Matt Sorum is celebrating the 17th anniversary of his sobriety. On November 24, the Velvet Revolver drummer took to social media to share a message about his sobriety.
“Woke up this morning at a very early hour which I do regularly now that I have my daughter Lou Ellington and with immense gratitude today marks 17 years of sobriety for me. In that 17 years there have been many twists and turns and ups and downs, but I’m proud to say I did it without drinking or doing drugs. Life on life’s terms as we say,” he wrote.
“My days of drinking weren’t all horrible as that would be a lie,” the rocker admitted. “My early years in Hollywood and my times traveling the world were wild adventures that I wouldn’t change a thing, but the partying did start to take hold of me and I suffered mainly in my personal life. Success was scary and most of all love and relationships scared me.”
“Life in Rock N Roll is like a bubble that anything is acceptable. Bad behavior is recommended and growing up loving RNR, it was par for the course. I did it at the highest level no pun intended. Finally realizing that alcohol and drugs had a grip on me I struggled for years with 3 trips to rehab and multiple relapses. The thing that changed it all for me was turning my will and my life over to the care of God. That trust and faith takes care of me and my family and I have true happiness,” he added.
The drummer ended his message by thanking everyone who helped him.
Sorum realized his addiction was getting even worse not after a long day of drinking, but after doing drugs for too long. “My cocaine consumption went into overdrive, and I realized I would die if I didn’t stop,” he admitted in another chat.
“[Cocaine] didn’t really come until I joined GN’R – cocaine was there all the time. That became part of every party / activity that we were involved in. I think it was a way for us to drink more alcohol. We could do more coke, and we could drink more. We used to call it the great levelizer. It was like, ‘I’m f*cking drunk, let’s get some blow.’ That’s just what we would say… it was a way to keep going, stay up all night and keep drinking,” Sorum added.
Sorum also recalled staying up all night using cocaine and partying into the next day, missing their flight to their next show in Glasgow. As a result, they had to charter a private plane for €2,500 to make it to the gig. At the time, Matt was playing with Velvet Revolver alongside his Guns N’ Roses bandmates Slash and Duff McKagan, and he had brought dancer Ace on tour with them in 2005.
