Matt G – Clovis CA

Matt G – Clovis CA

Curious about how others manage their sobriety journey? This talk from the MD Tapes Archive Library shares Matt Green’s raw, funny and brutally honest account of life as a “grateful alcoholic” with 22 years of sobriety. Recorded at the 23rd West Central Indiana Conference, Matt takes listeners through a lifetime of chaos: drinking Thunderbird wine in primary school, running with the Hells Angels, multiple marriages, endless jails and psychiatric units, and a long history of violence and suicide attempts.

He doesn’t glamorise any of it; he uses it to show how far alcohol and drugs drove him, and how completely powerless he felt. As he puts it, “If God’s not done with you, you’re not going to die.

I mean, I’m living proof of that.” You’ll hear how a shotgun suicide attempt left him blind, held together with metal and scar tissue, and strapped to a hospital bed while AA members read the Big Book to him and played speaker tapes around the clock. Even then, he went back out.

What finally changed was a desperate, sweary prayer on his knees and a decision to do “whatever you and Alcoholics Anonymous want me to do” – starting with picking up cigarette butts as a blind man and taking AA into jails and prisons. This recording is especially powerful for anyone who thinks they’re “too far gone”, or who’s sober but miserable and wondering why meetings alone aren’t enough.

Matt talks about sponsorship, daily service, step work and staying active in recovery through bereavement, bankruptcy, serious health problems and ongoing consequences of the past. If you need proof that service, honesty and a higher power can hold you together when life falls apart, this one might be worth your time – what part of Matt’s story do you relate to most?