One of the best decisions he’s made.
Justin Moore recently revealed that he’s newly sober, after taking some time off the road to go to rehab.
Last month, Justin announced that he was stepping away to focus on his health. And last week, the “Bait A Hook” singer announced that he would be returning to the stage in an epic video featuring an LL Cool J classic:
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At the time he stepped away, there was a lot of speculation that his absence had to do with a knee injury he suffered while skiing earlier this year. But in a vulnerable moment during his first show back in Knoxville, Illinois, Justin opened up on the reason for his break, revealing that he had just returned from rehab after realizing 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.”
Justin 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 (you probably know who he’s referring to there), 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:
“I just got out of rehab for 30 days. This is my 31st day sober.”
Justin says that he hopes to use the experience to be a better example to his kids and
“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
Well this week, Justin returned to 103.7 The Buzz, the radio station in his home state of Arkansas where he co-hosts the morning show Morning Mayhem, and opened up even more to his co-hosts David Bazzell and Roger Scott on what finally led him to seek help.
According to Justin, it was COVID when he first started having a problem with his drinking:
“It screwed me up, man, the stress and pressure and anxiety from worrying about paying my crew and band. It’s not an excuse, I’m just telling you what the reasons for me are.”
And after that, he got into a cycle that he realized he just couldn’t break:
“I just got in a vicious cycle that I could not break out of, and thought I could do it on my own, tried that for a while, and realized, ‘You know what? That’s not working very good.’
So I just came home one night from off the road and told Kate, ‘I gotta go. I gotta do something, because this is not who I want to be, it’s not who I am as a person, and I’m just not happy with myself.'”
Justin says everybody in his life has been incredible supportive of his decision, and that the support he’s gotten from fans has been “overwhelming.”
“Obviously she was very supportive, as were my mom and dad, everybody was. … It’s been overwhelming and humbling how great everybody’s been and how supportive. Even on the road with, obviously my band and crew and everybody, but the fans.”
While Justin says the decision isn’t something that fans should applaud, I’m going to have to disagree with him a little bit on that one: I think any time somebody does something to better themselves, especially when it’s something as hard as admitting you have a problem and taking action to fix it, that deserves some major credit – because it’s something a lot of people aren’t willing or able to do.
But he also promised that he’s going to be better going forward, for everybody else in his life but also for himself:
“I’m gonna be better for you guys, the fans, I’m gonna try my best to be better for family, friends, etc. But most importantly, my wife and kids and a better example for my kids in particular, and God.”
While Justin admits it’s been a strange time in his life, he says he feels better now than he has in quite a while:
“It’s been a strange but really, really good last 36 days. This is my 36th day sober, and that sounds like nothing in the grand scheme of things but to me it’s a heck of a lot.
I feel like myself for the first time in a long time, in a year or more, and I’m actually proud of myself for the first time in a year or two.”
Think I can safely say that there are a lot of people who are proud of him. Justin’s got a lot of talent, and would have been a lot bigger name had he not made the decision early in his career to prioritize his family over his fame, so it’s great to see him able to fully put those talents to use.
