Ashley McBryde is celebrating another massive milestone on her sobriety journey. This past weekend, the number of days sober turned into the four-digit mile marker as she celebrated 1,000 days of sobriety. The comma club, respect.
Over the last two years, Ashley McBryde has spoken out numerous times about her journey with sobriety. McBryde, who is arguably one of the most badass women in country music, shared on Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen in 2023 that when writing The Devil I Know, McBryde got honest with herself about her relationship with alcohol.
On that appearance, McBryde noted that she was over a year sober at the time because she didn’t want to speak on the topic and then go and “screw it up.” Since being sober, McBryde realized that her drinking was becoming very “detrimental” to her well being and her drinking kept her from fully feeling the emotions 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.”
In that interview, McBryde also noted that when she penned “Blackout Betty” with Aaron Raitiere and Nicolette Hayford, the song reflects how she was feeling, realizing that her drinking habits were spiraling out of control. McBryde wrote the song almost as a reflection of herself in that moment, feeling like a “real piece of sh*t.”
“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 sh*t 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 sh*t 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.”
However, since getting sober, McBryde has candidly shared her journey, publically celebrating the big milestones in her journey, as she should. McBryde celebrated her 900th day sober last year, and yesterday, she posted about another major milestone she hit.
1,000 days sober.
Ashley McBryde took to social media to post a giant poster announcing her accomplishment of the milestone and offering words of encouragement for anyone who might be thinking about going sober or who is in the midst of their own sobriety journey.
“1,000 days, 1,000 moons.
1,000 hangovers skipped.
1,000 drunk ‘I’m sorry’s’ I didn’t have to say.
1,000 times in a row I made the choice to not pick it up or not miss it when the smell crossed my nose.
1,000 times I have shown that the power of the love of a song and the love of the road are stronger than the pull to ever go back to who I was.
1,000 ‘I love yous’ I say to my reflection. I see the woman I am now and the woman I am on my way to being and I have love and compassion for the woman I was and I care for her daily.
Wherever you are in your journey, day 1, day 0…. Day 400 or day zero again for the 10th time. It is worth it. Every day is a milestone.
Every version of you was necessary to be who you are now. So love them.”
Many of McBryde’s country music colleagues quickly filled up the comments on the post, praising her for this accomplishment. Folks like Terri Clark, Morgane Stapleton, Jesse Daniel, Martina McBride, American Aquarium, and more all celebrated her, leaving positive words in the comments section.
Cheers to Ashley McBryde for entering the quadruple digits.
Before you go, fire up “Blackout Betty.” The song might have a different meaning to you after you learn that McBryde lived the lyrics herself.
