In an interview with Good Charlotte lead vocalist Joel Madden for the Artist Friendly podcast, Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy got candid about his opioid addiction.
At around the 13-minute mark of the interview, McCoy explained that he can’t take any particularly strong pain medicine because he went through “a terrible bout” of opioid addiction. He said that his addiction stemmed from a surgery after he tore his ACL and MCL in the early ‘00s. Madden said that he’s had personal experience with opioid addiction through his family and friends, and noted that it’s a tough cycle to break.
“You lose all touch with your morals,” said McCoy. “Like, shit that you swear you’d never do… You end up flying to countries with drugs [where they] will kill you if they find drugs on you… But, like, that’s the sickness. You start feeling like you’re invincible. It gets to a point where it being fun dies real fast. And then it becomes survival.”
Because he was afraid of what his bandmates and friends would think of him, he always made an effort to hide when he would take drugs. “But you can’t really hide that when you’re drooling on yourself in front of people,” he continued. “My friends, kinda, they knew what was going on but didn’t really know how to navigate and approach it.”
When it started to affect his performance during live shows, that’s when he realized he had a problem and needed to get help. “It’s a very selfish disease,” he shared. “You have a squad of dudes that are dependent on you, and you’re dependent on this substance.” He said he’s “so glad” that his addiction is in the past now that he’s over 13 years sober. McCoy added that he’s lost a lot of friends to addiction, something that Madden said he also went through.
He said that the key to maintaining sobriety is keeping himself busy and surrounding himself with good friends.
Watch the full episode of the podcast above.
