Ronnie “10/10” Younkins opens up about drug relapse during the last five years

Ronnie “10/10” Younkins opens up about drug relapse during the last five years

Kix guitarist Ronnie “10/10” Younkins was recently interviewed by Metal-Rules and opened up about his recent drug issues.

Metal-Rules pointed out that Younkins‘ name had recently been in headlines because he missed a Kix show in March and then he went missing in action for a while. Younkins was asked whether he wanted to tell what happened and what is the situation now.

Younkins stated: “Yes. I’m living at a rehab now. I miss my daughter, and my son, and my home, but I’ve been there for almost two months now, and I’m going to move into a recovery home soon and stay there for a while. My disease has gotten worse. I had 21 years of sobriety at one point. Got sober and cleaned up in 1989, but I’d get on… A long story short, what led me back out was complacency in my program. I wasn’t doing enough of my work for the AA program like I did in the early years. Then, I went on Hepatitis C treatment, or they should call it punishment, the old one that has many side effects, in 2010. One of them being insomnia and doctor put me on Ambien, and it fucked me up. It’s a sleep drug, and I got hooked on it, and then I wasn’t working the program like with my mom’s death, I worked through that at ten years sober. I worked through that with my sponsor. Dad died, like in 2012. Some other shit had happened, and I worked through, and some serious things happened.

We all have issues. We all have shit happen in our lives and, you know, I worked through them in the program, but my when my father died, and I was complacent in the program, and I was already high on this fucking Ambien. I said, “Fuck it.” And, I went out, and I started doing heroin and cocaine again within a month after my dad’s death, and it’s been nothing but downhill since. I’ve been through two rehabs, 2014, 2015. My disease… The disease of alcoholism and drug addiction keeps progressing even while you’re sober and clean. So, now it’s even… It got even worse than it was back when I was 31. I went to a great rehabilitation center called Haze when I was 32, and I only spent 30 days there, and I got it. Well, I didn’t get it, you never get this, but I understood what I had to do.

Let me clarify that. I took all suggestions, and I applied them in my life on a daily basis for 21 years, but once I started putting other things in front of that program and when I was on this Hep C treatment, I had all these side effects, crazy side effects. My teeth rotted out, I got freaking rashes all over my face, cramps, and it fucking made me feel like I had the flu for 11 months, my fucking hair fell out, all kinds of crazy shit, but I couldn’t sleep. That was the worst part. So, they put me on this Ambien, I don’t think they knew how dangerous that drug is and it lit me up. I mean, I knew I was high. I was going to meetings; I used to learn sitting in the back going, “Fuck, I relapsed.” So, then I… This is the disease talking to me going, “Hey man, you can’t go back and say you relapsed on Ambien. Let’s do this right and go get some heroin, some cocaine, and some marijuana and fucking go off to the races.” And, then when my wife found out and I went to rehab… She had a little bit of money we had left, and then I hadn’t been drinking, and I’m not minimizing or maximizing, that’s just a fact that once she gave me $30, $20 a week, I was off to the liquor store and I became fall-down drunk within six months. That’s how I noticed the disease had gotten worse, blackouts, shakes, DTs, all kinds of craziness. I can see the progress on of the drug use, how bad it got. I honestly can tell you that it got bad. It was nightmarish.

So, I’m grateful to be sober and clean, and I’ve got… I’m not even counting the days, but I’ve been in the rehab, but it will be about like two months in a couple of weeks or something. So, I’ve just been there since the middle of April, and now in a couple of weeks, I’m going to go to a recovery house. And, I’m very grateful to the guy that runs this place. Danny is such a great man, and he’s helped so many people. My cousin Larry has been helping me a lot. He’s very good man. He’s a great guitar player too, and he’s building amplifiers now, and a wonderful pre-amp that I used at on shows in the US. We just couldn’t get it over here. It kicks ass. But, yeah. The band, I’m grateful. I was grateful… I thought about it when I was playing today like, “Fuck, I mean, I’m here playing with this band, and I’m not dead, and I’m not high, and I’m not drunk, and these guys let me come over here to play.” I love those guys in the band, they’ve been my brothers, all of them and Brian’s been a big help, because he’s in the program as well, and yeah… So, I just want to get my shit together once and for all on a daily basis. Today is what, Thursday?… Friday. Today is Friday, and I don’t drink or do drugs on Friday and tomorrow… That’s what Danny always says. Don’t look at the big picture because when Saturday comes you go, “I don’t drink or do drugs on Saturday.” “Laughs” But, I need to go now. I hope that this interview gave you some insight?”

You can read the rest if the interview with Younkins at Metal-Rules.