12 Metal Musicians Who Surprisingly Stayed Drug-Free
The whole drugs, s**, and rock and roll motto isn’t just for every musician on the scene. Sure, we’ve seen them, especially in the ‘80s, burn their fortunes with eccentric whims while their brains were drowned in alcohol or drugs.
Well, although it was common, not every metal musician you know and love followed that self-destruction trail. Others just opted to live a drug-free life and get high on the huge crowd singing their songs rather than some synthetic journey.
Beware, you’ll find names on the list that might surprise you.
1. Tom Morello
Known for his work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, Tom Morello isn’t just an awesome guitarist with a unique style. He’s also a Harvard graduate. While pursuing both endeavors at the same time, Tom Morello stayed completely drug-free. Indeed, he recently said in an interview, “When I moved to Hollywood, I thought, ‘I can never be in a band here – I’m not anything like these guys. I’ve never done drugs, my hair doesn’t look like those guys’.’”
2. Bruce Dickinson
Bruce Dickinson is another musician who can travel the world, singing his heart out for arenas full of screaming fans and also walking out of the lifestyle to live a normal life. He’s well-known for being a commercial airplane pilot as well as a world-class singer. He said recently that Iron Maiden’s backstage is very boring, and the only drugs found are Ibuprofen and Aspirin.
3. Mike Shinoda
One of the pillars of the metal band Linkin Park claimed recently in an interview that he wasn’t “A teenage drug addict” and that he stayed sober while fellow band member, the late and great Chester Bennington, ran around the city trying to score. He has stayed drug-free throughout his career.
4. Tim Mcilrath
As part of the Straight Edge philosophy or movement, Tim Mcilrath of Rise Against refrains from ingesting any kind of recreational drugs as well as from smoking tobacco. You can witness this yourself because the movement identifies with an “X”, a symbol Tim has on his guitar at all times.
5. Mark Tremonti
Perhaps because he lived his bandmate’s hell from the VIP seat as Creed’s Scott Stapp fell for Oxytocin and had several public breakdowns, Mark Tremonti, star guitar player for Creed and Alterbridge has stayed away from drugs his entire career. Tremonti is one of those rare cases in which a musician is successful several times around since his band with legendary Myles Kennedy has been growing non-stop since its formation.
6. Oscar Dronjak
Being a power metal overlord, a videogame abuser, and an MMA fan left no time for Oscar Dronjak of Hammerfall to do any drugs. Although he’s toured the world more than once and had several Beatle-like rockstar moments, he always refrained from doing any drugs. In his own words “I’ve never done drugs in my entire life, I’ve never even smoked a cigarette. I don’t believe in it at all; my stance has always been that if your life is so bad that you have to do drugs, there’s something else that needs to change. I don’t need artificial drugs, life is a drug enough for me!”
7. Cristina Scabbia
Italian gothic metal band Lacuna Coil might be scary onstage and might even drive crowds of fans nuts, but Cristina Scabbia has managed to do it all without falling for drugs or alcoholism. Moreover, she recently stressed she strives for a balanced life and feels very good in her 50s. In a recent interview, she said, “I mean, I don’t do drugs, just because I’m not interested. I don’t drink a lot, just because I am fine drinking a beer every once in a while. But it’s not because of self-control or because I’m straight edge or anything like that. It’s just who I am, without any stress.”
Gene Simmons
This is a name that might surprise more than one reader on this list. Well, the party animals, the rocking metal geniuses who got crowds of fans screaming around the world did all of that without even a sip of alcohol.
But that’s not all, there’s a super-tender reason for Simmons to abstain from it all. In a recent interview, he said he’s his mother’s only child, and “I was concerned I had no right to harm my mother. Life did that enough.” His mom survived a Nazi concentration camp. In the same interview, he also said, “I literally never drink. Privately or publicly. I simply don’t like the taste or the smell of anything with alcohol in it. I have never been drunk in my life and have never taken more than a sip of anything, and hated it every time. I will toast just to be social, but that’s it.”
Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent isn’t just a sober, drug-free rockstar, he’s an advocate for that lifestyle. In a recent interview, he said that he has lived that way his entire career and rejected drugs and alcohol from all his idols. In his own words, “Jimi Hendrix offered me his drugs, and I said no. John Belushi offered me his drugs; I said no. Keith Moon offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. Bon Scott offered me his drugs and alcohol, and I said no. I said no to everybody.”
Henry Rollins
Another straight-edge advocate, Black Flag’s frontman did try marijuana and L*D in the early days but 30 years went by since the last puff he gave to a joint. Moreover, in a recent interview, he said, “The more I saw drugs and alcohol do damage to young people around me, I concluded all drugs and alcohol were traps to marginalize those young people and neutralize the masses. Basically, it’s what The Man does to keep the people doped and docile. That alone is enough to keep me away from any and all of those poisons.”
Conclusion
These ten metal masters and worldwide stars have had a stellar career staying away from all kinds of intoxicants. Furthermore, some of them became advocates for others to stay away from substance abuse in the music industry.
Did I miss any famous cases? Do you know other metal stars who stayed sober throughout their career? I would love to know about them in the comments.
Happy (sober and drug-free) metal-loving!
