Langhorne Slim Wanted to Flee. Then He Became a Father.

Langhorne Slim Wanted to Flee. Then He Became a Father.

What drives someone to seek a life without alcohol, even while chasing big creative dreams? This conversation between host A.J. Daulerio and singer-songwriter Langhorne Slim sits right in that tension – part confession, part comedy, part gut-punch.

You’ll hear Langhorne talk about growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where “home was always the hardest part for me,” and how resentment towards his old town and school slowly softened into a kind of reluctant compassion for the teachers and systems that “just didn’t have room” for kids like him. For anyone who’s still angry at where they came from, this hits close to home. The heart of the episode is recovery and what happens after the substances go.

Langhorne explains getting sober from alcohol on his 33rd birthday, then slipping back into pills and stimulants years later, spending days walking through Skid Row and losing his connection to music: “I didn’t write shit… by far the longest period I’ve ever gone without.” A short stay in treatment, 90 meetings in 90 days, and a second attempt at sobriety eventually stick. Fatherhood becomes the big plot twist.

Langhorne always wanted “to be a musician and a dad someday” and became a father in his forties. He talks frankly about the urge to flee when home feels uncomfortable, and the spiritual shock of staying put: learning “the expansiveness of love if you stay” and the “adventure in being still.” A.J. shares his own story of early sobriety, surprise fatherhood, and the work it takes to be “a good dad” without repeating his own father’s silence and rage.

Creative listeners get plenty too – from licensing songs to fund records to forming a band with members of Greta Van Fleet and building a new album out of loud, living-room jams. If you’ve ever wondered whether recovery, art, and parenting can actually fit together, this episode might give you a lot to sit with – and maybe a laugh or two along the way.