John Taylor is a qualified addictions and family counsellor, the author of the bestselling book Alcohol Stole My Mum, and 19 years sober. He joins Sober Dave on One for the Road for a quietly devastating conversation about what it actually feels like to grow up loving an alcoholic.

John was the special one. The clever boy who sang Leo Sayer to his mum at bedtime. By eight he was trying to sober her up before his dad got home. By ten he was writing his dad a letter begging to be rescued from a Scottish house with three drinking adults. By his 30s he was in rehab himself, refusing to say the word alcoholic because he didn't want to be like his mum.

Inside: the inciting incident at eight, three generations of alcoholism, watching his mum drink herself to death, and the moment he chose his daughters.

Quitting drinking, child of an alcoholic, NACOA, family recovery, generational addiction.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for John.

https://alcoholstolemymum.co.uk/

https://www.instagram.com/alcoholstolemymum/

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lou Hamilton was twenty-three when she watched the Lockerbie air disaster fall from the sky onto the village where she had just moved. She did not lose anyone. She was not injured. So she told herself she did not have the right to feel traumatized, and she got on with it for two decades.

This is the recovery story of an artist, author and podcast host who finally quit drinking at fifty, after half a bottle of wine a night had been masking her unprocessed PTSD for years. Lou tells Sober Dave about Lockerbie, the buried trauma she only recognized while making a documentary about war veterans, and the New Year's Day she just decided to stop.

You'll hear about: the night Lockerbie came out of the sky; how alcohol numbs trauma without you knowing; gray area drinking and why it is harder to quit than you think; menopause and alcohol; and the creative life that opened up on the other side.

If you have ever wondered whether your drinking is masking something, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Lou.

www.bravenewgirlmedia.com

https://www.instagram.com/brave_newgirl/

https://amzn.eu/d/0TYaHdI

www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Franxy was the tour manager of Coldplay when Chris pulled him aside and told him his drinking was out of control. He kept drinking for another year. By then he had been sneaking gin he hated down to the kitchen in the middle of the night, refilling the bottle with water, and walking the dog as cover to get to the pub.

This is the recovery story of a multi-award-winning tour manager who has worked with Depeche Mode, Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Roger Waters. Franxy tells Sober Dave about eighteen years touring at the heart of the Ecstasy era, the manager who told him he was "just a heavy drinker," and the morning he finally quit drinking.

You'll hear about: drinking on tour as the norm; how the industry hides its problems; getting fired from Coldplay; nine years sober at the back of a Roger Waters stadium tour; and how he co-founded the charity Music Support to help others.

If you've ever told yourself your drinking is just part of the job, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Franksy.

https://www.instagram.com/musicsupport_uk/

https://www.facebook.com/MusicSupportCharity/

https://twitter.com/Musicsupport_uk

 https://www.linkedin.com/company/music-supporthttps://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate Taylor pulled out her phone on December 20, 2021, two bottles of wine deep, and recorded herself sobbing for thirty minutes. She begged herself to stop drinking. The next morning she watched it back, felt sick, and quit. She has not had a drink since.

This is the recovery story of a writer and mother of two who finally quit drinking after twenty years on the wheel. Kate tells Sober Dave about growing up in Hampstead Garden Suburb with Roald Dahl at the lunch table, her mother telling her she was a "changeling" at six, the drinking that started at fourteen, and the night she finally turned the camera on herself.

You'll hear about: how mum wine culture sneaks up on working mothers; gray area drinking; the dangerous nights she only just survived; the 64-day attempt that ended with a barbecue glass of wine; and the simple recording trick that finally broke the cycle.

If you've ever woken up with shame, guilt, and regret, this one's for you.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Kate.

https://www.instagram.com/walking_the_straight_line/

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One glass of wine. That's all it took. By 3 a.m. Louise Morgan would be wide awake, heart racing, the anxiety she'd taken medication to manage now back in full force.

For five years she lived like that. Not a daily drinker. Not someone hiding bottles. Just a mum and a working professional who'd have one glass on a Tuesday and pay for it for the rest of the week.

This bonus episode of One for the Road is for anyone who just finished Sober October and isn't sure what comes next. Louise tells Sober Dave how she went from grey area drinker to 150 days sober without ever hitting rock bottom. She talks about the small habits she stacked, the journal she kept on a beach in Cornwall, and why being honest about her anxiety was easier than calling it a health kick.

If you've ever thought you don't drink enough to count, listen to this one.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Louise.

www.tweaklife.co.uk

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He was the funny one. The life and soul. The manager who could run a packed Notting Hill restaurant on four hours sleep and a barman's breakfast Bloody Mary.

Paul Drayton was a functioning alcoholic for years before he ever named it. From chocolate liqueurs at his grandparents' house to dirty martinis after work to taking glugs of vodka out of the freezer at his own dinner party. He's been through multiple rehabs, multiple medical detoxes, multiple promises to himself and to the people who loved him.

This week on One for the Road, Paul sits down with Sober Dave and tells the whole story. Drama school with Tom Hardy and Russell Brand. The years of restaurants and binge drinking that looked like fun from the outside. The 2015 collapse. The rehabs that worked for months and then didn't. The rock bottom he can't fully talk about yet for legal reasons. And the last drink, which he had in a service station toilet on the way to his most recent treatment.

A raw, funny, surprisingly tender conversation between two men who've been there, lived it, and made it out.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Paul.

https://www.instagram.com/pauldrayton1/

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emma Gannon is a Sunday Times bestselling author, novelist, and host of Control Alt Delete. She also wrote the Guardian piece that lit up the sober curious conversation: I knew I didn't have a drinking problem, but I had a problem with drinking.

She talks Dave through it. Growing up around the party-couple normality of wine every night. Uni and PR culture and pretending to enjoy it. Then lockdown, when wine on a Friday became wine on a Tuesday became wine every night. Her husband noticing before she did.

And the bit most sobriety conversations miss. Drinking to numb the good days. The wine on book launch week. The wine when life is actually going well.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Emma.

https://www.instagram.com/emmagannonuk/

https://thehyphen.substack.com/

https://www.emmagannon.co.uk/about-emma-gannon

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Lewis Harrington was a professional golfer. He was also a drinker, from 16. Two drink driving convictions by 21. A career that should have been about consistency and discipline, dismantled quietly by Friday nights, away trips, and the championed hangover.

In January 2019 he stopped. Same week Sober Dave did. They've never sat down one-on-one until now.

Lewis takes Dave through the moment in a curry house in Spain when a mate said I can't do this anymore. The 90 days that became four years. The two years of grinding work that came after. The line that anchors him now: you can't deliver a message and live the opposite.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Louis.

https://www.instagram.com/the_sharing_experience

https://www.linkedin.com/in/louis-harrington-325875b9/

https://www.tiktok.com/@the_sharing_experience

www.thesharingexperience.com

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quint Bower is eight years sober. He runs a video production and animation company with offices in London, the Netherlands, New York and Los Angeles. His father was Bruce Bower, the Canadian actor in Fawlty Towers, Full Metal Jacket, Octopussy and Empire Strikes Back. He was also a raging alcoholic who lay bedridden for much of Quint's childhood and only sobered up through AA when Quint was seven.

Quint takes Dave through it. Growing up in Kew with a house his dad bought from three commercials in the early sixties, between long stretches of being drunk. The fur coat, no knickers existence of looking middle class on the outside while everything inside was tumultuous. Drinking his first beers at 15 after martial arts training, the immediate sense of ease, the feeling of finally being hail fellow well met. The film-extra years in the eighties on the big Thatcher-era movies, Batman, Henry V, Full Metal Jacket. Two bottles of wine and a couple of pints a day, every day, from 18 onwards. Building a business through the financial crash. Writing a psychology MA thesis on addiction while drinking red wine at his desk. Trying to keep an entire startup running on alcohol as a coolant.

He talks honestly about the moments he is not proud of, including being drunk during his wife's labour and being woken by the midwife in time to cut the cord. The walk in Richmond Park where something finally said enough. The AA meeting under the arches at Richmond Bridge that he still recommends. The fitness and the studying that filled the space. And the animations he now makes on addiction, anxiety, anger and depression, used by teachers in classrooms, that grew directly out of getting sober.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links are attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on 

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Quint.

https://www.instagram.com/quintboa/

https://www.instagram.com/shootyou/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/videoandanimationproductionlondon/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/shootyoultd/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start-up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages, and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ 

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When Dax wrote Dear Alcohol, he was still drinking every single day. Tequila in the morning before 500 push-ups. A few sips before every music video, every interview, every social post, every show. He had been doing it for years.

Then the song dropped, hit 28 million views, and changed everything.

This week on One for the Road, Sober Dave talks to Dax, the Ottawa-born rapper behind Dear God and Dear Alcohol. Dax shares the full story. The cocooned basketball years from 11 to 17 where he shunned every party. The first Heineken in his basement before his first ever party. The "second superpower" feeling that drinking gave him. The Tech N9ne tour with shows every night and drinks before every one. The two and a half years where he could not remember the last time he had gone two days without alcohol. The exact steps he took to stop, including changing every routine alcohol was attached to.

If you drink every day, drink for confidence, or have been quietly trying to quit drinking on your own, this conversation will land.

This episode of One For The Road is sponsored by https://tweaklife.co.uk/ Further information and links attached below.

If you want to connect with me via Instagram, you can find me on the instahandle @Soberdave https://www.instagram.com/soberdave/

or via my website https://davidwilsoncoaching.com/

Provided below are links for services offering additional help and advice and for Dax.

Instagram @thatsdax

https://alcoholchange.org.uk/

https://www.drinkaware.co.uk/advice/alcohol-support-services

https://nacoa.org.uk/

Show producer- Daniella Attanasio-Martinez

Instagram - @TheDaniellaMartinez

This season's podcast is sponsored by a great new start up called Tweak Life. They have built a well-being hub full of useful information and tweaks that can help you improve your mental and physical health and finances. There is a wide range of topics covered which includes mindfulness, eating well, exercise. managing addictions, improving finances, mortgages and even menopause.

This is free to use, just go to https://tweaklife.co.uk/ for more information.

https://www.instagram.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.facebook.com/tweaklifeuk

https://www.linkedin.com/company/tweaklifeuk/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@soberdaveonefortheroad

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.