On The Mend
Roy Stride (Scouting for Girls) Admits Alcohol Problem, Anxiety and Recovery Journey
04 May 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What led Roy Stride to struggle with alcohol addiction?
want to know who's coming up next hit follow wherever you get your podcast and you'll be the first to find out as soon as i started drinking i loved it from the very beginning i had a problem with it i could have died so many times there are so many things where if it had gone the other way it would have changed my life yeah forever because you've never talked about this i've never talked about this since i got sober it's been the most transformative thing that i've ever done
And today, I'm so stoked to have the frontman songwriter of Scatting for Girls, Royce Stride. Hello. I mean, I'm so pleased to have you on, mate. I mean, we go back. We go back.
Do you know where we first met?
I was thinking if you can remember. I do, because I was reminded about it by... I think it was one of your bandmates at a gig.
Okay. Oh, right, okay.
At a backstage at a gig. And I did suddenly have this flashback to a moment. But do you remember it?
I do remember it. It was Imperial University. Right. It was, I think you were doing either DJing or it might have been your solo record.
No, this was, Emma was DJing. Oh, right. Yeah, so Emma was, I was there with Emma. She was DJing and I was just there.
We were literally so excited because you were like the first famous person we'd met. We'd just signed our deal. It was our first tour and we're like, It's Matt Willis from fucking Busted. And we were like, it was absolutely, it was like, because we just signed our deal about three months before. We had a record on the radio, right? We know not at that point. I think maybe it's not about you.
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Chapter 2: How did secret drinking affect Roy's life and career?
And party whenever we wanted. I mean, that was my dream too. Yeah. You know, I mean, literally when I think about it, like all, the only aspirations I ever had was to play a show in Southend and have a rider and girls to come. Yeah. That was like the biggest dream for me. And it kind of worked out. But in a much more elaborate way. And obviously, we're going to get into it now.
I think it's fascinating for us to chat about this because obviously we've known each other for a long time. And I've been in and out of kind of like addiction for 20 odd years or something, you know, and kind of like trying to get sober, getting sober, staying sober for a while, relapsing, kind of that kind of thing. And the road has played a massive part in that.
I said the road, it's such a cliche word to say, but, you know, like being in a band has been difficult. You know, it's not like it's... I'm lucky enough to say it's not anymore. Yeah. You know, but it took me a long time to get to that. So, I mean, where are you now that you feel like it's a good time for you to chat about this? Because you've never talked about this.
I've never talked about it. I just felt it was kind of time, really. And I really believe... these days, that things really do happen for a reason. And I think just because you were there at the very beginning, and we've been friends all the way along, and I've sort of watched your journey from when I was in a really bad place. I've seen where you'd been.
But also, we'd never really talked about it.
No, never.
Ever before. And it just felt like... Like, this was the time to do it. And I think it's, you know, I think if my journey can help just one person, what I say, then it's worth doing.
And I really think it will. You know, that's the beauty of this podcast. I really kind of can't express it enough. Like, I started this as a way to kind of like... Obviously, I've been in and out of organisations throughout my life and different kind of groups and things. And there's a 12-step message to put onto the person still struggling.
And I really felt like this was my opportunity to do that on a larger scale. So that's what this kind of thing is all about. So where did it all start? I mean, when you think about the beginning of the band, the beginning of drinking, where did that all begin?
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Chapter 3: What was the turning point for Roy's recovery journey?
You know, there's a weird kind of connotation.
Definitely, that really resonates with me. I hit both aspects of drinking. One, for the big highs and the big nights. I love that. But then... Just drinking by myself to like sort of, you know, my brain sometimes feels like it's going 100 miles an hour. Yeah. And so to be able to turn off my brain, the only way I could really do that was drinking by myself. And so there was two aspects.
I was a really massive social drinker and I was a really massive solo drinker.
Hmm.
by myself late at night, come in from the pub and then stay up till two, three o'clock in the morning just drinking by myself. Or even if I was working in the studio late, start drinking and then just carry on. The work would get less and less and it would just turn into a solo drinking session. And it kind of crept up as the years went by.
My consumption, too, it got to, you know, pretty staggering proportions, you know. It's like where it just became unsustainable.
I mean, did your bandmates know, or is it hard? I always find this confusing because... Like, if you're in it and behaviour is going on everywhere, it's very hard to spot anyone that's struggling, I think. So in the music industry, it's really hard to kind of like... I've been on tour with people now where I'm sober and eventually something's happened and I've had to have a chat with someone.
I'm like, I did not see this. Because it's happening everywhere, it's hard to spot. Did you find that?
Totally. Even when I stopped, there were... old sort of crew members who came up and said, you never had a problem. Yeah, yeah. You were great fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was like, yeah, I was, you know, and like, and I would be because I would still be there. You've gone to bed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm still there for another four hours. Yeah.
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Chapter 4: How did AA help Roy save his marriage and career?
Because you're away all the time, especially with somebody who had like addiction problems. Yeah. And she saw all this and she knew, and when we, it was quite, because we got together because she was quite a party animal when we got together, you know, but very soon realised that whereas she would go out for a couple of big nights a month, I was like, every night was a big night. And, you know,
And suddenly she was like, just found herself married to this, you know, addict, stroke, pop star who was away, you know, a third of the year while she was looking after children and then having to deal with like another child. Yeah. Me.
He's also drinking when he comes home.
Yeah. Yeah. And it became, that was the worst aspect probably of... of the whole thing is it really became, our marriage became really difficult because she was, you know, she understandably hated me drinking. And then I became, I was almost quite defensive about it. Like I'm going off and doing these shows so that we can live here. And, you know, and so it became a huge, you know,
source of sort of pain in our marriage for a long time. Yeah. You know. Alcohol is so devious. You know, addiction is so, it's so devious because I kind of, I didn't blame the addiction. I blamed my wife for what was going on. I thought she's trying to control me. She's trying to, you know, stop me having a good time.
And she was just worried about me and having so difficult to live with somebody who was drinking as much as I could. And so then that sort of brought about where I'd be secretly drinking.
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Because I would come back from tours just ruined. Or even like if I did a show and then come back in the morning, you know when you're just so brutally hungover you can't look after the kids, you know? And so it became this big source of argument between us so that I ended up doing more secret drinking and just... you know, pretending I wasn't drinking.
I used to do mad stuff, like fill up, like when we were at home, because she would not want me to drink at home. So I would make, I'd either make excuses, we had a studio next door, so I'd make excuses to go to the studio, so I had to work, and literally I'd just go to the studio, wait till she went to bed. A studio is a perfect place for an alcoholic. It's a dream.
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Chapter 5: What are the phases of recovery that Roy experienced?
I think it's so important. I mean, I've given up on looking now. Really? I'm just like, I know I am. Yeah. And that's enough. And it's a beautiful thing. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing. Yeah. I mean, exactly. What was it like for you? I mean, because it's a big moment, right? So we've talked about this. There's certain groups that we can go to and we can chat about this with other people.
And when you go there and you say, hi, my name's Matt and I'm an alcoholic. Do you remember the first time you said that? Oh my God, it was awful.
I hated it. I hated it. 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.
Yeah.
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? I was probably drinking like... 20, 30 drinks a day. And I got back and I was on stage.
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Chapter 6: How has sobriety changed Roy's relationships?
You know? And I was like, oh God. It's like the worst thing. Is that the first meeting? It's the first meeting. Clever fucker. And also, I don't really, like, this is what I'm saying. I've been four and a half years over. I've never really talked about anything apart from now to you. I'm not really a very person who talks. He saw you and was like, I know what you need.
And then the moment I said, okay, as a people pleaser, he was like, by the way, you have to do this every week for a year. And if you don't do it, then you have to, or don't come to me, you have to find somebody else to do it. So I had to talk to somebody else in the meeting to get them to cover for me. So I was like, oh my God, I've got to come every Tuesday to this thing.
And I was like, oh, this is awful. And so just because I was a people player, I came and like, And that was the best thing that ever happened to me.
I'm almost crying because it's so brilliant.
It was genius. Paul, his name is. And I still see him every so often and I thank him, really from the bottom of my heart because I hated AA to begin with. I thought it was all nonsense and I thought all the people there were weird. And then after six months, I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever done. Yeah. And they were the kindest, most beautiful, nicest people I've ever met.
And it changed my life. And I would not be sober if it wasn't for that because I would have done, I'd have done it myself for like three or four months and then I'd have met up with someone and then I'd been drinking again.
With zero tools how to stay sober, you know, and like, Exactly. I mean, what happened to you was so brilliant. It's like you're forced into go and you will eventually get a message which will help you. Yeah. You know, and it did. It completely changed.
It changed everything. I was like, first of all, I got sucked into like how much kindness and love and acceptance there was in the room. Because it's so rare in this world that people are just together.
Yeah.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Roy have about creativity and sobriety?
The most important thing is just keeping it one day at a time. The one thing which I really wanted to say is, when I was looking at getting sober, or when I was in that first moment, or when I was thinking about relapsing, like in the other times that I'd given up, I was always like, life is never going to be... Like, I know I need to stop drinking.
Because I think if I hadn't stopped drinking, I would have been dead in a couple of years. I was that unhealthy and that addicted. But... I thought, oh, stop drinking. But life is never going to be as good. The highs are never going to be as high. Those crazy nights, I'm going to miss them. And I just thought life would never be as sweet, even though I needed to give up drinking.
And what I can promise you from my experience and the experience of lots of other people is life is infinitely sweeter when you are sober. It takes time to get there. But at some point, if you stick with the journey, you suddenly go, I haven't thought about drinking for like a week. I haven't thought about using for a week. Like I haven't thought about it at all.
And my life is just as great and brilliant as it was then, but infinitely more so because I don't have all that there. And that is there for you. And it feels so far away when you're in it. But I promise you, if you just keep it in the day, you will get to that point where suddenly you're like, I remember that I did a wedding which I was really worried about going to this wedding.
And it was only like the day after the wedding, I was like, I didn't think about drinking the entire time. Yeah, yeah. I just had a really good time, you know? And that was like... That's weird. Yeah. And then, you know, and the longer you stay with it.
But that would have been a dreaded moment. Oh, totally. I don't want to talk about that. It's funny you say that because I hear people say that excuse all the time. I had someone once I was talking to about quitting drinking. He was like, what, so I'm not going to be able to toast my daughter's wedding day? I was like, you don't have a child. Why are you projecting?
You're projecting 28 years into the future that you're not going to be able to toast your... not real daughters wedding to stop you from drinking it's crazy the excuses which we make are ridiculous they're fucking batshit aren't they but that's the hold it has on you right and you can let go of that you can and it's like it will happen if you stick with it it's you know
it's been such a magic a really important message to get across yeah never really talked about because it you're so right right like i mean i mean i remember going i'm gonna i'm gonna have to be sober now yes i can't i'm gonna die the next time i drink i know i am like the next time i have a drink or a drug it's the end you know every time i do it it ends exactly the same way yeah you know okay boring life forever that's what i thought yeah okay but then and then i promise you like most weeks of my life
are pretty fucking awesome. Do you know what I mean? If I add up the week, I'm like, it's a pretty fucking awesome week. There's no moment of, oh my God, I'm the king of the world. But there's also no moments of, I want to kill myself. So it balances out. And I'm like, actually, that's a pretty sustained week, which is awesome. And I have a pretty cool life, which I love every day.
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Chapter 8: What advice does Roy give to those struggling with addiction?
I can tell, man. I can tell. It resonates with an amazing message of hope. And I think so many people will get so much from it. Before we finish, I want to talk to you briefly about creativity. Yeah. Because I think I weirdly had this thing in my head that, like... I was like, I'm like drinking drugs are the reason I'm everything. You know, like, how am I going to create without it?
How am I going to do that? And you've obviously got a brand new album out, right? Which is called These Are The Good Days, which I love.
Very AA. There's a lot of AA messages going through this album. Fantastic, amazing.
Well, you're a beacon of it, man. You're a beacon of these are the good days, right? You know, so what was that creative process like being sober?
Yeah.
I'm way more creative. I wasted so many years getting drunk. I used to think that I was, occasionally I'd think, you know, you'd write, you'd do a session, you know, quiet, drink-fuelled, late-night session. You think it's amazing. You wake up in the morning, it's absolute dog shit. Listen back and it's bollocks. Yeah, it's like the worst.
And I, you know, I don't... For me, it's always been a barrier to creativity. I lost literally so many... I went on a tour of 1D where they took some writers and some producers around with them and we stayed in, like, the hotel they were staying in and those guys worked hard.
They would do the show and then they'd come back to... Like, we'd make a little studio in the hotel rooms and they'd come back late at night to, like, record vocals or write songs. But... you know we had we were just in the hotel all day with like unlimited room service unlimited bar and the best hotels in the world and so i was just getting Yeah, exactly. On One Direction.
I just had it all day, literally. And so by the time they came in, I was like, yeah. I can't work. Yeah, I know. I literally had a whole session and then gone to sleep to get up. Because again, I still wanted to work, but I just, it was nowhere near as good as I could have been. There were so many opportunities I missed through drinking. So many.
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