Ashley McBryde is such a badass.
She sat down for a conversation on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen last week, where she opened up about writing and recording The Devil I Know, and also got very candid about her journey to sobriety.
She told Kelleigh that she hasn’t had a drink in about 450 days, and just started talking about it publicly more recently, because she wanted to wait at least one year to do so, mostly out of fear that she would “screw it up.”
Ashley added that being sober has been “wonderful,” saying she realized that drinking as much as she was became “really detrimental” to her life because of the fact that the heavy drinking kept her from feeling what was really going on in her heart and mind:
“Turns out it was just really detrimental.
And then when you’re finding out the reasons that you’re going so overboard all the time was because of your inability to feel something that your brain was like, I can’t do it. I can’t do it.
I’m like, well, that’s weak. I’m not going to accept that. I’d rather just hurt. This morning I was at the boxing gym working out with my coach.
We were doing something that was hard, and he said, ‘Are you okay? Do you need a break?’ And I said, ‘I know how to hurt.’ I do now. I mean, I knew how to hurt before and add extra to it for no reason.”
She says that now, when she’s uncomfortable, she reminds herself that it’s okay to feel that way, and she has the strength to have a hard conversation.
Ashley also mentioned that, looking back, she realizes that it was not as “cool” to tell people she could drink them under the table as she used to think it was, and now sees it all completely differently:
“And now, when I’m uncomfortable, I say out loud, ‘I know how to be uncomfortable.’ This conversation is hard. That’s okay. I know how to have a hard conversation…
And I don’t have to go hide because I’m not a weenie. When I was like, ‘You have no idea how much I can drink. I can drink you under the table,’ what an awful thing to admit.
You are so weak that you have to drink an entire bottle of anything instead of just feel what you feel.”
Ashley also talked a little bit about her song “Blackout Betty,” which is featured on the aforementioned record and was co-written by Ashley along with Aaron Raitiere and Nicolette Hayford.
Ironically, she wrote it hungover, admitting that she was being “a real piece of shit” because of her drinking issues and realized that it was spinning out of control:
“There’s even a line in Blackout Betty that says, ‘Why can’t I have just one glass of wine? Hey, I’m a real piece of shit sometimes.’ And at the time, I was. Pretty often.
But you’ll hear it in context and you’ll be like, yeah, it’s kind of said in a jabbing you in the ribs kind of way…
And I know that my therapist would be like, ‘We’re not going to say that I’m a piece of shit sometimes. We can say I’m messy, we can say I’m complicated.’ But at the time, it was absolute truth. I mean, I wrote the song hungover.”
It’s really cool to see Ashley opening up so publicly and honestly about her sobriety journey, because it’s something so many artists struggle with in the country genre due in part to how much alcohol and drinking is celebrated and engrained in the music.
Our best wishes to Ashley as she continues on this journey of sobriety, and I know she will continue to inspire fans all over the world with her honesty, authenticity and tenacity that is so admirable.
And if you haven’t checked out The Devil I Know yet, go ahead and start right here…
“Blackout Betty”
Ashley is also gearing up to hit the road for her headlining The Devil I Know tour next month, and you can check out all the dates below.
The Devil I Know tour dates:
Oct. 7 Saenger Theatre* Mobile, AL
Oct. 15 Robinson Center Performance Hall^ Little Rock, AR
Oct. 20 John T. Floores Country Store* Helotes, TX
Oct. 21 Buffalo Run Casino & Resort – Peoria Showplace Miami, OK
Oct. 27 Uptown Theater* Minneapolis, MN
Oct. 28 Crystal Grand Music Theatre* Wisconsin Dells, WI
Nov. 2 Jannus Live~ St. Petersburg, FL
Nov. 3 UGA John Hunt Conference Center~ Tifton, GA
Nov. 4 Anderson Music Hall~ Hiawassee, GA
Nov. 10 Alabama Theatre^ Birmingham, AL
Nov. 11 Orpheum Theatre^ Memphis, TN
Nov. 12 Ellis Theatre Philadelphia, MS
Nov. 30 Stage AE* Pittsburgh, PA
Dec. 1 Danforth Music Hall+ Toronto, ON
Dec. 2 The Andrew J Brady Music Center+ Cincinnati, OH
Dec. 8 Webster Hall+ New York, NY
Dec. 9 Orpheum Theatre+ Boston, MA
Dec. 10 Keswick Theatre+ Glenside, PA
Dec. 14 Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences# Charleston, WV
Dec. 15 The Fillmore Charlotte# Charlotte, NC
Dec. 16 Rams Head Live# Baltimore, MD
Jan. 17 O2 Guildhall= Southampton, UK
Jan. 19 O2 Academy= Bristol, UK
Jan. 20 Eventim Apollo= London, UK
Jan. 21 O2 Institute= Birmingham, UK
Jan. 23 Albert Hall= Manchester, UK
Jan. 24 Barrowlands= Glasgow, UK
Jan. 25 Barrowlands= Glasgow, UK
Jan. 27 Waterfront Auditorium= Belfast, UK
Jan. 28 3Olympia Theatre= Dublin, Ireland
Support:
* Kasey Tyndall
^ JD Clayton
~ Zach Top
+ Bella White
# Will Jones
= Corey Kent + Harper O’Neill
