James Hetfield and Jerry Cantrell Inspired Corey Taylor to Get Sober

Addiction affects people from all walks of life and the story of rockstars getting sober isn’t a new one by any stretch of the imagination. For many, it allows them the opportunity to find a new lease on life and start from a fresh page; still, getting there is a big start and those in recovery often need someone to look up to.

For Corey Taylor, those people were James Hetfield and Alice in Chains‘ Jerry Cantrell, he revealed in a new interview. The singer and guitarist spoke to Consequence, where he explained that his alcoholism was, in part, to forget his drinking around various life situations, including the way he grew up. He says that Hetfield getting sober was the thing that caused him to consider that he might be able to do it too. He then quickly found out that they weren’t the only two rockers getting their shit together.

“I think one of the people who helped me kind of figure it out was James Hetfield. When he first started his journey, getting sober and getting healthy and whatnot, I looked at that, and I was, like, ‘Well, shit, if he’s strong enough to do it, maybe I can try it.’ [Sobriety] had a big enough effect on me that, over the years, I’ve really tried to stick with it. In figuring that out, I also realized that there were so many people who were going down that path, as well. Jerry Cantrell had just gotten sober around that time, and he was starting to kind of put his steps together.”

Taylor also told Consequence that it was a hard cycle to break but allowed him to feel like he was writing honestly again.

“It takes time; it takes effort, takes work. I really have to give [Hetfield] a lot of credit for the inspiration for that… It definitely helped to know that I wasn’t alone in it. And it certainly helped me clear my head and focus more. And really get down to writing again — really, truly writing.”

You can hear some of that writing on Taylor’s new album, CMF2, which is out now.