BRING ME THE HORIZON's OLI SYKES Reveals He Was Addicted To Ketamine

July 23, 2014

Vocalist Oli Sykes of the British deathcore act BRING ME THE HORIZON gave an emotional speech at Monday night's (July 21) inaugural Alternative Press Music Awards in Cleveland, Ohio where he owned up to his now-conquered ketamine addiction.

While accepting the "Album Of The Year" award for BRING ME THE HORIZON's "Sempiternal", Sykes told the crowd: "I want to say something that I never thought I'd actually talk about. Before we wrote 'Sempiternal', I was a fucking drug addict. I was addicted to a drug called ketamine; I was on it for years and I was fucked off my head. My band wanted to kill me, my parents wanted to kill me and my fucking brother wanted to kill me; everyone wanted to kill me, everybody wanted to fucking take me to hell, but they didn't. They stood by me, they supported me through all of that shit and we wrote 'Sempiternal' because of it.

"No one fucking knows, no one fucking knows this, but I went to rehab for a month, and through that time, as well as my fucking band and my family, you guys — you had no fucking idea that I was in rehab — but you were sending me letters, you were sending me texts, you were sending me fucking emails.

"And when I got out of that rehab I didn't want to fucking scream anymore, I wanted to sing it from the fucking rooftops. And it's all thanks to you, so thank you very much."

Other artists who were nominated in the "Album Of The Year" category at the Alternative Press Music Awards were A DAY TO REMEMBER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, BLACK VEIL BRIDES, FALL OUT BOY, PARAMORE, TOUCHE AMORE, TWENTY ONE PILOTS and THE WONDER YEARS.

BRING ME THE HORIZON will embark on the "Parks & Devastation" tour in September alongside A DAY TO REMEMBER and CHIODOS.

BRING ME THE HORIZON's fourth album, "Sempiternal", sold 27,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 11 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD arrived in stores on April 2, 2013 via Epitaph.

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