Originally Posted by
CAinOH
Thanks. Joe is such a great example. The award is well-deserved.
I'm a bit confused by this:
"His wife, the elegant Marjorie Bach, was also honored and she stood behind him, wiping tears from her eyes with a napkin even when he cracked jokes. Bach is 27 years sober. Earlier, she spoke with unflinching gravitas about fearing at one point her husband would die."
Surely that doesn't mean in the relatively recent years during their marriage? How long has she known him? I have a feeling the author might be confused, as the video she linked to did not contain that content, but was rather her speaking about her own experiences.
At any rate, the question about older rockers and prescription meds of course immediately brought to mind Tom Petty. Who would have thought we would lose him to a drug overdose of that kind? But then again, that's how we lost Michael Jackson and going back further, Elvis. So while I hadn't really thought about it, it really is an issue, isn't it. Going from getting high to just getting rid of pain, and then having issues continuing without it.
This bit is fascinating to me. I'd always thought it was interesting that Joe said that he got sober in 1995, because as we know HFO happened in 1994, which means that he must have relapsed after his first attempt.
Joe, can you tell me about the epiphany you had in New Zealand? You said that you’d had a bunch of relapses and nothing had been working until that moment in the hills.
Walsh: It was in Hawke’s Bay, the ancient capital of the Maori nation, the indigenous people there. I befriended them in New Zealand and they took me to the capital fortress that is abandoned and in ruins now, but it’s a very holy place. I stood on top of that hill. I looked at the ocean and I looked at all this farmland. New Zealand is beautiful. I had a moment of clarity, which was you can either die or you can stop.
How old were you roughly then that happened?
Walsh: About 45.
Have you had other spiritual experiences like that in your life?
Walsh: I have had moments before, like “I’ve gotta do something about this,” but by noon I was drunk again. This time, I believe it was God saying, “Hey, why don’t you try me?”
So you literally walked down the mountain, determined to go back to rehab, and that time it took.
Walsh: Yes. I went back to the United States. I made arrangements to go in. It terrified me. Terrified me.
Why?
Walsh: Because I didn’t know what sober was. I thought I was going to have to wear a tie and have a job and go to work every day, and that’s not the case. No, I can do what I always do really well. I just had to learn how. When you get sober, you learn how to do everything one day at a time, and when you get enough things that you know how to do sober, you’re good to go.
So that's when it happened for real. In 1994, Joe cleaned up enough for the tour with Smokey breathing down his neck to make sure he didn't relapse while he was on the clock, but he cleaned up for real then. I wonder if this was before or after Christchurch?
Thanks for linking to this!