EPISODE 111326EPISODE 111326
Clean and Sober Radio
Rock guitarist Ricky Byrd talks about his years with Joan Jett, heavy substance use on the road and building nearly four decades of recovery. He also shares how he now writes recovery-focused rock songs and brings them into treatment centres to support people getting clean.
56:00•14 Nov 2026
Rock & Roll, Relapse Traps and Recovery Songs with Ricky Byrd
Episode Overview
- Long-term recovery can sit alongside a high-profile music career, but it means changing how you handle hospitals, pain and everyday stress.
- The comedown from massive crowds to lonely hotel rooms can feed addiction, and recognising that emotional crash is key to staying sober.
- A strong family history of alcoholism is a warning sign, yet it does not prevent someone from building decades of recovery.
- Sobriety brings simple freedoms, like going through airport security without fear, that can feel like major wins.
- Sharing honest songs about addiction and recovery in treatment settings can reach people in a way plain talk sometimes cannot.
“Out of all the things I do now, the thing that gives me the most joy is sitting in front of clients in a treatment facility and playing these songs.”
Get ready to be moved by real-life accounts of recovery, rock ‘n’ roll and the odd hernia surgery story. Clean and Sober Radio brings together host Gary Hendler, co-host Mark Sigmund and legendary guitarist Ricky Byrd for a conversation that swings from stadium stages to treatment centres.
Ricky, best known for his years with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, talks frankly about life on the road, late-night drug use and that eerie shift from playing to tens of thousands of people to sitting alone in a hotel room. He’s open about his history: a family line of alcoholism, starting cannabis at 13, and years of getting "completely drunk and high on everything" after shows.
You’ll also hear how long-term recovery has changed everything for him. Clean since 1987, he jokes about surgery being a “free high,” then immediately grounds it in recovery reality: going to doctors, taking only Tylenol after major surgery, and accepting that "it takes as long as it takes" to heal. There’s plenty of humour too, from airport security memories to childhood guitars, but it all loops back to sobriety and responsibility. The heart of the episode is Ricky’s current mission.
As he explains, he plays songs like "Broken Is a Place" and watches people in early recovery connect deeply with the lyrics: "Out of all the things I do now… the thing that gives me the most joy is sitting in front of clients in a treatment facility and playing these songs." If you’re sober, sober-curious, or supporting someone in addiction, this mix of rock history, honesty and recovery service work might be just the thing to keep you going one more day.
He writes and performs rock songs about addiction and recovery, visiting treatment facilities to run recovery music groups. What part of Ricky’s story sounds most like your own?
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