3 DOORS DOWN Singer BRAD ARNOLD Celebrates Eight Years Of Sobriety

3 DOORS DOWN singer Brad Arnold celebrated the eighth anniversary of his getting sober on January 19. The 45-year-old musician posted a photo of his AA sobriety medallion, which has the words "To thine own self be true" and "unity, service and recovery" engraved around the roman numeral for 8.

He wrote: "January 19 is a special day for me every year. It marks the start of a new year of a new life, a life without a bottle in my hand. I feel like a different person than I did eight years ago…..and it feels so good. Without question, God took that burden from me. I was so tired of carrying it. I couldn't carry it any more so I gave it to God and I'm not taking it back! If you're struggle with something, give it to Him. He'll gladly take your burden and you'll never have to carry it again. #onedayatatime".

In a 2023 interview with Charleston.com, Arnold said that alcohol became habit forming and a crutch. "I used to think it was a way to calm myself prior to a show or to chase loneliness," he explained. "There's not one aspect of my life that isn't better due to my sobriety. Honestly I still get a bit nervous just before I go on stage, but I don't need alcohol to lean on."

Back in 2018, Brad told New Hampshire Union Leader about his decision to stop drinking: "The biggest thing about it was I could trace almost every problem in my life to alcohol, even while I was drinking. I got to a point that I knew that I was drinking too much, and I needed to stop. And our guitar player — he's in recovery, and he'd been through his own addictions, and Greg [Upchurch], our drummer, had been through alcohol [problems] as well. I'm sitting [there] miserable all the time and feeling like crap all day, every day, until I started drinking earlier and earlier.

"I've seen these guys, how much happier they were, and seeing all my problems. And I just wanted that happiness. We went on a tour over in Japan to play for the troops. I was about halfway through that week, and I couldn't even remember this week. It wasn't like I was just blacked-out drunk or did anything stupid. I just couldn't even remember what I was doing. I just became so frustrated, and I knew I had a moment. I was like, 'I have to stop this.'"

Asked if he noticed a difference in his creativity between being sober and drinking, Brad said: "Absolutely. [Before] I'd go to band practice or something and I'd be like, 'Well, you know I just need a drink to like loosen up, relax.' But it was a killer vicious cycle, because it's like my mind is lying to me. I thought I needed that to relax and be creative. But I can have one or two drinks, and the creativity was gone. It was like, 'Well, I ain't doing it today.' That's how it went so many times, and that same mindset translated to everything else in my life. It developed to the point that I thought I had this hole in my life that alcohol was covering up or filling in, when in reality, alcohol was digging that hole."

Arnold revealed that there was alcoholism in his family, saying: "At that time I was 36 or 37, and my daddy was 74 — and my daddy has two brothers that both died from alcohol. My dad didn't drink, and my daddy has long outlived his brothers. And so I just thought to myself, 'My daddy is twice my age, and I won't live to be my dad's age. If I continue to drink like this, then my life is more than halfway over.' And I don't want my life to be halfway over right now."

Formed in 1995, 3 DOORS DOWN's many accolades include selling 16 million albums globally, receiving three Grammy nominations, and winning two American Music Awards, and five BMI Pop Awards for songwriting — including "Songwriter of the Year". Their debut, "The Better Life", became certified six times RIAA platinum in 2000 and was fueled by the success of juggernaut hit "Kryptonite". This was followed by 2002's sophomore album, "Away From The Sun", which went triple platinum and saw similar success with "When I'm Gone" and "Here Without You". 2005's platinum "Seventeen Days" and 2008's "3 Doors Down" each earned No. 1 debuts on the Billboard Top 200, while "Time Of My Life" landed at No. 3 in 2011. In 2003, the group founded the charity The Better Life Foundation. In 2016, 3 DOORS DOWN released its sixth full-length album, "Us And The Night".