Phil Campbell Reveals He’s ‘About Three Years’ Sober

Longtime Motorhead guitarist Phil Campbell revealed during a chat on the Scars and Guitars podcast (heard below) that he's "about three years" sober.

The guitarist reveals that he doesn't know the exact date, explaining, "I don't count [days] or nothing like that. I know it's about three years completely [sober] – without one drop."

Speaking about the decision to give up drinking, Campbell stated, "I just thought that all them years was enough, really. It took me 10 years to actually try and stop completely, but I did it. I just got bored with it in the end. And I didn't have hangovers anyways. I just got fed up with it in the end."

He continued, "The first period after you stop drinking, you think you can never enjoy yourself again and you're really boring and you're really quiet, but slowly, you get to enjoy yourself more and more and you get into more normal things. Before you know it, you're having the same fun as you were when you were drinking. Then you think, 'Shit, I'm not drinking, and I just had a great time.' But it is difficult. It took me 10 years to finally master it."

The guitarist reveals that his decision to stop came on his own and that he didn't attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or start a program like many do. "You've gotta really wanna stop. Some people, meetings would be good for them, I guess. Everyone's different. Some people can do it without any support system. Some people need the support system. But it took me 10 years from thinking about it to actually [developing] the tools. So, it was a bit of a process."

Since the end of Motorhead, Campbell has focused on his own music, and admits he had concerns about how his creativity would be affected. "It definitely comes back, [but] slowly," he revealed. "The first part's the hardest. The immediate short time when you stop — the earlier months or weeks or years or whatever it is — are a bit harder, and it should get easier."

Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons have a new album in the works. We're the Bastards is on schedule for a Nov. 13 release via Nuclear Blast.