GODSMACK’s SHANNON LARKIN Opens Up About Sobriety & Almost Getting Fired From The Band Three Times

Godsmack drummer Shannon Larkin is coming up on eight years of sobriety and recently spoke at length with Spin about his sober life. When asked about times in his life when he knew that drinking was an issue he should address, Larkin revealed that he’d been on the verge of getting fired from Godsmack multiple times thanks to some blackout drunk episodes.

“Yeah, there was many of those things. In fact, I was fired — well, not fired, but threatened to be fired from this band over the last 20 years, three times. And one of my issues, one of many alcoholics’ issues with when you get too drunk, you black out. And then when I blacked out, I would do these crazy things and pick fights with way bigger people and all kinds of crazy things.

“And it was funny because I always attacked the people that were closest to me, the people I loved the most. And that was one of the parts in rehab where, why do I attack the people I love the most? And so it was an inner thing. And they helped me find out why. I’m not gonna tell the world that, but everybody has their issues. And so I think alcoholism, drug addiction, it’s all about locating the issue, finding it, destroying it, and then finding your higher power, becoming better, finding happiness within. Pretty simple sounding. Not so simple.”

Larkin also revealed that he wasn’t into the idea of therapy, but eventually realized that it was either go to rehab or die.

“I wasn’t a person that even really believed in head shrinks. I was kind of against it even, but after feeling like I was gonna die if I didn’t quit, I went for it. And then I learned in rehab — it was Recovery Unplugged, and there’s a few of those now; at the time, there was just the one in Fort Lauderdale.

“And for what it’s worth, it worked, and these people got in me and found all these hidden dark things that I wouldn’t have really even remembered if it weren’t for therapy and embracing it and going with it, saying, ‘Look, I’m not the big therapy guy. I don’t believe in it, really, but I’m gonna go with this, and I’m gonna do everything that they ask me and jump through all the hoops.’ And it turned out that it changed my life.”

He added: “So, I guess the moral of the story is rehab works if you embrace it and go with it and believe in it. And it all comes from inside us; our happiness is in there. We don’t need drugs and alcohol.”