Drinking Doesn't Make You Successful.

Sober since 1975, after a moment he has described as waking up and deciding he was done.

“ You have to want to change. You have to use your pain as fuel to make a better life for yourself.

Has spoken openly for years about getting sober after struggling privately for over a decade.

“ Sobriety was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Spent much of his life in and out of treatment, and spent his later years helping others get sober.

“ The thing I'm most proud of in my life is that if a stranger came up to me and said, I can't stop drinking, can you help me, I can say yes, I can help you.

Got sober in his early 30s and has credited it directly with the career that followed.

Was drinking heavily through parts of the Harry Potter years and got sober in his early 20s.

Quit drinking after realizing how much it was costing her mental health, not her career.

“ It took me a long time to realize that if I wanted to be healthy and happy, I had to quit drinking.

Sober since 1991, after checking into rehab the day after his daughter found him passed out. The career most people know him for happened after, not before.

“ I never had one beer. If I bought a six-pack of beer, I kept drinking till all six beers were gone.

Has spoken candidly about the drinking that surrounded making Mission: Impossible III, and going to rehab in 2011.

Practices total abstinence, no alcohol, no drugs, and has been blunt about why.

“ I'm very serious about no alcohol and no drugs. Life is too beautiful.

Has talked for years about staying sober, on the record, without treating it like a secret.

Built a huge part of his standup and podcast persona around being sober, talking about addiction and recovery constantly and without shame.

Sober since 2008, after an overdose he has said was close to fatal. Fatherhood is what he credits with keeping it that way.

“ I couldn't believe that anybody could be naturally happy without being on something. So I would say to anybody, it does get better.

Has been open for years about his sobriety being the thing that actually made the career possible, not something he did in spite of it.

“ When I'm sober, I'm prolific and productive.

Stopped drinking after a doctor told him alcohol had enlarged his liver, and has spoken since about sobriety and mental health together.

Went through rehab and has stayed sober since, describing a relationship with alcohol he later called what it was.

“ I was an alcoholic; I am an alcoholic.

Got sober from opiates in his mid-20s and has spoken about the daily work, including a 12-step program, it takes to stay that way.

Went to rehab in 2020 after his own team staged an intervention. He's been upfront that his sobriety isn't total, but the hard drugs are behind him.

Now over 20 years sober after multiple attempts, and has talked about how different the band felt once he actually stayed clean.

“ The counsellor said, I'm looking at 30 of you, and stats-wise, one of you is gonna get sober outta here. And I was like, get out the way, cos I'm getting that spot.

Sober for over a decade now. He's talked about the shift in blunt terms, swapping bottles of Jack Daniels for green smoothies.

First got sober in the 1980s and has been open, decades later, about how much ongoing work staying that way actually takes.

Sober for over a decade after decades of very public struggle, and has credited a blunt conversation with his son Jack for finally making it stick.

Sober for over 30 years, and has gone on to personally mentor other musicians, including Robbie Williams and Eminem, through their own recovery.

Got sober with Elton John's direct mentorship, and has talked openly about how close the alternative came to costing him everything.

Sober since 2010, and has credited Metallica's James Hetfield with directly inspiring the decision.

In recovery since a stint in rehab in 2004, and has become the person other musicians, Corey Taylor included, point to.

Sober since 2001, after the death of a friend became the reason he finally stopped.

Doesn't drink at all. He's said directly that watching what alcohol did to his father, who died of complications from it, is why.

Went to rehab for alcohol and painkillers in 1996, mid-career, and kept playing at a Hall of Fame level for over a decade after.

Checked into rehab in 2020 and passed two years sober in 2022, treating it as a permanent identity, not a phase.

“ Alcoholism runs in my family, and I'm an alcoholic. I knew it was something that was always a crutch. I knew I couldn't just drink like everybody else.

Doesn't drink at all, a decision tied to real health scares, and stays firm on it even surrounded by a drinking culture online.

Wrote to his brother Theo about the change in his work after he stopped drinking, over a century before "quit lit" was a genre.

“ Besides, it is a certain fact that I have done better work than before since I stopped drinking, and that is so much gained.

Got sober in 1987, days after a major show at the Whitney, afraid the work would dry up. It didn't.

Sober since 1990, and has been unusually honest about how total the drinking was before that.

“ Did I drink for inspiration? Sure. But then I drank for everything. I drank to wake up, to go to sleep, to get to work, to make a phone call, to be more sociable, to relax.

Sober since 1987, after his family staged an intervention. He's written since about how little he remembers writing some of his most famous books.

Wrote Blackout about drinking to erase herself, and getting sober to actually show up.

Spent 20 years trying to stop before it stuck, and wrote Drink Your Way Sober about what finally worked.

Coined "sober curious" as a category before it was a marketing term, in the book of the same name.

Author of We Are The Luckiest, written from the position that getting sober was the lucky part, not the hard part.

Her bestseller The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober is built entirely around the case nobody makes: that quitting is the upgrade.