Five Finger Death Punch's Chris Kael continues to try to maintain his sobriety even when on tour overseas. He relapsed with alcohol during the pandemic two years ago and has leaned on AA meetings, but he told France's Loud TV that isn't so easy when the band is in Europe. He explained, “I was looking for AA meetings over here (in Europe), 'cause I always hit meetings when I'm over here. It's crazy, living in Las Vegas, the number of meetings that are available — one every hour; I mean, several every hour. And then I was in — what? — Düsseldorf and, what was the other city I was looking in? Berlin? And there was, like, two or three in a day. But with our travel schedule, I wasn't able to fit one of those meetings in, so I just did a couple of online things.”
Kael added, “I got sober February 3rd, 2018. Were it not for a mishap during the pandemic, which I haven't spoken publicly about until today, a mishap over the pandemic, it would have been four years (sober). But right now I think I am… I have to go back and look at the date, honestly.”
He shared the details of his relapse saying, “I remember I went to a concert and I was trying to do… I was, like, 'All right. I fell off the wagon. I've been back on the wagon. I'm going in. I'm gonna try to control drinking this time. I'm gonna allow myself to have two. And if I do two, cool.' Nope. Did three. Haven't had a drink since. I said, 'I can't do it.' Even trying to limit myself to two, I couldn't do that.”
Five Finger Death Punch perform tonight (Friday, June 24th) in Hockenheim, Germany.
They will release their new album, AfterLife, on August 19th.