Opening up about his struggle over the past half-decade.
Back in June, Justin Moore recently announced that he would be taking a break from touring, forcing him to cancel some upcoming shows as he steps away to focus on his health. The “Small Town U.S.A.” singer made the announcement in a post to his social media on June 8th, explaining that he had to take time to focus on his health.
“I’ve made the decision to take some time to focus on my health. As a result, I’ll be stepping away from touring for a short period and will be unable to perform some upcoming shows. This is the right decision for me and my family, and I appreciate everyone’s understanding and support. I look forward to getting back out there later this summer and doing what I love most.”
As it turns out, the reason Moore took time off was actually due to his checking himself into rehab. In a vulnerable moment during his return show on July 9th, he’d tell the crowd that he realized that his drinking had become a problem:
“I’ve been wondering how I was going to handle this when I got back on stage for the first time in over a month, and I just decided to handle it this way about five minutes ago…
There was a lot of speculation, but my drinking got out of control. … I let down my band and my crew, and most importantly God and my family.”
The “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” singer joked that he has another friend who struggled with the same problem, who jokes that he’s allergic to alcohol because he would break out in handcuffs, but said thankfully that never happened to him:
“I just became a complete dumbass.”
He then revealed that he’s newly sober after finishing up a stay in rehab, and he hopes to use the experience to be a better example to his kids.
“I just got out of rehab for 30 days. This is my 31st day sober… I’m a Christian. I’m not as good of one as I want to be. … God has given me so much, between my wife and our four awesome kids and my family, a career like this, so I’m trying from this point forward to use my platform even further than I ever have.”
@whiskeyriff @Justin Moore #whiskeyriff ♬ original sound – Whiskey Riff
Since then, he’s been back on the road with Riley Green, making appearances at various festivals and overall getting back in the swing of things after the much-needed time off. And this week, he joined Tracy Lawrence on his TL’s Road House podcast, where he discussed taking control of his health, going to rehab and when he realized his alcoholism was becoming a real issue.
As the Arkansas native explained, he never had an issue with alcohol early in his career, unlike many artists. Instead, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that sparked his struggle with addiction due to having nothing better to do most days outside of his podcast because of the lockdown. Here, he’d note that even though he wasn’t getting “smashed,” he was still drinking early and often.
“I didn’t drink until I was 21. Don’t ask me how or why. Almost 20 years, [I] never had any issue whatsoever. And then COVID hit, we were doing our podcast at the time and literally nothing else. Man, ‘Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop’ is a real thing. A drink at 5:00 turned into 3:00 and noon. Then, before you know it, it’s all day, every day. [It was] not even really getting smashed, just constantly having a cocktail.”
Moore would then explain, like many others facing addiction, that he’d fool himself into thinking he was functioning just fine. Looking back, however, he’d say there were plenty of moments that he didn’t want to look back on while on stage.
“It started affecting my life. Just like everybody else, you think, ‘Oh, nobody knows. I’m hiding this. I’m good. I’m functioning — high functioning.’ And I was to an extent. Once a month, I’d have a show. You try to get that mixture just right, and when you do, it’s great. But the times you don’t, you look back and go, ‘Ah, I don’t even want to see that video.'”
As for what caused him to check himself into rehab this year, it actually wasn’t one particular moment. As he explained, he began noticing how much time and energy he was putting into drinking over the past two years. Because of this realization, he got home one Sunday and immediately told his wife he was going to get help.
“The last year, in particular, maybe two years, I just noticed I was putting so much energy into drinking and all that kind of stuff that it was taking away from not only my professionalism, but my family, most importantly, church, that kind of stuff.
I came home one Sunday as we do… I walked straight upstairs [and] told my wife, ‘I gotta go get help.’ I just gotta do it. I have to do it. It wasn’t fun, but I just looked at it like a business trip.”
Reflecting back on his 65th day sober at the time of recording, Moore would say he’s doing well lately, noting that he feels like himself for the first time in “a while.”
“I feel like myself for the first time in a while. And I’m actually proud of myself for the first time in a while, which maybe sounds weird.”
Watch the full podcast here:
