Larry A. AA Male

Larry A. AA Male

What remarkable journeys have people faced head-on against addiction? Larry A, a self-described "grateful recovering alcoholic" from Louisville, Kentucky, takes the crowd on a raw, funny and sometimes heartbreaking ride through decades of drinking, chaos and, eventually, sobriety.

Telling his story with stand-up-comic timing, Larry talks about growing up in a violent, booze-soaked neighbourhood where "there was beer joints on every corner" and where he swore he’d never be like his alcoholic father and brothers – then became exactly that man.

From getting drunk at 12 on Library Hill, to repeated arrests, to a ten-year sentence in the Kentucky state reformatory, he keeps nothing back and isn’t shy about laughing at his own madness, like the day he stole a fire engine just to impress his mates. Yet the heart of this session is the climb out of that pit.

Larry recalls early AA meetings in prison he "didn’t hear", the personnel director who first called him an alcoholic, and the detox ward where he promised, strapped to a gurney, that he’d "do something" about his drinking – then stopped for a six-pack on the way home. That bleak honesty makes his later sobriety feel hard-won and very real.

He talks about treatment, finding a home group, staying close to meetings, slowly working the steps, and the long, messy process of rebuilding family relationships – including forgiving his father and watching his own son battle the same illness. Al-Anon, sponsorship, and simple AA suggestions all show up as lifelines rather than magic fixes.

If you’re looking for straight-talking recovery with plenty of gallows humour and a big dose of hope, Larry’s story might be exactly what you need today – whose hand in your life could be waiting for that same kind of change?