Rick Allen Quotes

I used to be a drinker but I found out how bad it was and I let it alone.

I had what AA calls 'a convincer' - which made me realize that I couldn't do it any more. I went out drinking for about 70 hours here in London. At the end I knew I was done.

I keep telling people: Don't make me the poster boy for AA because I don't know a lot about sobriety, but I do know a lot about drinking.

I don't drink anymore.

I know I can get to the stage where I'm drinking a lot. I tend to be rotten and groggy all day and hanging out for the next drink and five o'clock, ping! I have to just stop.

I didn't think I could go onstage and play unless I had a beer to loosen up. Well, if it was only one beer to loosen up, I'd probably still be drinking today.

I never had one beer. If I bought a six-pack of beer, I kept drinking till all six beers were gone. You have to have that kind of understanding about yourself. I haven't had a drink now in 12 years.

I'm a recovering alcoholic so I should be home.

Well, I stopped drinking. That was actually a big deal. I didn't go through any harrowing rock-bottom experience. I just made a decision to stop drinking.

My voice? Yeah, well, I used to drink a lot of beer when I was a kid and I sounded like a drunk in a choir. I don't drink anymore.

When I stopped drinking, it was only because I thought if I don't stop, I'm going to die.

Home Protection—protection against the tyranny of drink.

I wasn't really an alcoholic, but I was losing control. I still go for a beer, but I drink a lot less.

My relationship with alcohol became unsustainable. For people who are going to ask, 'Were you an alcoholic?' I suppose the short answer is 'Yes.'

I don't have many regrets in my life. But I have one. I would have stayed sober all along.

It's funny, because when you tell people you've stopped drinking, there's an automatic reaction. People ask, 'Was it a lifestyle choice or were you waking up in a skip?'

I stopped drinking alcohol, which probably was the biggest change. I used to be a very big beer drinker. Being from England, that's a very common thing.

Why is it a badge of honour to say you spent 15 years in AA ball?

And I have always told the patients when I talk to them. When they come around and say, 'What will you have to drink? Oh that's right you don't drink.' Just speak up and say, 'Of course I drink. But I just don't drink alcohol.'

I was an alcoholic, for sure. It became a problem steadily over the course of six years.

I believe all drunks go to heaven, because they've been through hell on Earth.

I quit drinking, so I can think clear. When you have chop trouble, drinking doesn't help the healing process.

My second marriage had a lot to do with alcohol.

I had to accept that I was an alcoholic, that was the main thing. I think you've got to. But I try not say that I'm an alcoholic. I prefer to say that it's a disease I've got.

When you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.