FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH Bassist CHRIS KAEL Celebrates Two Years Of Sobriety

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FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH bassist Chris Kael celebrated the second anniversary of his getting sober on February 3. Kael posted a photo of his AA sobriety medallion, which has the words "To thine own self be true" and "unity, service and recovery" engraved around the roman numeral for 2. He wrote: "I post this not as a pat on the back for myself. Rather, this is for you. To those who have less time than my two years - keep putting one foot in front of the other. We share the same path. And to those of you who have more sobriety time than I do - thank you for showing me the rewards that come with sobriety. We share the same path. And, for those of you who may be thinking of getting sober - We ALL start with one day. No better day than today to start with yours. There's plenty more room on this path to share. #GratitudeAsFuck #Surrender #Humility #TwoYears #Sober #SoberAsFuck #SoberthdayAsFuck #SFG" Kael spoke about his decision to get sober in a new interview with Metalshop TV. He explained (see video below): "If I had not stopped on February the 3rd [of 2018], I would not be here today. Actually, I had a conversation with my girlfriend at about 18 months, and we were talking about what would life be like just for us — between her and I — if I had continued drinking and doing drugs. And I was telling her, 'You would be different because you would be much more fucked up than you are now…' She doesn't really get fucked up — she's a normal person, which kills me, because she's able to do it and stop; I can't. And she always tried to keep up with me all the time. She's a 110-pound young lady and I'm a 225-pound — right now, I think — dude, and she would keep up drink for drink for drink. I also had cocaine propelling me as well, so she tried to keep up with a dude twice her size also on blow. And it was not working. So I said that she would be different in that aspect. And then I thought about it for a second. And this was at 18 months sober. And I was, like, 'Man, I really think I would be dead.' And it hit me. I was, like, 18 months, I would be dead. That is absolutely crazy to me." He continued: "The place that I'm in now, with the outlook I have on life and the perspective and all the work that I've done to correct some of the things I had inside that needed to worked on that I was covering up with drugs and alcohol… Drugs and alcohol weren't the [only] problem; there was definitely some inside stuff that I needed to deal with. But to think that I was that close to death because I couldn't stop drinking, I couldn't stop doing blow, it was a really sobering thought — in sobriety, at that point — that I was that close to dying. So thank God that last moment hit me, and I had that moment of clarity to call my buddy and have him drive me to rehab. Had I not had that split-second decision to text him to get him to take me to rehab, I would not be here on this camera today." Back in April 2018, Kael told the KLAQ radio station that he was "going through about an eight-ball of cocaine a week" at the height of his addiction. "That got to be the biggest problem for me," he revealed. "That and depression, the two things, were not good. I didn't realize it until I got into rehab that I was self-medicating with cocaine to get my dopamine levels up to fight the depression. I never even thought about that. And then when you come off it, you crash hard." Kael first revealed his battle with addiction in a series of tweets, saying that his then-wife played a "major role" in helping him get clean. "Had she not busted me trying to restock after burning through $1300 in blow in two days in late January [2018], I truly believe that I would not be here today," he wrote. FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH's eighth album, "F8", will be released on February 28 via Better Noise Music.