Matt Willis

So my rock bottom was...

on a tour after COVID.

So I was almost bankrupt after COVID because we hadn't earned any money for 18 months and I'd spent a load of money just before COVID thinking we were having a big year.

So there was a lot running on this tour and we'd accepted all the gigs in the world because we hadn't toured for ages.

We were just like, yes,

And so we ended up touring for it.

We had, the tour was nine weeks and then we played every weekend before that, as soon as lockdown ended.

Yeah.

And part of that was because, uh, I was just itching to get out there and get back on it.

Because I'd,

I'd done actually, I'd lost a load of weight in lockdown.

I gave up drinking for a couple of months, thought it was amazing and then started drinking again and I'm back straight, like even worse than I was before.

So I was like itching to get out and just be free and drink as much as I want, play some shows and...

that was over about that four months the drinking just got worse and worse and worse i started having the worst anxiety like panic attacks and the only way to deal with the anxiety i found in the morning i'd wake up on the tour bus in a new place i'd have a coffee and then the anxiety would kick in so the only way i could deal with it was by drinking yeah so i go to the pub around lunchtime start drinking

And then sometimes it'd be a couple of points, sometimes it'd be like six or seven.

I'd do sound check, see how drunk I was.

If I was really drunk, I'd have a sleep.

If not, I'd probably just chill out, do the show, then get drunk again.

And it got to a point by the end of that tour, I'm not even sure if it was some sort of seizure or collapse towards the end of the tour, and the band were like, you need to see a doctor.

And I was like, I don't want to see a doctor because the doctors are going to say, how much are you drinking?