Full disclosure, it’s me. And this is the one and only time I’ll be featuring myself as a musician. That part of my life and this part of my life do not intersect. I don’t allow them to most of the time.
However, Saints Radio comes from 3 A.M. Saints, a music project that I created in 2017 after I quit drinking alcohol. I had been an alcoholic for about 14 years before that point.
As a result, I hadn’t played music in about seven years at the time I quit drinking, not in any serious way. And I certainly didn’t play in public.
I couldn’t do it without being drunk. I had married music and alcohol in my life.
It took time to separate them again.
Saints and ‘So Long’
So in 2017, I set down to record my first album in a decade, “So Long, Lonesome Drunk,” kind of saying goodbye to that old life as an addict and embracing the uncertainty of a sober future.
I have now been sober for 4 years, 3 months and 11 days.
Turns out, that sober future wasn’t that bad.
Why share this?
So why am I putting aside the professional veneer of the traditional journalist to be so open and vulnerable with you?
Because lately I’ve noticed an increase in overdose service calls, and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve heard of or seen many former addicts struggling with the loneliness of isolation and also (for artists) being cut off from the craft that gave them an alternative outlet for their passions and their pain.
And someone has to tell those people this:
There is hope. You are okay. You are just struggling. We all do.
This, too, shall pass.
And please, seek help from friends, family or community agencies that can assist you in transitioning out of that life.
You can.
You just have to really decide to.
And then never look back.
I did.
Took me maybe three or four times trying in my life, but I finally did.
You can too.
Don’t lose heart.
#SaintsRadioSunday playlist: 3 A.M. Saints – ‘So Long, Lonesome Drunk’
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