Michael Todd of Coheed and Cambria — Robbing Pharmacies, Heroin, Oxy's, Kicked out of band, Suicide, Shame & Radical Acceptance - Dopey Replay!Michael Todd of Coheed and Cambria — Robbing Pharmacies, Heroin, Oxy's, Kicked out of band, Suicide, Shame & Radical Acceptance - Dopey Replay!
Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction
Timestamps 00:00 Dopey intro 01:09 Dave opens with gratitude, sobriety, Dopey Nation, and the team behind the show 03:10 Vacation scramble, House of the Dragon, and crying over the Knicks finals mini movie 04:30 Dave talks revenge, resentment, recovery, and praying for people he resents 06:18 Scottish Dopey listener leaves a voicemail about coming off opiates 07:38 Buying a house, snorting heroin, and trying to get ready for move-in day 09:53 Coke, champagne, Ritalin, moving furniture, and crashing the moving van 12:23 Dave responds to the Scottish listener and introduces Michael Todd 14:43 Josh Eppard, Coheed and Cambria, DopeyCon rap dreams, and old Podbean comments 16:00 Michael Todd joins Dopey 20:49 Michael’s addiction begins with prescription pills on tour 24:29 Kicking pills without knowing he was dope sick 26:19 OxyContin enters the picture and becomes recreational 28:37 Touring, pain, free time, and addiction slowly taking over 30:48 Leaving Coheed, blowing through money, shooting coke and dope 33:12 Heroin, needles, detox, and early recovery 35:24 Rejoining the band clean and dealing with fame 37:46 Selling out big rooms while addiction shadows the dream 40:06 The best years of Coheed and the guilt of losing it 42:12 Lou Reed, the “big decision,” and becoming the rock-and-roll junkie 46:17 Shooting coke, bell ringers, shame, and performance 48:15 Soundgarden tour, music idols, and life trouble 50:35 Recovery, relapses, meetings, and having a sober minder on tour 54:58 Xanax blackout, car crash, and county jail in California 57:25 Jail violence, getting “pretzeled up,” and fear inside 59:49 Moving heroin from New York to California in Gobstopper boxes 01:02:10 Massachusetts, pain, the hospital, and the pharmacy robbery 01:04:33 Michael robs the pharmacy, gets caught, and loses the band 01:07:15 Court, house arrest, probation, restitution, and cancer 01:09:37 Relapse after surgery and unfinished legal consequences 01:12:02 Losing the dream, shame, Suboxone, and survival 01:14:22 Dave and Michael talk shame, recovery, and getting through it 01:16:43 Michael’s suicide attempt and overdose 01:18:31 Recovery meetings, power dynamics, and disillusionment 01:20:51 Rehab as summer camp, early morning meetings, and Dopey Zooms 01:23:12 Feeling like a child, fear, work, school, and finding purpose 01:25:29 Running into Claudio, drinking after, and unresolved grief over the band 01:27:25 Dave and Michael connect over suicidal using and surviving 01:29:18 Dave closes with radical gratitude 01:30:35 “So Good So Bad” outro song
1:36:55•9 Jul 2026
Rockstar Ruin, Robberies and Radical Gratitude: Michael Todd on Dopey
Episode Overview
- Resentment and revenge can dominate an addict’s thinking, so Dave talks about praying for people he resents to loosen their hold on him.
- Michael shows how prescribed painkillers for real injuries can quietly drift into recreational use, street pills and eventually heroin.
- Success and addiction can exist side by side; Michael describes playing huge shows while secretly chasing pills and later heroin just to function.
- Shame and regret after crime, jail and losing a dream career are intense, but Michael stresses that staying clean and building a new life is still possible.
- Both Dave and Michael highlight that recovery is rarely linear; relapse, medication like Suboxone and starting again can all be part of staying alive.
“You get through it by going through it. Everything passes. Everything either gets better or it just fucking passes.”
Curious about how others manage their sobriety while carrying a heavy past? This replay from Dopey drops you straight into the messy, funny and heartbreaking reality of addiction with former Coheed and Cambria bassist Michael Todd. The episode opens with Dave reflecting on gratitude, resentment and revenge, admitting how easily his head fills with “negative thoughts” and how badly addicts can “love revenge”.
He talks about praying for people he resents, and shares a wild voicemail from a Scottish listener who tried to move house while snorting heroin, mixing coke, champagne and Ritalin, and ending up in a 40mph van crash on one of the busiest streets in his city. Then comes the main story: Michael Todd’s rise and fall.
He talks about joining Coheed young, grinding in a van, and how painkillers moved from tour necessity to full-blown addiction: “I didn’t even know that Vicodin and Oxy was opiates or heroin… at 26 years old, I didn’t know that I was fucking dope sick.” He describes years of scripts, street pills, then heroin and the needle, eventually blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars and isolating with coke and dope.
Michael walks through the infamous pharmacy robbery, his time in county jail, and the shame and grief of being kicked out of the band while it carried on without him. He also talks about failed recovery attempts, a suicide attempt, and now being on Suboxone and trying to build a new life, including going back to college. For anyone who feels they’ve ruined everything, his line hits hard: “You get through it by going through it.
Everything passes.” If you’re wrestling with shame, relapse or the fear that your best days are behind you, this raw, darkly funny conversation might be exactly what you need today.
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