While we routinely tout celebrities who smoke and advocate for weed, there are many that have had to overcome longtime drug dependencies and get sober. Three were in the news this week.
Tim Allen
The Last Man Standing and Home Improvement TV star/comedian spent 28 months in prison from 1979-1981 stemming from a cocaine arrest in 1978 when he was caught with 650 grams at the airport in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Allen received a lesser sentence for revealing his drug sources, branding him a "snitch." All of this didn't prevent him from getting a plum role in Home Improvement in 1991 or ultimately derail his career.
Allen recently commented on WTF with Marc Maron:
"I was an fuckup... I really just played games with people and told adults what they wanted to hear and then stole their booze... I knew exactly what adults wanted - make your bed, be polite, use a napkin - and then I'd go steal everything in the house."
He also said about former President Trump: "Once I realized that the last president pissed people off, I kind of liked that."
Jamie Lee Curtis
The Trading Places actress has been sober since 1999. In 2009, she told Reader's Digest about her dependence on alcohol and opioids:
"None of it was ever public. Nobody in my family knew. My husband didn't know. It was a big surprise to everyone... I would anesthetize myself on a daily basis. And I found painkillers were very helpful because they did the job without the messiness of alcohol. Getting sober just exploded my life. Now I have a much clearer sense of myself and what I can and can't do. I am more successful than I have ever been. I feel very positive where I never did before, and I think that's all a direct result of getting sober."
Celebratring 22 years of sobriety, she told Today on March 4:
"My sobriety has been the key to freedom, the freedom to be me, to not be looking in the mirror in the reflection and trying to see somebody else. I look in the mirror. I see myself. I accept myself. And I move on because you know what? The world is filled with things we need to do."
Trey Anastasio
The Phish frontman's career took a detour when he was arrested for heroin possession in 2006. Now 14 years sober, Anastasio believes he benefited from drug court and is investing in an addiction center in Vermont, where the jam-band's based.
He stated on March 4:
“Like so many people in America and so many in Vermont, I became addicted to opiates. I was extremely lucky to have access to care, and I know how important it is to be part of a recovery community. I’m grateful that we can help provide that opportunity for others... Substance use disorders affect people from all walks of life, and the problem is intimately linked with isolation - whether that’s isolation due to the pandemic or for any other reason."
Anastasio earmarked the $1.2 million raised for his Divided Sky Foundation from the "Beacon Jams" concerts in October and November at New York's Beacon Theatre to buy an 18-acre property in the Okemo Mountain area where the facility will be located.
More Celebs in Recovery
Ben Affleck, Russell Brand, Josh Brolin, Gerard Butler, Amanda Bynes, Naomi Campbell, Eric Clapton, Bradley Cooper, Kristin Davis, Robert Downey Jr., Zach Efron, Eminem, Edie Falco, Colin Farrell, John Goodman, John Hamm, Tom Hardy, Elton John, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Lovato, Rob Lowe, Macklemore, Toby Maguire, Tim McGraw, Ewan McGregor, Kelly Osbourne, Matthew Perry, Michael Phelps, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Radcliffe, Sia, Dax Shepard, John Stamos, Steve-O, Steven Tyler and Keith Urban
