Blues musicians in recovery
Lady sings the blues: Janiva Magness transcends the pain of the past through music, sobriety
Courtesy of Paul Moore The Almighty has a hell of a sense of humor. Blues diva Janiva Magness knows that intimately. If ever she needed proof, she found it in Los Angeles, in the middle of a relapse, when she was 34 years old. She’d gotten clean nearly a decade earlier, but after moving from…
Read MoreWith almost 16 years sober, blues guitar ace Mike Zito’s gratitude knows no bounds
Courtesy of Norma Hinojosa This month, guitarist, singer, producer and bandleader Mike Zito will celebrate 16 years clean and sober, but he’s never lost sight of how broken he was in late October, 2003. By that point, he told The Ties That Bind Us recently, he had long since accepted that he was an addict.…
Read MoreBluesman, harmonica ace Jason Ricci reflects on recovery, relapse and the shadowlands between the two
Harmonica ace Jason Ricci has been sober for the better part of 20 years, and on days when his struggle with addiction get him down, he tries to keep that in perspective. Continuously, Ricci is approaching eight months clean and sober after his most recent relapse, and while his story includes a few such stumbles,…
Read MoreBluesman Chris Beard: ‘There are no limits in my process of recovery … because I don’t put limits on myself’
When Chris Beard hit bottom and sought help at a Christian-based addiction treatment facility in Syracuse, N.Y., staff members did everything short of an exorcism. “I got dipped in water, I got prayed over, because I was just tired of living my life the way that it was!” he told The Ties That Bind Us…
Read MoreFORTUNATE SON: The Rev. John Lee Hooker Jr. embraces his role as a proselytizing musical torchbearer
FORTUNATE SON: The Rev. John Lee Hooker Jr. embraces his role as a proselytizing musical torchbearer September 2017, Spielberg, Austria: The Rolling Stones gathered to perform before roughly 100,000 people at the Red Bull Ring as part of the No Filter Tour, and their opening act — John Lee Hooker Jr. — asked for those…
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