STONE SOUR Guitarist Opens Up About Getting Clean: 'It's Just One Day At A Time'

STONE SOUR guitarist Josh Rand was recently interviewed by Sean Stewart of the Chattanooga, Tennessee radio station Rock 105. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On returning to the band after a brief stint in rehab:

Josh: "I've come back from getting clean as far as the drinking and everything over the last couple of months. I actually sat out a tour. Right now, I'm just trying to basically do a cleanse and eat a lot healthier and switch my focus from drinking alcohol to drinking alkaline water."

On whether it's a challenge to remain sober while on tour:

Josh: "On stage, you're caught in that moment, which is the music and just playing it and the reaction. It's the down time that was difficult. For me, I've completely changed my whole outlook on things, and now, I work out for, like, two hours. I had all these addictive traits with other things, and now, all of a sudden, I'm in there measuring grams of this and that, and I've got to work out for this many hours, which is good. I'm starting to really feel the best that I have in almost ten years. It's just one day at a time, like they say."

On STONE SOUR having the opportunity to support Ozzy Osbourne on his "No More Tours 2" farewell tour:

Josh: "It's crazy. We've been fortunate enough, because we've been doing it for long enough, I've had a lot of moments throughout the band's career where I think back and I never would have thought that we would have been playing alongside some of the bands that we have. With Ozzy, it really came out of nowhere. To be quite honest, to be asked to do that was a complete honor. Every band pretty much wants that slot, so for them to reach out to us and ask us to do it..."

On why recent hit "Song #3" isn't actually the third song on the group's latest album, "Hydrograd":

Josh: "Only Corey [Taylor, vocals] can answer that. Good luck. It's kind of like '30/30-150' — everybody wants to try to crack what '30-30/150' is. Trust me, there was many discussions over it not having a title, but he assured us that there was a reason why. I have no idea. Only he can answer it, and he refuses to tell anybody."

Rand recently revealed that his "alcohol and Xanax dependency" caused him to sit out STONE SOUR's Canadian tour.

The guitarist told Des Moines, Iowa radio station Lazer 103.3 that he was first prescribed Xanax eight years ago for anxiety related to flying. He added: "And then over the course of the last couple years I started drinking and when we started touring, I was basically day-drinking. But not drinking to get messed up, but just to maintain, I guess. Or to be able to cope, to have this buzz."

Rand said he just started feeling "horrible and miserable" and that things came to a head for him in January on the ShipRocked cruise.