MUSE BASSIST: ALCOHOL ALMOST KILLED ME! IT KILLED MY DAD!

Chris Wolstenholm, basssist for the bad ass British rock band Muse, reveals that his battle with alcoholism almost took his life. 

The bassist's drinking problem had gotten so out of control by the time Muse came to record their 2009 album 'The Resistance' that his best buds and bandmates Matt Bellamy and Dom Howard were often left to work on their music alone. 

Discussing the extent of his problem, Wolstenholme told NME: "Drinking all day every day is pretty bad. It's when you start getting to that point where you realize you can't function without it, where you wake up in the morning shaking and the first thing you do is go to the fridge and down a bottle of wine. That's how bad it was. I was incredibly unhealthy, overweight, a mess." Fat, unhealthy and a hot mess?! EW!

As well as affecting him physically, Wolstenholme also admitted that the drug had got to him "psychologically". He recalled: "You've got anxiety 24 hours a day, you feel your fucking life's about to end, you're very scared but you don't know what you're scared of."

You know that feeling after a long binge, where you think nobody loves you and you suck?! Imagine that times a thousand! Yep its pretty sad and miserable. 

Because he had previously witnessed first-hand the potentially tragic consequences of alcohol abuse, Wolstenholme was able to spot how severe his own problem had become. 


He explained: "There was only two ways to go: die in a few years or stop. The same happened to my dad, he was 40 when he died. I'd just turned 30 and it was that realization that if I go the same way I could be dead in ten years. Ten years is not a long time."



Wolstenholme managed to beat his addiction after sessions with a cognitive behavioural therapist and wrote and sang two songs on the new Muse album - 'Save Me' and 'Liquid State' - about his battle with alcohol.

Discussing the songs' origins, Wolstenholme explained: "Both of those lyrics were written at that time when I'd stopped drinking. 'Liquid State' was written about the person you become when you're intoxicated and how the two of them are having this fight inside of you and it tears you apart. 'Save Me' was about having the family, the wife and kids and, despite all that crap that I've put them through, at the end of it you realize they're still there and they're the ones who pulled you through.

"Well done Chris!!! Keep up the power moves!