Blabbermouth — KIX guitarist Ronnie Younkins, who is unable to tour with the band because he has been placed under house arrest after repeatedly getting in trouble with the police, discussed his battle with alcoholism in a new interview with Adika Live!. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’m just glad to be alive, and I’m glad that my daughter and my son and my wife talk to me. And I’m glad the guys in the KIX band still talk to me.

“The message that I have to share is that if you get sobriety, do everything in your power to stay there because if you go back out… The disease of alcoholism and drug addiction is progressive. It’s categorized as a disease. And it’s potentially fatal. This is a disease that causes poor behavior, bad behavior, insane behavior. I mean, I would become — it talks about it in the ‘Big Book’ of Alcoholics Anonymous — Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I would turn into Mr. Hyde. And even when I wasn’t drinking, the physiology of my brain was all messed up so I was always kind of distant from everyone and just not with it. I tried to straighten up and do shows and stuff, and the guys could tell I wasn’t playing up to par. I wasn’t kidding anyone; I was just kidding myself. And it took my third arrest and being locked down and put in jail and then to getting locked down — thank God — from jail into a rehabilitation center for six months. And I thanked the judge for locking me in there for six months because now I could drive to work and if I see a liquor store, I just go by and [think] ‘poison.’ Anything that would ruin my life — I don’t entertain the idea of a drink. I go to meetings every day. I try to share with others. I’m reading my ‘Big Book’. I’m working on step four right now, which is searching and personal and moral inventory of my life. It’s got to do with resentments, angers and fears. So I’m working on that right now. And I’m in a good place — I really am.”


Read the full article at Blabbermouth