SoberNotMature - Episode 226 (Lord Ashley - Now Welcome In Any Fine Establishment)

00:00:02.01
Bill
All right, everyone, welcome once again to another episode of Sober Not Mature.

00:00:03.11
Lord A phipps-warren
Oh.

00:00:08.33
Bill
And we do have a guest tonight.

00:00:08.89
Lord A phipps-warren
we do have a guest tonight we actually have a couple of stories

00:00:09.69
Bill
We actually have a couple of firsts tonight, Mike. And I know the one you've got to figure out because we talked about a little bit.

00:00:12.18
Lord A phipps-warren
one that we have figured out she thoughts about a little bit

00:00:12.37
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:00:14.88
Bill
We're talking to somebody like across this major sea, which we which we've never done before.

00:00:15.03
Lord A phipps-warren
<unk>re talking to somebody like across this nature which mean the issues ever done before so

00:00:18.81
Mike
Ah.

00:00:20.52
Bill
So you are the first person that we've talked to from overseas.

00:00:21.43
Lord A phipps-warren
one of the first folks that we brought you from overseas tonight one no number two is we never talk to anyone to think if i'm not to take

00:00:23.28
Bill
So that's number one. um Number two is we've never talked to anyone because if I'm not mistaken, it's Saturday.

00:00:29.37
Lord A phipps-warren
saturday right now it's for eight

00:00:29.92
Bill
We're there right now, right?

00:00:33.46
Lord A phipps-warren
It's coming up to Saturday morning. So it's 5 to midnight on Friday night.

00:00:36.89
Bill
So,

00:00:40.63
Mike
ah

00:00:40.92
Bill
oh, okay.

00:00:41.29
Lord A phipps-warren
okay.

00:00:41.71
Bill
Yeah. So literally, yeah, we we started a couple of minutes early.

00:00:41.95
Lord A phipps-warren
literally, we started minutes early. So, yeah, that's what thinking.

00:00:44.39
Bill
So yeah, that's what I'm thinking.

00:00:45.06
Lord A phipps-warren
we've never talked to anyone in the future before.

00:00:45.47
Bill
I'm like, we've never, we've never talked to anyone in the future before. So this kind of trippy, you know?

00:00:48.95
Mike
Right.

00:00:49.32
Lord A phipps-warren
you get to more about how the future is going and stuff like that.

00:00:50.23
Bill
So you, you get to let us know a little bit how the future is going and stuff like that.

00:00:53.50
Lord A phipps-warren
And we're going to get into your name and everything like that.

00:00:54.07
Bill
And and we're going to get into your name and everything like that too.

00:00:55.82
Lord A phipps-warren
think you have more than anyone that you've ever talked to also.

00:00:56.79
Bill
I think you have more names than anyone that we've ever talked to also, but I want to hear about all of it.

00:00:58.64
Lord A phipps-warren
But I want to know.

00:01:01.89
Bill
Yeah.

00:01:01.98
Mike
he

00:01:02.26
Lord A phipps-warren
I do. i have a very long name and I have an unusual name as well.

00:01:04.50
Bill
No, and that's, and it's cool. And I mean, that's going to be, I'm sure that's going to be part of the story, but so do, do me a favor and do us a favor. Take literally like one minute and just kind of do a quick intro, who you are, um where you are, where you're from, just a very brief one to two minute intro, and then we'll get into everything. Okay.

00:01:21.32
Lord A phipps-warren
Absolutely. So um my name is Mr. Lord Ashley David Clifford Phipps Warren. And I, if you can remember all that,

00:01:31.98
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm from the UK, I live in a small seaside town called Torquay in Devon, right at the bottom of South Devon. um And yeah, i've um i've had ah i've had ah I've had a bit of a journey. um i I don't really know where to begin. um it's i mean, it's a lovely place where I live.

00:01:54.42
Lord A phipps-warren
um You know, it's lovely in the summer, it's very, very busy. We got a lot of holiday makers here in the summertime. um In the winter, it's very quiet.

00:02:06.30
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, I grew up here. This is my hometown. I've lived here my my entire life through the good, the bad and the ugly. um And I still live here now. I still live in Torquay now.

00:02:18.02
Lord A phipps-warren
So um it is my hometown. um

00:02:20.69
Bill
OK.

00:02:21.40
Lord A phipps-warren
And yeah, i'm i'm I'm an author. I'm a alcohol drug and alcohol recovery specialist now. um And I'm also a certified tarot practitioner.

00:02:31.94
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm very, very big in on spirituality, and I do believe that spirituality saved my life, um which is part of the reason why I started my sobriety journey in the first place.

00:02:39.29
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:02:44.53
Lord A phipps-warren
But we'll get into that later. I had had some things happen to me that I was very lucky to get through, and it just changed everything. So I'm a very, very spiritual man.

00:02:54.59
Lord A phipps-warren
I do a lot tarot readings and things like this, and um And I help people with ah with their sobriety as well, and like people that are struggling with drug and alcohol addiction and things like this. i've kind of um I've done an awful lot for myself in the past two years since I've been sober.

00:03:13.82
Lord A phipps-warren
and And it's all good. It's all good things.

00:03:16.18
Mike
Yeah.

00:03:17.14
Lord A phipps-warren
So yeah, that that's basically just a little bit about me um and and who I am and where I'm from. Can you remember my full name, though?

00:03:25.85
Mike
here

00:03:26.01
Bill
yeah

00:03:26.71
Mike
Right. It's Ashley.

00:03:30.23
Lord A phipps-warren
Ashley is my middle name.

00:03:31.61
Mike
Oh.

00:03:32.72
Lord A phipps-warren
ashley My actual name is Lord. My first name is Lord.

00:03:35.96
Mike
Ah. Okay. i would Yeah, right.

00:03:37.37
Bill
Oh, is it really? Okay.

00:03:38.68
Mike
I wasn't sure if it was a title or or yet that's your name. Right.

00:03:41.91
Lord A phipps-warren
that That is my first name. I know it's very, very strange. I don't know what my parents were thinking. and When I was growing up, I just told everybody my name was Ashley.

00:03:52.68
Lord A phipps-warren
I used my middle name.

00:03:53.11
Mike
Right.

00:03:54.23
Lord A phipps-warren
<unk>ve yeah I've got three middle names to choose from. So it was Ashley, day ashley David, or Clifford, and I thought Ashley was the the best pick of the bunch.

00:03:56.76
Mike
Sure.

00:04:01.40
Bill
ha

00:04:01.87
Mike
Gotcha.

00:04:02.65
Lord A phipps-warren
But my actual name is Lord.

00:04:04.92
Mike
ah Nice.

00:04:06.14
Bill
Well, you know what?

00:04:06.31
Mike
It's like, like,

00:04:06.74
Bill
mike spike's first Mike's first name is a letter, so his first name is just J.

00:04:08.18
Lord A phipps-warren
Excuse me.

00:04:10.42
Bill
So a kid that it's it's a...

00:04:10.87
Mike
Yes. Yes.

00:04:11.86
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

00:04:12.62
Mike
My full name is J.

00:04:12.83
Lord A phipps-warren
That's interesting.

00:04:13.70
Mike
Michael Harris. Just the initial.

00:04:15.43
Bill
Yeah.

00:04:17.02
Mike
Yeah. So i yeah like yeah, I understand completely.

00:04:17.35
Bill
Yeah.

00:04:19.46
Mike
Right. And it's, you know, it's like a Prince ah Rogers Nelson. Yeah. You know, I get it. It's not actually a title. It's your name. Cool.

00:04:29.48
Mike
Well,

00:04:29.53
Lord A phipps-warren
It is.

00:04:31.16
Bill
Yeah, very cool.

00:04:32.42
Lord A phipps-warren
Mr. Lord, it's it's got a bit of a ring to it, but it is very, very bizarre. Mr. Lord. i don't think i have I don't think I have ever, in all my years, met anybody else called Mr. Lord.

00:04:43.95
Mike
No.

00:04:44.26
Lord A phipps-warren
I

00:04:44.38
Bill
No, i don't I don't think so either.

00:04:44.80
Lord A phipps-warren
Other you know, the keyboard player who's beautiful.

00:04:44.82
Mike
I mean, well, ah other than, you know, the keyboard player for Deep Purple, it's John Lord, but that doesn't count.

00:04:49.14
Bill
ah

00:04:52.68
Lord A phipps-warren
I've never heard of him, so in my world, yeah.

00:04:54.71
Mike
Ah, okay.

00:04:57.94
Bill
Well, at least least we know we don't have to we don't to spend any time on music tonight, right?

00:05:01.53
Mike
a

00:05:01.98
Lord A phipps-warren
No, and you don't have to bow down when you talk to me or anything like that, because I'm not um i'm not actually a lord.

00:05:05.56
Mike
All right.

00:05:05.74
Bill
Well, that's, that's, that's, well, you know, it's funny though, is that, and I popped, I was going to ask you cause I popped into, um, I don't know i ran across a, uh, either might, might've been something on social media.

00:05:15.79
Bill
There was a gentleman that said that, um, or you had said that you go by Ash every once in a while. So what do you prefer people to call you? Um, out of, out of all that, we'll call you whatever you want.

00:05:25.94
Lord A phipps-warren
um To be honest, most people just call me Ash or Ashley. Ash is absolutely fine. and You know, everybody just calls me Ash.

00:05:30.78
Bill
Okay. Okay.

00:05:33.94
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it's only really the doctors or the police that call me Lord. Yes, yeah.

00:05:37.90
Mike
Ha ha ha ha ha.

00:05:38.74
Bill
ha Yeah, you know, ah anytime somebody calls in, I go by Bill, but my my legal name is William. If I get called William, either it's somebody that doesn't know me or I'm in trouble, you know, or it could be under some circumstance.

00:05:48.41
Lord A phipps-warren
yes

00:05:50.00
Bill
Obviously, I've got to, you know, you buy something or do something of a legal nature. You know, hopefully it's not the cops these days. but Yeah, think they referred to me, the judge referred to me as is William.

00:06:00.24
Bill
So and I'm like, yeah, I don't i don't need to hear that anymore. so But, I mean, thank you for you know taking a few minutes to do that.

00:06:04.03
Lord A phipps-warren
No.

00:06:06.24
Bill
And um we've got a little bit, like I said, as we were you know kind of warming up, getting things ready before we started recording, we do have a little bit of a different, I'll call it style, right, Mike, of ah of how we do things.

00:06:16.82
Mike
Sure.

00:06:18.19
Bill
I don't know if that's the right way to write way to put it, but it is what it is. So especially when it comes to telling stories, which, Mike, obviously you normally get into that part of it.

00:06:26.04
Mike
Mm-hmm. Well, basically, um we know how to get fucked up.

00:06:27.29
Lord A phipps-warren
Right. Well, basically, we know how to get fucked up.

00:06:30.85
Mike
We know how to fuck up our lives and fuck up the lives of everybody around us.

00:06:31.29
Lord A phipps-warren
We know how to fuck up our lives and fuck up the lives of everybody around us.

00:06:34.85
Mike
We know how to do that.

00:06:34.97
Lord A phipps-warren
We know to do that. We've been sitting here for hours and hours and talked about how to get loaded.

00:06:36.17
Mike
We could sit here for hours and hours and talk about how to get loaded. We already know how to do that.

00:06:40.69
Lord A phipps-warren
We already know how do that.

00:06:42.01
Mike
um What we're interested in is a solution.

00:06:43.17
Lord A phipps-warren
What we're interested in is a solution.

00:06:45.29
Mike
Basically, we hate drunkologs.

00:06:45.54
Lord A phipps-warren
Basically, we hate drunk-a-logs.

00:06:46.81
Mike
You know, I mean, we do a little qualification, tell your story, the way it happened, all that good stuff.

00:06:47.33
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, we give little qualification, tell you a story, the way happened, all that good stuff, but drunk-a-logs are boring.

00:06:51.77
Mike
But drunkologs are boring. We know how to do that.

00:06:54.23
Lord A phipps-warren
We know how to do that. Yes, yes. Well, it's nice to know that we can swear on this podcast, so that's good.

00:07:00.41
Mike
Oh, absolutely.

00:07:00.80
Bill
Oh, Jesus.

00:07:01.46
Lord A phipps-warren
ah

00:07:01.61
Mike
Right.

00:07:02.54
Bill
Yeah, that was a...

00:07:03.29
Lord A phipps-warren
I wasn't sure.

00:07:03.46
Bill
no, that was oh no no that was a first

00:07:04.70
Lord A phipps-warren
i was holding i was holding but I was holding back for a minute until I heard one of you say the F word, I thought, oh, cool.

00:07:07.31
Mike
Yes. Yes. Yes. right

00:07:10.22
Lord A phipps-warren
We can say fuck.

00:07:10.55
Mike
yes

00:07:11.42
Lord A phipps-warren
That's good.

00:07:11.86
Mike
yes

00:07:12.30
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, we

00:07:12.79
Mike
hey

00:07:12.82
Bill
No, there was a, there was a timeframe and we decided right off the bat, cause Mike asked that when we were setting it up, we're talking, i mean, obviously, you know, four and a half years ago, he's like, can we square on here? I'm like, I'm like, fuck I'm like, fuck yeah, we can, because there's, you know, you could put an explicit, you know label on, on which all of our episodes are.

00:07:21.18
Lord A phipps-warren
can say fuck.

00:07:27.08
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah.

00:07:28.70
Bill
And then every once in a while we would, we've gone through episodes and counted the number of times we said, fuck.

00:07:29.32
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:07:33.50
Bill
And sometimes it's kind of extreme, not gratuitous, but it turns out to be, it's like, Jesus, you You know, but, but yeah, we've gotten, we had a, we had a priest on, this is one of the best stories.

00:07:43.62
Bill
And this was last, I think it was last summer that we had father Bill on.

00:07:45.98
Mike
Yeah.

00:07:47.00
Bill
And um we're talking to the guy and he's probably 78, 80 years old, something like that. Really nice guy, but sober for fucking ever. And, you know, we're going into like when Mike just did his opening with him, he took out all the swear words.

00:07:55.45
Lord A phipps-warren
like what my did is open all where you know look loaded i yeah replaced pocket load yeah yeah

00:07:58.60
Bill
It just was, you know, this is how he, knows what but that wo was, yeah.

00:08:01.27
Mike
I believe I said loaded. i've Yeah, replaced fuck with loaded. And, you know, right, because I'm i'm trying to be respectful to the guy, you know.

00:08:04.66
Bill
Yeah.

00:08:06.10
Lord A phipps-warren
of trying to be respective

00:08:08.33
Mike
Yeah.

00:08:08.34
Lord A phipps-warren
of course yeah yeah but make make sense

00:08:09.27
Bill
Yeah. So we're, we're probably, well, and we're, we're probably at that time. don't know. We're, we're a good hour and 15 minutes into the episode. And, uh, father Bill says, he's like, Hey, he goes, he goes, there's one thing I'm disappointed about.

00:08:17.94
Lord A phipps-warren
the bill send he thinking hey

00:08:20.75
Bill
We're like, well, you know, cause we had a great conversation about everything. And he said, I haven't heard either one of you guys say, you know, swear yet.

00:08:25.82
Lord A phipps-warren
i see swear yet

00:08:27.27
Bill
And we're like, oh, well, well, fuck it.

00:08:27.83
Lord A phipps-warren
like oh

00:08:28.73
Mike
but I think he said, i think he said, i haven't heard any of you guys say, fuck, he dropped the first one.

00:08:28.73
Lord A phipps-warren
i think you said i think you said i know you guys they fought each other

00:08:29.07
Bill
Fuck this.

00:08:33.08
Bill
Did he say that? I, I,

00:08:34.17
Mike
I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure.

00:08:35.67
Bill
you know It very well could be.

00:08:36.89
Lord A phipps-warren
very well could be

00:08:37.35
Bill
I mean, my memory is is horrible, but but yeah, after that, we had it we had a good five minutes to just ah from there just kind of yeah laughing and swearing.

00:08:39.90
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah after that we got up yeah a good fight

00:08:42.49
Mike
Yeah, we just dropped them Let them go after that.

00:08:42.52
Lord A phipps-warren
vene d yeah go after Well, it could have been worse.

00:08:46.42
Bill
but

00:08:46.80
Lord A phipps-warren
It could have, you could have dropped the C word.

00:08:48.98
Mike
matt Right.

00:08:49.08
Bill
Yeah, yeah we we've only done that.

00:08:50.29
Mike
he

00:08:51.12
Bill
that's i think If we search back, i think that's only come up a couple of times. so we again

00:08:54.71
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, it's not it it's not quite as common in America, I do believe, but over here...

00:08:57.91
Mike
Right. And it it definitely... Right, exactly. it it means... it Right. It has a bit of a different meaning over here. Right.

00:09:06.10
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, i do i do believe so.

00:09:06.17
Bill
Yeah.

00:09:08.34
Lord A phipps-warren
Over in England, it's used very, very frequently.

00:09:11.74
Mike
Right.

00:09:11.82
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm not overly keen on the word, to be honest. I don't like to use it, but um yeah, people people English people definitely like to use that word.

00:09:14.10
Mike
Hmm. Right.

00:09:18.60
Mike
Right. Right.

00:09:20.59
Lord A phipps-warren
it's um The C word is thrown around just like you would throw around fuck in America. Yeah.

00:09:26.26
Bill
Well, and here's the thing. um one If one happens to slip ash, it's not a big deal. We're not going to get offended. um Literally, we don't we don't edit anything. So just only as long as you don't care, whatever you say is going to stick.

00:09:36.02
Mike
she

00:09:36.70
Bill
So as long as you as long as you don't give a shit, we certainly don't. so um But yeah, I mean, you know like like Mike said, you know we're looking at, we want to hear your background, but it's just a drunk-a-luck thing that we're not really into. But usually, I'll be honest, what happens is a lot of times people tell the beginning of their story. We end up here at bits and pieces throughout the time frame anyhow, but um Yeah, this is this is your time. We're going sit back and and listen to you and tell us ah how you got to where where you are.

00:10:00.42
Lord A phipps-warren
Oh, wow. So um I was, Jesus Christ. So I was, I started drinking from a very, very early age. I was 12 years old when I first encountered my

00:10:08.78
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:10:12.18
Lord A phipps-warren
my first alcoholic drink and it was ah it was a big box of wine. I'd come down on a school day and I'd come down to the kitchen to get make make my breakfast and my parents had left this big box of wine on the counter.

00:10:25.02
Lord A phipps-warren
It was white wine and um for some strange reason, I don't know why, but I looked at it and I thought, I wonder what that tastes like. I've never drank wine before and I thought I'd have a little glass.

00:10:35.50
Lord A phipps-warren
and you know This is like seven o'clock in the morning.

00:10:38.27
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:10:38.97
Lord A phipps-warren
So I poured this glass of wine And I sort of drank it. Didn't even like the taste of it, but i was like, you know, I felt like all big and like an adult. And I was like, oh, I'm drinking wine.

00:10:50.39
Lord A phipps-warren
And I ended up drinking half the box. and um And I ended up passing out.

00:10:52.50
Mike
yeah

00:10:55.70
Lord A phipps-warren
And I woke up in bed very, very sick, very, very ill. um And then I had to listen to the stories of my parents telling me how I behaved um that morning.

00:11:08.82
Lord A phipps-warren
Because I i completely blacked out.

00:11:08.85
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:11:10.42
Lord A phipps-warren
I don't remember anything. I just remember drinking this wine. And my parents came down and I was telling them all to fuck off. And was soine I was pissed out of my face.

00:11:18.04
Bill
ah

00:11:19.70
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:11:21.95
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was i nearly set the house on fire. um I was smoking my parents' cigarettes. I didn't even smoke at the time. And I was lighting up these fags.

00:11:33.24
Lord A phipps-warren
I think I was just pretending to be a grown-up. And, um, yeah, and that was the beginning of my alcoholism for the next 30 years. So, uh, when I recovered from that, um, it took a few days, but once I'd recovered from that, it was like, I was addicted straight away and, uh, I couldn't wait to do it again.

00:11:52.76
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was only 12 and I felt like, I felt like shit, but it was, it was the feeling that it gave me.

00:11:54.42
Mike
Right.

00:12:00.40
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:12:00.86
Lord A phipps-warren
so from 12 15, was,

00:12:04.09
Lord A phipps-warren
i was um I wasn't drinking daily, but I was like sneaking around the house at night trying to find my parents alcohol so I drink it again. um And that went on for a few years. And by the age of 15, things really, really changed. And it took a very, very dark turn from the age of 15.

00:12:22.87
Lord A phipps-warren
um I would probably say that I was a full blown alcoholic at 15.

00:12:28.33
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:12:28.34
Lord A phipps-warren
And i was still I was still at school then. so I was in my last year of school. And um my parents ended up kicking me out of the house. ah So I was then homeless at the age of 15, sleeping on the streets in my school uniform, drinking daily. And I would ah decide whether I wanted to go to school that day or whether I wanted to steal booze from the shop and sit in the park.

00:12:57.75
Lord A phipps-warren
And it's very, very weird because when I look back on those memories, I can never understand how people used to see me and do nothing.

00:13:10.75
Mike
Right.

00:13:12.15
Lord A phipps-warren
Now, I know we live in the UK and it was right back in the 90s and it was a different world back then. But I think to myself, if I saw a kid, 15 years old, in his school uniform, sleeping in a park with a bottle of cider next to him, I'd be on the phone to Child Protection Services.

00:13:31.90
Lord A phipps-warren
But nobody gave a shit back then. It was really, really, really weird.

00:13:34.00
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:13:34.71
Bill
and

00:13:36.60
Lord A phipps-warren
So I went through this cycle of a sleeping at friends' houses. um If I could, you know, if I was sober enough and my friends would allow me to.

00:13:45.32
Mike
Mm.

00:13:47.23
Lord A phipps-warren
I had a good friend who used to sneak me in to his mum's house, and so I wasn't sleeping on the streets. um I'm still good friends with him now, actually. he He's been a very good support to me, but... ah he used to He used to help me out a lot when I was homeless on the streets.

00:14:03.19
Lord A phipps-warren
But my life just spiraled out control from there. I ended up pa sort of creating this really mad personality, which I just didn't recognize.

00:14:14.81
Lord A phipps-warren
And the funny thing is, I say I don't didn't recognize the person I became. I didn't actually have anything else. I didn't really have any other personality to...

00:14:25.70
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:14:26.14
Lord A phipps-warren
to recognize it was just who I became. And because I was so young, um and the more I was drinking, and I started to become angry, and I became angry at the world, and I was angry at my parents, and I developed this really nasty personality.

00:14:28.64
Bill
Right.

00:14:28.63
Mike
Right.

00:14:45.11
Lord A phipps-warren
And that's what led me down a very, very, very dark path very, very quickly. um And yeah, and and and things really started to turn from about sort of 16, 17, was getting into little bits of trouble. And I was drinking all the time. i was i was almost drinking daily.

00:15:03.54
Lord A phipps-warren
um

00:15:03.59
Bill
Right.

00:15:04.98
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was just an absolute animal. I don't really know how else to say it. But I started to get into trouble with the police.

00:15:15.64
Lord A phipps-warren
It started off little small things. And, um you know, just like drunken disorderlies here and there or you know I'd just be screaming and shouting in the street or I'd be i'd get done for shoplifting because I'd nick four cans of Stella from the shop at 7 o'clock in the morning you know because I needed the alcohol.

00:15:30.42
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:15:34.36
Lord A phipps-warren
I i needed that drink.

00:15:34.84
Mike
Right.

00:15:36.00
Lord A phipps-warren
and I needed it. It was like I had no other personality without it.

00:15:42.42
Mike
Right.

00:15:43.19
Lord A phipps-warren
And the bizarre thing about it, guys, is I hated the way it made me behave.

00:15:50.24
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:15:51.00
Lord A phipps-warren
but i loved the way it made me feel.

00:15:53.62
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:15:54.01
Bill
Right.

00:15:55.54
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm sure you can relate.

00:15:55.58
Bill
yeah

00:15:56.89
Mike
Yes.

00:15:56.92
Bill
Oh, God, yeah. yeah

00:15:57.98
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. And it was like those two, the two ends of the spectrum, they just, they just don't work. And it was like, I always say to myself now as an adult, if I could take a pill, I never want to drink ever again.

00:16:11.75
Lord A phipps-warren
i know what that's stuff that stuff will kill me or I'll kill somebody else, you know, but if I could take a pill, like a little magic pill every day,

00:16:14.61
Mike
Right. Mm-hmm.

00:16:20.60
Lord A phipps-warren
and it would make me feel pissed, but it wouldn't make me behave in an erratic bad way.

00:16:22.84
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:16:25.37
Mike
Right.

00:16:26.78
Lord A phipps-warren
I would.

00:16:27.99
Mike
Right.

00:16:29.02
Bill
yeah

00:16:29.02
Mike
Yeah. Right.

00:16:30.04
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, i would, because that's what I was addicted to.

00:16:31.16
Mike
Yeah.

00:16:33.92
Lord A phipps-warren
I was addicted to how it made me feel. And I think it was the numbing.

00:16:35.82
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:16:37.00
Lord A phipps-warren
I think it was the numbing of being able to sort of escape the escapism.

00:16:42.46
Mike
Right.

00:16:42.94
Lord A phipps-warren
And, um you know, um from such a young age, you know, i and I developed this from such a young age.

00:16:43.29
Bill
Right. Right.

00:16:47.38
Lord A phipps-warren
And as I started to creep into my adulthood, um You know, the the things just started to spiral and get worse and worse and worse. um And, you know, there are some funny moments that I can talk about with you guys during my addiction and some silly things I did that I look back and find quite funny. But in the grand scheme of all, it was an absolute chaotic mess.

00:17:10.33
Mike
Right.

00:17:11.32
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, don't

00:17:12.28
Bill
Well, you know what's interesting too, when you mentioned the, you know, the way that like taking a pill and feeling in that way in the, we talk about it on here. I mean, two two things we talk about a lot. Number one is that, um you know, people that say that they're, which we don't necessarily subscribe to that.

00:17:25.54
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:17:25.62
Bill
We're not saying that it's anything wrong with it, but here a lot of times in in the recovery community, in the rooms that, you know, ah my worst day sober is better than my best day drinking.

00:17:27.72
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:17:35.05
Bill
And Mike and I are like, really? Because I mean, we, we had some, we had some fun, you know, I mean, we, we would be just lying through our teeth if we said that we didn't have not only fun, but a hell of a lot of fun.

00:17:36.82
Mike
Fuck yeah. Right.

00:17:37.88
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

00:17:40.41
Mike
fuck yeah

00:17:47.35
Bill
There was plenty of times that were, that were fun without consequences, but you know, it's, it's fun without consequences. I forget, we were talking to somebody, maybe that was Jim that had said that he said fun with whatever, and then something with consequences that everything was consequences.

00:18:01.51
Bill
However he put it or somebody that yeah maybe I heard it on podcast, but The way it was explained like that, it starts off with fun and then fun with consequences and then just all consequences.

00:18:01.79
Lord A phipps-warren
Yes. Yes. Yes.

00:18:05.66
Lord A phipps-warren
way was it head like that starts off with fun and then fun with have different furnishs

00:18:10.59
Bill
That was though as Charlie Sheen that said that now I think about it.

00:18:12.49
Mike
Mm-hmm

00:18:12.76
Lord A phipps-warren
and

00:18:13.11
Bill
you know And the same deal.

00:18:15.00
Lord A phipps-warren
you

00:18:15.19
Bill
You look at him. ah He had a hell of a lot of fun, but he had did a hell of a lot of damage.

00:18:17.85
Lord A phipps-warren
the one yes

00:18:19.15
Bill
So if I think that either one of us you know can admit that if we would have been able to keep doing that, having that the fun without the consequences –

00:18:21.33
Lord A phipps-warren
think that admit that

00:18:26.14
Lord A phipps-warren
heavy

00:18:29.69
Bill
I mean, fine, but it just just wasn't that way. It was really great until it just wasn't, and then it got really fucking dark, and we screwed up everything, and that's kind of what you're talking about, Right.

00:18:35.29
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Well, it you know, it is it's a catch-22 because eat either way, say say i was so I could drink myself silly every day and there was no consequences.

00:18:40.85
Bill
Right.

00:18:47.74
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:18:48.15
Lord A phipps-warren
The consequences in the long run it was actually the thing that saved me because if I was drinking the way I was drinking and I wasn't behaving the way I was, I would have just drank myself into an early grave anyway.

00:18:58.65
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:19:01.85
Mike
Sure.

00:19:02.01
Bill
Right. Right.

00:19:03.26
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, so when I look back at the horrible things that I've done, um, you know, and some of the horrible crimes I committed through my alcoholism, although I'm, I'm very ashamed of that.

00:19:12.40
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:19:15.67
Lord A phipps-warren
I also think to myself, had those things not happened, I'd probably still be drinking now, you know?

00:19:20.80
Mike
Right.

00:19:21.30
Bill
right yeah

00:19:22.92
Lord A phipps-warren
So it's, it's, you know, we, as we know, alcohol is a dangerous, dangerous drug and it's a very, very selfish disease.

00:19:23.42
Mike
Mm

00:19:30.96
Mike
hmm.

00:19:31.03
Lord A phipps-warren
And, um, You know, we we have to go through these traumatic experiences with alcohol to realize that we have to stop.

00:19:39.61
Mike
Right.

00:19:40.07
Bill
Right.

00:19:40.57
Lord A phipps-warren
Because if we don't have those events, we just carry on anyway and we'd end up dying of liver failure.

00:19:47.44
Mike
Right.

00:19:48.54
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, so it's it's it's it's a kind of a catch-22.

00:19:49.55
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:19:52.18
Lord A phipps-warren
But, um you know, that's just my theory on it. And the and the mad thing is, even though I'm sober now and my life is so much better now I'm sober, I'm not actually anti-alcohol.

00:20:03.12
Lord A phipps-warren
Now, I don't drink at all.

00:20:03.77
Mike
No.

00:20:05.01
Lord A phipps-warren
I don't even drink non-alcoholic drinks.

00:20:05.11
Mike
that

00:20:07.64
Mike
Right.

00:20:07.77
Bill
right

00:20:08.50
Lord A phipps-warren
um But I'm not against alcohol as such because there are people out there that can drink sensibly.

00:20:12.57
Bill
Right.

00:20:15.13
Mike
Right.

00:20:16.53
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:20:16.57
Mike
Yeah, I mean, what you know, the big book talks about that.

00:20:17.05
Lord A phipps-warren
Mm-hmm. That's right, yeah.

00:20:18.97
Mike
I mean, you got to remember the guys that they founded Alcoholics Anonymous, they were doing their heaviest drinking during Prohibition when it was illegal in this country.

00:20:28.44
Bill
a

00:20:28.86
Mike
So they knew how stupid all that was.

00:20:29.46
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

00:20:31.62
Mike
And it says in the big book, i'm paraphrasing, but, you know, we're not supposed to be anti-alcohol. You know, we exactly what you were saying, you know, but they can, we can't.

00:20:42.77
Mike
You know, why would we put them down?

00:20:43.61
Lord A phipps-warren
that's right yeah

00:20:44.81
Mike
Because they can.

00:20:46.84
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly, yeah, absolutely absolutely that, you know, i I know a lot of people that drink, um and they can drink quite heavily, but but they're sensible with it.

00:20:51.39
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:20:53.69
Mike
Sure. Yes.

00:20:56.31
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, i know i know some people that will have um a bottle of wine at night, you know, and they still get up and go to work, they don't run around trying to murder people, or end up in prison, or rehab, you know.

00:20:56.49
Bill
Right.

00:20:56.76
Mike
Yeah.

00:21:00.80
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:21:03.35
Mike
Right. Yeah, exactly.

00:21:06.36
Bill
and

00:21:06.46
Mike
Yeah, they get up and go to work.

00:21:07.16
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly.

00:21:08.50
Mike
They take care of their kids. They love them.

00:21:10.30
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly.

00:21:10.66
Mike
Right.

00:21:11.48
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, and I know plenty of people that do that. But i don't, you know, I'll never understand the um what it is with us alcoholics and, you know, what what triggers us to make alcohol so bad for us.

00:21:14.07
Mike
Sure.

00:21:23.40
Mike
Right.

00:21:25.14
Lord A phipps-warren
Because there's so many people out there that can drink and they're absolutely fine. And there's so many people out there that can't.

00:21:28.69
Mike
Sure.

00:21:30.62
Lord A phipps-warren
It just changes your entire personality.

00:21:31.43
Mike
Mm

00:21:33.85
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, i um i refer to it in my books as Jekyll and Hyde.

00:21:37.89
Mike
hmm. Mm hmm.

00:21:38.26
Bill
right

00:21:38.36
Lord A phipps-warren
That's exactly who I was. I was jack Dr.

00:21:40.85
Mike
Yep.

00:21:41.88
Lord A phipps-warren
Jekyll, you know, but very nice, you know, I'd speak well to people, I'm very polite, very kind, very loving, very generous.

00:21:43.01
Mike
Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm

00:21:48.36
Mike
hmm.

00:21:49.18
Lord A phipps-warren
And then as soon as I take that little tipple of booze, rawr, that's it, you know, the veins pop out and I sort of, my chest puffs up and, you know, I'm bounding around the streets trying to fight everybody.

00:21:52.10
Mike
Right. Yeah.

00:22:01.24
Mike
right

00:22:01.34
Lord A phipps-warren
And um it's just an absolute nightmare chaos. And that was how I was. That's what alcohol did to me.

00:22:08.57
Mike
it

00:22:08.63
Lord A phipps-warren
And um it took me 30 years to realize that.

00:22:13.34
Bill
Right? Right? right

00:22:15.22
Lord A phipps-warren
30 years of my life gone to that, ah you know, that horrible, horrible disease.

00:22:21.78
Mike
Yeah.

00:22:22.23
Lord A phipps-warren
And um yeah, it you know, it it took me down some very, very dark roads, some very dark roads.

00:22:26.15
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:22:26.59
Lord A phipps-warren
I ended up spending seven years in prison over two different sentences for some very serious crimes.

00:22:29.27
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:22:33.62
Lord A phipps-warren
I lost my children. I never saw my children grow up for the first part of their life. um And I've got them back in my life now.

00:22:39.84
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:22:43.16
Lord A phipps-warren
um You know, I went to rehab twice. um And then I was in and in and out of the streets for 30 years.

00:22:50.74
Mike
Right.

00:22:51.34
Lord A phipps-warren
Sometimes I'd get myself a little flat or a small bed-sit room somewhere. And I'd lived there for two weeks before I ended up getting kicked out because the landlord couldn't stand me getting drunk all the time.

00:23:02.97
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:23:03.96
Bill
right

00:23:04.02
Mike
Right.

00:23:04.57
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it was like and it was just crazy. and It was just absolute craziness. But there was, like you like I say, there was some funny times, you know. um i mean, how sort of graphic do you want me to go with some of the crimes I committed?

00:23:18.42
Lord A phipps-warren
Do you want all the juicy stuff?

00:23:20.00
Mike
That's entirely up to you.

00:23:20.32
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, shocking.

00:23:21.52
Mike
You're not going shock us.

00:23:21.59
Bill
Yeah.

00:23:22.52
Lord A phipps-warren
I'll tell you that.

00:23:22.60
Mike
I'll tell you that.

00:23:23.26
Bill
Yeah. yeah did

00:23:23.86
Lord A phipps-warren
Two things that I'll remind

00:23:24.18
Bill
Two things that I'll remind you, we don't edit. And like Mike just said, you're not going to shock us.

00:23:26.39
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

00:23:28.03
Bill
That's not the problem. But, you know, we we don't edit. So it's up to you. I mean, if you want to if you want to get into that sort of thing, ah it's your choice. Whatever you think is decent for the for the audience and yourself, you're not going to shock Mm

00:23:38.56
Lord A phipps-warren
I do like to be honest with my story and the reason being is because I what I do now is I try to help people um with their sobriety in their recovery and I like to tell them exactly how my life was

00:23:41.24
Mike
Mm

00:23:41.33
Bill
hmm.

00:23:52.15
Mike
hmm.

00:23:52.39
Bill
Sure.

00:23:52.44
Lord A phipps-warren
just so people can realize how bad it can be and how dark it can get.

00:23:56.99
Bill
Right.

00:23:56.98
Mike
Right.

00:23:56.98
Lord A phipps-warren
But there is there is always a way out.

00:23:59.44
Mike
Yep.

00:23:59.90
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, there is always a way out. So ah the first time I went to prison, excuse me, the first time I got sentenced to prison, I was drinking in a pub. I was probably about 20, 21.

00:24:12.79
Lord A phipps-warren
I can't remember the dates and things. I very i struggle because as you know, Being in alcohol, I was blacking out most of the time anyway.

00:24:21.70
Mike
Right.

00:24:21.71
Lord A phipps-warren
So all of my memories of the 30 years of my alcoholism are quite fuzzy and squiffy. When I wrote my books, I had to do a lot of research.

00:24:27.39
Bill
Sure.

00:24:29.71
Lord A phipps-warren
um had to look through my DBS. ah I don't know what you call it in America, but it's basically a criminal record check.

00:24:36.30
Bill
Well, sure.

00:24:36.38
Lord A phipps-warren
So it's like theres sheets of paper that tell you all your criminal background.

00:24:39.49
Mike
Right.

00:24:39.58
Lord A phipps-warren
So I had i had to look had to look through that.

00:24:40.44
Bill
oh

00:24:42.06
Lord A phipps-warren
And mine's are eight mine eight pages long, which is absolutely ridiculous.

00:24:42.58
Mike
Right. no

00:24:47.80
Lord A phipps-warren
But anyway, um when I got sentenced to prison, I got an eight-year sentence, and I served four years, because in over here, we do half of our sentence, and then we come out on license.

00:25:00.71
Lord A phipps-warren
So if you get in trouble, so I did my four years, and then they let you out of prison, but you're on license for four years, if you get in trouble again, you go back and finish off the four years.

00:25:04.70
Mike
Right.

00:25:10.90
Mike
Right.

00:25:11.53
Bill
Okay.

00:25:11.64
Mike
Yeah.

00:25:11.64
Lord A phipps-warren
So I would, yeah, that's it.

00:25:11.92
Mike
Same here. Yeah. You know, prohibition, uh, parole, whatever.

00:25:15.20
Lord A phipps-warren
That's it.

00:25:16.14
Mike
Same thing. Yep.

00:25:17.28
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, same thing. So um anyway, i was in a pub drinking myself. Absolutely silly. I'd never done anything like this before. I don't know where it came from. But um'm I'd ran out of money. had no money.

00:25:29.02
Lord A phipps-warren
And nobody in the pub was buying me a beer.

00:25:31.55
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:25:31.67
Lord A phipps-warren
And um I thought, right, I need to go and try and find some money.

00:25:31.77
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:25:35.93
Lord A phipps-warren
See if there's anybody I know that I can borrow a tenner off or something stupid, you know. So I walk out the pub and I'm absolutely steaming drunk. And there's a guy walking on the opposite side of the road.

00:25:48.18
Lord A phipps-warren
And I didn't even think this through. Now, my memory of it is I just went over to him and I said, give me your wallet, give me your phone, give me everything you've got. And he was like, I ain't giving you fuck all, mate. And I was like, what? I was like, what?

00:26:02.46
Lord A phipps-warren
And he got up in my face. You know, he put his face in my face. And he was, you know, he was quite a biggish lad. I don't know really what I was thinking. But, um, I had this absolute moment of madness and I get quite sad thinking about it to be honest because it's quite horrific and I grabbed him by the face and I bit onto his nose and I bit so hard on his nose and I ended up biting his entire nose off.

00:26:17.82
Mike
Damn.

00:26:21.75
Mike
Yeah.

00:26:21.95
Bill
Oh.

00:26:27.96
Mike
sam

00:26:28.57
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, and he sort of fell on the floor covered in blood and um um there's blood pouring all down my face and I spat, I had his nose in my mouth. I could feel it in my mouth and I feel all the blood and everything and I spat it at him, and he's on the floor going, oh my God, oh my God, like putting his hands on his face, and I put my hand in his in his pocket, pulled his wallet out, opened it up, took the money that he had, which was all, i think it was like eight pounds, which is fucking nothing.

00:26:56.38
Mike
Right.

00:26:58.94
Lord A phipps-warren
um

00:26:59.22
Mike
Right.

00:27:00.19
Lord A phipps-warren
That's not the point, though. And I went i went back in the pub, sort of cleaned my face up, um and bought myself another pint.

00:27:01.54
Mike
Yeah.

00:27:07.13
Mike
Right.

00:27:07.99
Lord A phipps-warren
and then drank the pint, and then buggered off and went to another pub. And that was that was that. And the mad thing is, it took the police two weeks to find me.

00:27:14.42
Mike
Yeah.

00:27:19.15
Mike
Hmm.

00:27:19.43
Bill
Really?

00:27:19.96
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, they didn't find me for two weeks. Because I was homeless, I was sleeping here, there, and everywhere.

00:27:23.51
Bill
Yeah.

00:27:25.14
Mike
Right.

00:27:25.72
Lord A phipps-warren
And um ah they must have been looking for me, but they just couldn't find me anywhere. And then one day, I was walking through the town, pissed at my face again, as always, got a sort of Pan sort grabbed me on the shoulder, turned me around and said, are you Lord Phipps Warren.

00:27:40.73
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was like, yeah, you know, what do you want the sort of thing? and they were like, right, come come with us. I couldn't even remember doing it.

00:27:48.60
Mike
Right.

00:27:49.37
Lord A phipps-warren
And they took me to the police station and they had it all on camera. And I had to sit in that police station and watch that video. And I was in shock. oh I was like, my God, is that really me?

00:28:03.48
Mike
Right.

00:28:03.58
Lord A phipps-warren
Is that what I've become? Is this what al alcohol has done to me? This is what al alcohol has turned me into. And the video was horrendous.

00:28:09.42
Mike
Right.

00:28:11.45
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm watching it and I'm thinking, i mean, you can see clear as day, it's me.

00:28:16.08
Mike
Right.

00:28:16.66
Lord A phipps-warren
So I couldn't even say it wasn't me. And I'm watching it. was like, yeah, you that is me. That is me. And trying to explain it away to the police. And I was like, I can't give you any answers because I don't know why I did that.

00:28:30.49
Mike
right

00:28:31.00
Lord A phipps-warren
And, you know, I look back now and i I do know why I did that, because I wanted another drink.

00:28:33.90
Mike
Yeah. Yeah, you needed a drink. Yeah.

00:28:36.79
Lord A phipps-warren
I needed a drink.

00:28:37.02
Bill
Right.

00:28:38.10
Lord A phipps-warren
So i was I was willing to bite another human being's nose off just to have another beer.

00:28:38.20
Mike
Yep.

00:28:41.06
Mike
Hmm.

00:28:45.35
Mike
Yep.

00:28:46.46
Lord A phipps-warren
Absolutely ridiculous. So anyway, I ended up going to prison doing my sentence. And one of the good things about that prison sentence was that I couldn't drink in there.

00:28:55.83
Bill
Right.

00:28:55.85
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:28:56.47
Lord A phipps-warren
which was a good thing. But for me, it was absolutely awful at the time.

00:29:01.56
Mike
Right.

00:29:02.49
Lord A phipps-warren
It was horrible because I had to go through the sort of cold turkey of not drinking. I'm sweating all the time. I'm shaking all the time. And, you know, I really needed alcohol. You know, it was like that. That's all I knew. that was alcohol was my personality and it was horrendous. But um I got through that sentence and the maddest thing, this is the maddest thing. The day I was released on license,

00:29:26.00
Lord A phipps-warren
The first thing I did,

00:29:29.21
Mike
Got a drink.

00:29:30.07
Lord A phipps-warren
went and got a drink.

00:29:31.26
Mike
Yup.

00:29:31.29
Bill
Right. Right.

00:29:33.34
Lord A phipps-warren
They give you, I think they give you something like 75 pounds when you leave to sort like set yourself up or whatever it is, which isn't much.

00:29:41.37
Mike
Right.

00:29:43.51
Bill
Right.

00:29:43.74
Mike
Yeah.

00:29:43.77
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was like, came out, I was like, 75 quid, this is, could go and get pissed with this.

00:29:48.41
Mike
Yes, absolutely.

00:29:49.27
Lord A phipps-warren
And yeah, so I went straight over to the shop, bought myself some booze, went sat in a park and started drinking it. And that was it.

00:29:55.93
Mike
this

00:29:56.26
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm homeless again back on the streets.

00:29:58.14
Mike
Right.

00:29:58.81
Lord A phipps-warren
So it was the same cycle of behavior. And then, ah you know, the same pattern of behavior came along. I came came back to my hometown. And that was it then. I was the whole sort of Jekyll and Hyde personality was at its peak.

00:30:15.80
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:30:16.22
Lord A phipps-warren
It was at its peak. And I ended up getting shunned by my entire community. I was known as the piss head of talkie.

00:30:25.98
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:30:26.10
Lord A phipps-warren
um I was the the violent, aggressive alcoholic. So much so that I ended up getting banned from every single pub, every single nightclub, every single restaurant, every single establishment that sold alcohol. I was banned.

00:30:45.37
Lord A phipps-warren
And it wasn't just Torquay.

00:30:45.59
Bill
Really?

00:30:47.37
Lord A phipps-warren
Where I live, we've got three towns along the coastline.

00:30:51.12
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:30:51.49
Lord A phipps-warren
Torquay, Payton and Brixham. And I was banned from every single one. Every single place. So I had nowhere to go and drink socially. So I used was i ended up being a street drinker.

00:31:04.03
Lord A phipps-warren
I just used to steal booze or I used to get other people to buy booze for me. And um I'd cause an absolute riot. And um <unk>d I'd get into fights. i um i'd kick i I'd be abusive. I'd kick off. I'd smash windows.

00:31:19.32
Lord A phipps-warren
There was one time um i went to a out on the piss. I bumped into one of my mates. or an old mate of mine, should I say, because a not a lot of people wanted to hang out with me by this point.

00:31:30.69
Mike
Right.

00:31:30.89
Bill
Right.

00:31:31.06
Lord A phipps-warren
um So I bumped into a friend of mine that I'd known from a long time ago, and he but he liked to drink as well. So was like, oh, come on, we're going to get drunk. And I was like, I can't go in there. He was like, there was a restaurant along the harbour.

00:31:42.91
Lord A phipps-warren
said, oh, let's go there.

00:31:42.98
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:31:43.76
Lord A phipps-warren
It's called Las Iguanas. I was like, i'm not allowed in there. They won't let me in. and He said, right, fuck it. I'll go in. I'll get the booze and we'll just sit on the sort of, they had an outside bit. And I wasn't allowed to sit on the outside, but I wasn't allowed anywhere there.

00:31:53.11
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:31:56.26
Lord A phipps-warren
So we just sat kind of opposite it, sort of on the street. And I ended up getting absolutely pissed. And then on for some reason, I ended up getting some vendetta against the restaurant for not letting me in.

00:32:07.91
Mike
Of course.

00:32:09.16
Lord A phipps-warren
was like, you know, why won't you let me in? And I'm kicking off outside and all this business. And they were like, no, you know, you're not allowed in.

00:32:15.51
Mike
Right.

00:32:15.99
Lord A phipps-warren
you And I'm like, right, fuck you then. So I pick up the tables and chairs from outside and I start lobbing them through the windows, smashing windows.

00:32:21.92
Mike
Sure. yeah

00:32:25.40
Bill
and

00:32:25.59
Lord A phipps-warren
And that's it's absolutely ridiculous looking back and I'm f throwing tables and chairs around this restaurant.

00:32:31.45
Mike
Right.

00:32:32.73
Lord A phipps-warren
And then I get my like smash the window and then I climb through the window, cut my soap cut my leg, cut my arm, and now I'm inside the restaurant now.

00:32:41.78
Mike
Sure.

00:32:42.97
Lord A phipps-warren
And there's people sat there eating their lunch. you know This is like one one o'clock in the afternoon.

00:32:45.75
Mike
sure

00:32:47.96
Bill
Right.

00:32:48.40
Lord A phipps-warren
everybody's looking at me and oh my God, there's like kids in there. There's parents like cradling their kids and they're all getting up and running. Anybody would think I'd gone in there with a bomb and I'm i'm picking up tables and I'm lobbing them across the restaurant, like near missing people.

00:33:03.19
Lord A phipps-warren
And anyway, they managed to sort of get me out of the restaurant. The police turn up and I'm completely uncontrollable. I've got big, I've got chairs in my hand, like holding them by the legs, you know, swinging them around and they taser me in the chest. It goes bang.

00:33:18.35
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm like, za but I didn't go down. I was so pissed that I didn't really feel the shock.

00:33:22.55
Mike
Right.

00:33:25.85
Lord A phipps-warren
And um so I'm carrying on. I've got this taser in my chest. There's like three coppers like pointing these tasers at me. And I'm going, fuck you, fuck you.

00:33:34.00
Mike
Hmm.

00:33:34.01
Lord A phipps-warren
And then i' get I get another one in the back.

00:33:34.10
Bill
ah

00:33:37.14
Lord A phipps-warren
And then I still didn't go down. But um then it was enough of a shock to sort of ah drop the chair. And then they bundled onto me and that was it. And then I got nicked again.

00:33:49.98
Lord A phipps-warren
That was another mad, mad charge. And, you know, at the time I didn't give a shit.

00:33:52.66
Mike
this is

00:33:54.90
Lord A phipps-warren
I just became this absolute asshole.

00:33:58.65
Mike
Right.

00:33:59.18
Lord A phipps-warren
But when I look back now, I'm thinking, my God, you know, what what was I doing? um And that was just...

00:34:05.27
Mike
So now you now you understand why they didn't want you in the restaurant. Right.

00:34:08.73
Lord A phipps-warren
Oh, God, yeah.

00:34:09.32
Mike
Right.

00:34:11.54
Bill
hey

00:34:12.34
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, I do now. 20 years later, I get it.

00:34:14.01
Mike
right it it

00:34:15.60
Lord A phipps-warren
But that restaurant doesn't exist anymore.

00:34:15.70
Bill
I'm sorry.

00:34:18.46
Mike
ah

00:34:19.28
Lord A phipps-warren
It's no longer there, which is a which is something. Because i'm now I'm sober.

00:34:23.43
Mike
yeah sure sure

00:34:25.28
Lord A phipps-warren
it's I kind of had this idea that now I'm sober, I wanted to go back down there.

00:34:29.43
Mike
yes

00:34:29.98
Lord A phipps-warren
And sort of like, you know, because it's probably all different stuff and stuff.

00:34:31.64
Mike
yeah

00:34:33.10
Lord A phipps-warren
But I just wanted to go down there and see if they'd let me and have a meal.

00:34:33.27
Mike
sure

00:34:36.18
Lord A phipps-warren
It's been 20 years. But um when I looked into it, it's no longer there. it's a It's all closed down. So that's that's the end of that one.

00:34:43.06
Bill
Right.

00:34:44.31
Lord A phipps-warren
But anyway...

00:34:44.41
Bill
So, so quick, quick question though. So the town that you live in, then you said the other ones that are on there on the bay, I believe you you mentioned, are these all small towns?

00:34:50.90
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:34:51.98
Bill
Cause I mean, like have to have all these places, you know, kind of like band together and know anyone, let alone you, are they, again, are they smaller towns or is it, or how did they, how did they do that?

00:34:58.61
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Very, that yeah. that Small, small town. So we've got, um yeah, so we got Torquay.

00:35:03.00
Bill
Are they okay? Okay.

00:35:05.82
Lord A phipps-warren
And then you sort of, a 10 minute drive, if that, you know, six minute drive, you're in a place called Paynton, which is another town. And then another sort of 10 minute drive and you're in Brixham. And we're, you know, you can, you could walk there.

00:35:16.21
Bill
Okay.

00:35:18.58
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, you could, I could walk to Paynton in half an hour.

00:35:19.00
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:35:22.97
Bill
Okay.

00:35:23.03
Mike
Right.

00:35:23.64
Lord A phipps-warren
So they're very, very close.

00:35:23.96
Bill
So it's, yeah, and it's not like you can you can't blend into these towns.

00:35:24.76
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah.

00:35:27.50
Bill
I mean, they know who you are. It's easy enough for them to be out.

00:35:28.98
Lord A phipps-warren
They, oh yeah, they, they, they, yeah, they all knew who I was.

00:35:29.58
Bill
Yeah, we're not lit. Okay, I got you.

00:35:32.78
Lord A phipps-warren
you know, it it was, it got to the point where, If I was at the top of town, it was a Friday, Saturday night or whatever. And um the door staff, I'd been drinking all day on the streets, in the parks, wherever I wherever i wanted to go to drink my my medicine, as I like to call it.

00:35:48.80
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:35:49.11
Lord A phipps-warren
um And then the doorman, you know, would all start to come to work, the bouncers. And they'd see me and they'd pull their radios out and radio down to all the other places.

00:35:59.51
Bill
He's here.

00:36:02.46
Lord A phipps-warren
Watch out, boys.

00:36:02.97
Bill
he's he's here

00:36:03.81
Lord A phipps-warren
Ash is on his way.

00:36:07.39
Bill
Well, you know, you know, it's funny, is it it funny in ah kind of an odd way is that so Mike and I talk about all the time that we used to there was a whatever it was handful of liquor stores, five, six liquor stores that, you know, towards the end that we rotated thinking that, you know, so nobody knew how much we were buying, like we were fooling everyone and blah, blah, blah.

00:36:07.44
Lord A phipps-warren
Okay.

00:36:24.04
Bill
And, you know, you know, for a fact, I mean, all those people knew you. I went into a grocery store um shit when I was got six, seven years sober and figure that at that point I hadn't been.

00:36:33.94
Lord A phipps-warren
at that point i had been

00:36:35.34
Bill
Well, I wouldn't have been in that grocery store for that amount of time, six or seven years.

00:36:37.66
Lord A phipps-warren
she short for that amount of time I don't know.

00:36:40.38
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:36:40.54
Bill
and I had walked in and I had a different type of job. So I was actually going in there for a business reason. And it wasn't the liquor store part, but it was one of the, one of the guys that used to work at a liquor store was now a manager, blah, blah, blah.

00:36:45.50
Lord A phipps-warren
it wasn it the lier store park and it was one of the one of those guys this

00:36:51.34
Bill
So i'm talking to this manager and he said, you used to live around here, didn't you? And i'm like I'm like, yeah, a while ago.

00:36:55.70
Lord A phipps-warren
like like yeah i was go

00:36:56.02
Mike
fifteen evening

00:36:56.97
Bill
And he said, he goes, I thought so. He goes, did you come in here quite a bit?

00:36:58.87
Lord A phipps-warren
budget

00:36:59.49
Bill
And I said, yeah, I probably did.

00:36:59.96
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah i probably did i left in a dad wasn like you know but

00:37:00.93
Bill
I left it at that. wasn't like, Jesus Christ, you know. But um I don't know.

00:37:04.25
Lord A phipps-warren
i don't know which is i mean i would several

00:37:04.85
Bill
It's just, I mean, i wasn't I wasn't, you know, hurling chairs through windows and things like that.

00:37:07.42
Lord A phipps-warren
chair the

00:37:09.12
Bill
But they they still they still recognize me.

00:37:10.58
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:37:11.04
Bill
So who am I to think that these three small towns wouldn't wouldn't have it, I don't want to say easy, but it would be a little bit easier to try to pick somebody out.

00:37:12.02
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:37:18.88
Bill
But I mean, that's just like like you said, you know, for for no good reason.

00:37:19.90
Lord A phipps-warren
i mean that just is like like you said you know for for know believe but the that's the point and

00:37:22.84
Bill
But that's the point. And the the one thing was was kind of funny with the the way the way that I drank, I drank to well, I'm sorry, I reacted to my mood, you know, in my mood.

00:37:24.79
Lord A phipps-warren
the once whole set of money with the way the way that i drink i drank so pump i'm sorry i reacted to my i would think just a normal kind of she

00:37:32.23
Bill
If I was in just a normal kind of chill mood, I could drink as much as I wanted.

00:37:35.54
Lord A phipps-warren
could drink as much as i water

00:37:36.79
Bill
Nothing would ever happen.

00:37:37.30
Lord A phipps-warren
people

00:37:37.91
Bill
It wasn't like that.

00:37:38.65
Lord A phipps-warren
this

00:37:38.91
Bill
You just added alcohol and I was going I was going to be a dick. But all it took was one little thing. And it didn't matter what that little thing was. And it was it was a very short step from being chill to being a raging maniac, you know?

00:37:51.96
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah yeah

00:37:53.95
Bill
And and that was that's the weird part, you know? And I'm not saying that I never damaged anything or anything like that.

00:37:57.11
Lord A phipps-warren
never thing brand with damage anything

00:37:59.63
Bill
it wasn't But it wasn't on a regular basis.

00:37:59.67
Lord A phipps-warren
put wasn onation but it will still in that very

00:38:01.51
Bill
But it was still, it was that it was this very... touchy trigger or touchy switch, you know?

00:38:06.17
Lord A phipps-warren
good question okay and

00:38:08.47
Bill
And, um, literally if somebody got under my skin and it wasn't like I got mad for a minute and i'm like I'll shake this off and go back.

00:38:10.01
Lord A phipps-warren
does under my idea with that demand for

00:38:14.59
Bill
It was, I was done. You know, I was pissed off for the rest of the night and nothing was going to change it.

00:38:15.82
Lord A phipps-warren
don't

00:38:19.11
Bill
You know, it it was, it's terrible, you know?

00:38:19.61
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, it is, it is.

00:38:21.39
Bill
Right.

00:38:22.76
Lord A phipps-warren
And you know, it happens, it happens to so many people. I mean, there's so many different types of of drinkers.

00:38:26.00
Bill
Right.

00:38:29.70
Lord A phipps-warren
I've always, you know, it's almost like an autistic spectrum.

00:38:33.52
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:38:33.56
Lord A phipps-warren
I find, you know, I find that so many people react differently to alcohol.

00:38:33.88
Bill
right

00:38:37.92
Lord A phipps-warren
You get the, you know, you get the single mothers that can drink a skimful and they'll just sit there and cry, you know, and then you've got, and then you've got like the, the rage and alcoholics that literally have one beer and they want to take on the world and fight everybody, which was, which was me.

00:38:43.71
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:38:44.67
Bill
Right.

00:38:53.57
Bill
Right.

00:38:55.06
Lord A phipps-warren
And then you've got, you know, the ones that are super fun and super funny, you know, and they come out of their shells and, you know, and they love everybody.

00:38:59.60
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:39:02.55
Lord A phipps-warren
i'll give me a hug. And oh I love you. You know, there's so many different types, isn't there? And it, This is why alcohol is such a strange and dangerous drug because it, you know, it affects people in different ways.

00:39:07.58
Bill
but

00:39:15.39
Mike
Right.

00:39:16.06
Lord A phipps-warren
And there's people like, like me who who really did draw the short straw with alcohol, because as much as I loved the feeling it gave me, the behavior it made me, it made the way it made me behave was just awful.

00:39:34.58
Lord A phipps-warren
And it ruined my life, guys. It ruined my life.

00:39:37.97
Bill
Right.

00:39:38.07
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, when I went to rehab for the first time, I was homeless on the streets. And i went i ended up knocking on one of my friend's doors. and they And he let me in. He let me in, which was very nice of him. And I ended up sleeping on his sofa for a couple of weeks.

00:39:54.74
Lord A phipps-warren
But I was still drinking there. And I was drinking heavily.

00:39:56.61
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:39:58.74
Lord A phipps-warren
And um I was going out and I was still getting arrested. i was still, you know, for silly things, you know, little fights and trying like, you know, just drunken disorderlies.

00:40:10.05
Lord A phipps-warren
I'd end up punching walls and making my hands bleed and telling everybody to fuck off. And, yeah you know, and just I just wanted to fight everyone.

00:40:20.31
Bill
Right.

00:40:20.73
Lord A phipps-warren
And um I'd end up getting nicked. And my mate said to me, he goes, look, mate, you know, i I need to I need to do something here. I can't have you stay in here, but I don't want you going back on the streets.

00:40:30.50
Mike
Right.

00:40:33.88
Lord A phipps-warren
He goes, I know this place. He's like, I had a friend who was there and um um I want to take you to this rehab center. It's government funded. you haven't got to pay anything. And I was like, well, do you know what? Fuck it. It's going to be better than sleeping on the streets.

00:40:50.42
Bill
Right.

00:40:51.03
Lord A phipps-warren
But I wasn't ready to stop drinking. I just saw it as a place to get me off the streets. I was like, well, okay, this will be a good idea because I'll have a roof over my head and I'll have like three square meals a day, you know, and I thought, yeah, do you know what?

00:40:56.82
Mike
Right.

00:41:01.13
Mike
Uh huh. Right. Mm

00:41:07.81
Lord A phipps-warren
I'll give it a go. So ended up, they ended up doing all the paperwork for me and they drove me up, dropped me off at this rehab place. so It was called the Amber Foundation and it was in a town a little further away called Exeter.

00:41:20.25
Lord A phipps-warren
So it was, It was further away from my town and it was in the middle of nowhere. You know, the the nearest train station was a couple of miles away and it was surrounded by fields and it was a beautiful place.

00:41:31.33
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:41:36.38
Lord A phipps-warren
But i I was so crafty. So um because i was still because I was still relatively close to my hometown and I had connections there,

00:41:45.06
Mike
Right.

00:41:48.63
Lord A phipps-warren
I used to be able to smuggle alcohol into rehab.

00:41:52.13
Mike
Mm

00:41:53.08
Lord A phipps-warren
So I used to sneak out at night. I used to climb out my window, get onto the roof, climb across the roof, shimmy down the metal staircase by on the side of the on the building, run through the fields down to the train station where the drop-off point was, where I'd get the guys to drop off the booze in a bush wrapped in a bag for me,

00:42:14.49
Lord A phipps-warren
And then I'd pick up the booze and I'd drink it and walk back to the rehab center whilst drinking the booze.

00:42:19.91
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:42:20.02
Lord A phipps-warren
And then I'd stash the bottles back in the bush before I got to the rehab center. And if I had anything left, I'd sneak it in and hide it in my room. And they'd never they never found it.

00:42:30.03
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:42:31.44
Lord A phipps-warren
for I was doing that probably twice a week for about three months.

00:42:34.75
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:42:37.23
Bill
Right.

00:42:37.26
Mike
ahha

00:42:37.91
Lord A phipps-warren
And they never, ever knew. They never knew I was doing it. But i'll tell you what, i still had a little bit of integrity about me back then because I never gave any of that boost to anybody else in that rehab center.

00:42:47.19
Mike
yeah Well, of course not. You're not going to share.

00:42:49.30
Lord A phipps-warren
i did

00:42:50.17
Mike
Right.

00:42:50.81
Lord A phipps-warren
I didn't share any of it.

00:42:50.90
Bill
hey

00:42:51.97
Lord A phipps-warren
I didn't even tell anyone that I was doing it because I didn't want anyone to know because I didn't want to get caught.

00:42:53.78
Bill
Right.

00:42:57.69
Mike
Yeah, right.

00:42:58.23
Lord A phipps-warren
Because there were there were times where I was sitting there and I was thinking, oh, if I go and knock on, you know, my mate's door there, he might want to have a drink with me.

00:43:04.74
Mike
Mm-hmm. Sure.

00:43:06.79
Lord A phipps-warren
Because, of course, you know, it's nice to have a drink with someone, isn't it? You know, so I thought...

00:43:10.04
Mike
Yes.

00:43:10.95
Lord A phipps-warren
I thought about it and then I thought, oh no, because it's a risk because he might dob me in.

00:43:15.06
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:43:15.67
Lord A phipps-warren
And then I'd get kicked out.

00:43:17.30
Bill
Well, plus I ran two miles to get this shit. I'm not sharing it.

00:43:19.90
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, in the middle of the night, you know, even in the piss-pouring rain I used to do it.

00:43:20.31
Bill
Yeah.

00:43:22.26
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:43:22.30
Bill
yeah

00:43:25.24
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, I used to get the guys to drive it up to the nearest train station because that was the only place they could drop it off. It was far enough away where it was safe for them to drop it off.

00:43:33.11
Mike
Yeah.

00:43:34.23
Lord A phipps-warren
And um I knew my way how to get there and get back. So... you know, one o'clock, two o'clock in the morning, there's me running through the fields um to get to get to this alcohol. And a lot the time I didn't even know what the alcohol would be. Sometimes it would just be a four cans of beer, four cans of lager.

00:43:51.74
Lord A phipps-warren
Sometimes it would be a bottle of Jack Daniels. You know, it was whatever the boys, because I, because I had the contacts in the town, they used to, I used to get them paid and they'd get what they could and drop it off for me.

00:44:00.13
Bill
Right.

00:44:04.41
Lord A phipps-warren
So I never knew what I was getting.

00:44:04.57
Bill
Yeah. So there were, do you remember Mike? There was a, we, I don't think we were at the Keating center more than that. We went through a, like a sober living facility. it was called the Keating center in Cleveland, Ohio.

00:44:13.23
Lord A phipps-warren
Hmm.

00:44:14.28
Bill
And um we were in group the one time Mike, and I think Marty came in and pulled this guy out.

00:44:14.95
Lord A phipps-warren
Hmm.

00:44:19.46
Bill
And he was a he was like a, he was a dad. He was more straight lace, kind of one of those guys, like a, almost like a Ward Cleaver looking guy. And um Marty pulled him out of group and said that he was, you know, he was, you know, show me what you're doing, blah, blah, blah.

00:44:27.17
Mike
Mm-hmm Mm-hmm

00:44:33.42
Bill
Say yet they thought he was drinking. Like, it's this there's so no way in the world this guy was drinking. So, up and I remember, I don't know how I ended up downstairs.

00:44:39.93
Lord A phipps-warren
i know how i ended up downstairs who specific

00:44:42.07
Bill
It was because I think it was in the dorm that I was in downstairs. And then they're they're, you know, like rustling up his his bunk and all this stuff.

00:44:45.62
Lord A phipps-warren
and there're there're dealing

00:44:48.23
Bill
He was in a bunk over in the corner. He had, I don't know how many bottles, empty bottles of vodka shoved under his bed in the corner. So at night, And whenever you can get down there, they're sucking down a fucking vodka.

00:44:57.20
Lord A phipps-warren
There's always

00:44:59.89
Bill
The same thing. You're like, oh my God, fuck. How did you get it in here?

00:45:02.23
Lord A phipps-warren
number one

00:45:02.77
Bill
Number one. And how did you whatever? And I'm just like, Jesus Christ. I think that was the first one that and we had plenty of those, you know, where people got kicked out for drinking.

00:45:05.85
Lord A phipps-warren
detail the first or app hundred a way.

00:45:10.02
Bill
But I was just kind of blown away because I was so fucking new to all this stuff.

00:45:11.31
Lord A phipps-warren
approaching like There's always a way, there's always there's always a way isn't there?

00:45:13.42
Bill
And I'm like, I got to fuck the people even do that. What's that? Yeah.

00:45:18.43
Lord A phipps-warren
you know it's

00:45:18.58
Bill
You know, I know. Yeah.

00:45:19.80
Lord A phipps-warren
if you If you want something bad enough, you will find it. You know you will always find a way to get it.

00:45:23.71
Mike
Right.

00:45:26.20
Lord A phipps-warren
and it's like this people I don't think people realize with with alcohol. People usually look at that kind of behavior and they associate it with like heroin addicts.

00:45:35.12
Mike
Right.

00:45:35.35
Bill
right

00:45:36.59
Lord A phipps-warren
But it's exactly the same for alcoholics, ah you know especially extreme alcoholics.

00:45:38.80
Mike
Yeah, it is. Mm-hmm.

00:45:42.68
Lord A phipps-warren
it's the It's the exact same pattern of behavior. It's just a different drug.

00:45:45.62
Mike
Right. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah.

00:45:47.96
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah.

00:45:48.16
Mike
I mean, and personally, I've done them all.

00:45:49.83
Bill
Yeah.

00:45:50.58
Mike
um You know, right. And, and um but yeah, I mean, it always came back to alcohol with me.

00:45:53.43
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah yeah

00:45:57.22
Mike
And I mean, used to tell the guys, I used to do group there and I'd tell them, you know, look, man, yeah, the last five years, unless somebody handed me drugs on a silver platter, I didn't do them because it was cheap and legal to go to the corner and get what I needed without a hassle.

00:46:11.88
Mike
You know, all the garbage that the drug...

00:46:12.34
Lord A phipps-warren
exactly yeah

00:46:14.65
Mike
culture has to do with it because it's illegal and black market and all that garbage yeah just go to the corner and get a fucking fifth vodka yep yep now

00:46:22.94
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly that, yeah, yeah, because it's it's easy, it's quick and easy, i mean and it's legal. You know, it's you can't you can't just pop into a shop and nick a couple of bags of heroin, you know, but you you you but you can go into a shop and pick up a crate of lager and walk out with it.

00:46:32.22
Bill
Right? Right?

00:46:38.32
Mike
yep

00:46:39.90
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, and you know we've we've got pubs and bars and clubs, and we sell it, it's legal.

00:46:40.12
Bill
Right?

00:46:44.06
Lord A phipps-warren
People go in there and pay and to get pissed out their face.

00:46:44.55
Mike
Yep.

00:46:47.61
Mike
Yes, exactly.

00:46:47.99
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, people people don't go into bars and restaurants and pay to get to stick a needle in their arm.

00:46:52.89
Mike
Now.

00:46:53.56
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, so people don't seem to um get the link.

00:46:58.93
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:46:59.19
Lord A phipps-warren
They don't get the link. People just see alcohol as, and it's sold to us as fun, isn't it?

00:47:04.25
Mike
Right.

00:47:04.48
Bill
Right.

00:47:04.50
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it's sold to us as a good time. You never see an advert on the TV for alcohol with someone biting some fucker's nose off, the air you do you?

00:47:07.07
Mike
Yep.

00:47:09.95
Mike
Mm-mm.

00:47:12.15
Bill
hey

00:47:14.10
Lord A phipps-warren
It would be a different world if you did. People might look at alcohol and go, fucking hell, I don't want to do what that twat did.

00:47:16.25
Mike
Exactly.

00:47:19.56
Lord A phipps-warren
Do you know what I mean?

00:47:20.02
Mike
yep

00:47:20.22
Bill
Well, and only only thing you ever, ever see that's even semi-close and not even that bad is they'll do the you know like the the DUI type of you know the click it or take it or drive sober, get pulled over, blah, blah, blah.

00:47:31.78
Bill
But that' those are such brief things. Just some dude sitting in, you know they went out to a party for happy hour or went out after work for happy hour. And you know he had a couple of drinks and drove. you know And they saw him show him sitting in his car. He's like, oh, you know, drive sober.

00:47:43.48
Bill
They don't show this guy, you know, fucking throwing, throwing chairs and tables through a goddamn window. You know, they, they don't show them ended up in the goddamn Keating center in Cleveland, Ohio and losing everything, you know?

00:47:49.14
Lord A phipps-warren
the

00:47:52.92
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly that and this is the thing I shouldn't laugh really I shouldn't have because it's a very vote Yeah

00:47:53.12
Mike
Yeah.

00:47:57.30
Bill
Why shouldn't you and why wouldn't you? If we can't find humor in the things that brought us down, the fact that we were able to bring ourselves out of it. I don't laugh at other people, but I'll laugh at myself.

00:48:05.52
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:48:08.49
Bill
If we get somebody out here that's telling their stories, we'll laugh with you.

00:48:08.93
Mike
Uh-huh.

00:48:09.14
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, I do. I do laugh at my, I do laugh at myself, but it is true.

00:48:11.99
Bill
We'll laugh with you. Yeah. Right.

00:48:13.50
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah like You know, you don't see these adverts. When you see the adverts on the telly or the billboards, it's always people smiling and having a good time. And, you know, everybody's lovely and it's all wonderful.

00:48:21.36
Bill
Right.

00:48:23.75
Lord A phipps-warren
And, you know, fucking songs and roses and white doves flying all over the place.

00:48:28.66
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:48:28.66
Lord A phipps-warren
And that's not the reality of it at all.

00:48:30.88
Bill
Right.

00:48:31.03
Lord A phipps-warren
It might be for some people, But for people like us, and you know there there are people in the world, that the reality of alcohol is not like that. And we don't educate people enough on that.

00:48:39.03
Mike
Right.

00:48:42.33
Lord A phipps-warren
And it's really bad, especially for our young people, because our young people are growing up in a world where they think alcohol is great and wonderful and nice and it's you know it's a cool thing to do.

00:48:42.40
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:48:52.52
Mike
Yep.

00:48:52.60
Lord A phipps-warren
And some of these kids don't realize that they're going to grow up to be full-blown alcoholics and potentially very violent and aggressive alcoholics.

00:49:00.34
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:49:00.39
Lord A phipps-warren
They're going to end up in prisons. because they're not educated enough on it.

00:49:02.20
Mike
Right.

00:49:04.67
Bill
Right.

00:49:05.30
Lord A phipps-warren
and and And it's terrible.

00:49:05.32
Mike
Right.

00:49:06.95
Lord A phipps-warren
It is.

00:49:07.29
Mike
It is. You know, so, okay, so we've gotten to the terrible.

00:49:08.67
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, so, okay, so we've gotten to the terrible.

00:49:10.79
Mike
We know that.

00:49:11.47
Lord A phipps-warren
We know that.

00:49:11.75
Mike
We got it.

00:49:12.17
Lord A phipps-warren
We got it. Yeah.

00:49:12.87
Mike
We're going to take a quick break.

00:49:12.95
Lord A phipps-warren
We're going to take a quick break speaking of Admirates.

00:49:14.07
Mike
Speaking of adverts, we're going to take a quick break.

00:49:15.13
Lord A phipps-warren
Cool. We're going to take a quick break.

00:49:16.91
Mike
We're going to have some words from our sponsors, and we're going to come back, and we're going find out about the solution right after these words.

00:49:17.05
Lord A phipps-warren
We're going to have some words from sponsors. We're going to come back and we're going to find out about the solution right after these words.

00:49:32.20
Bill
All right, everyone, welcome back.

00:49:32.40
Lord A phipps-warren
All right, everyone, welcome back.

00:49:34.74
Bill
And yes, I think we should get into the into the solution and everything else.

00:49:35.08
Lord A phipps-warren
And, yes, think we should get into the solution everything else.

00:49:38.50
Bill
But I got i get a quick thing that I want that i want to say about, um you know, again, that the youth and and all those sort of things.

00:49:38.82
Lord A phipps-warren
But I've got a quick thing that want to say about, you know, getting this youth and all sorts of things.

00:49:44.41
Bill
And I'm not disagreeing with you ah at all, Ash, but the only thing that I that i see different between the time that, you know we were little and we were in our teenage years and even when we got sober versus now, is that, you know, personally, I think the, I think social media is a pain in the ass.

00:49:44.42
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm not disagreeing with you at all, Ash, but the only thing that see difference between the times that, you know, we were little and we were in our teenage years, and even when we've got certain versions now, is that, you know, personally, I think the social media,

00:49:59.68
Bill
It's a, it's a necessary evil to do some of the things that we have to do like this and promote and, and, and stuff like that. I mean, it's a lot of people use it to stay in touch and whatever it is.

00:50:07.04
Lord A phipps-warren
a lot of people use it to stay touch with whatever it you've got that, you know, where it could be great in that kids that the same thing is about, you everyone, everything's out there in anticipation of the deal and all that.

00:50:09.49
Bill
So you've got that, you know, where it could be really draining on kids. And the same thing as it's always been, you know, everyone's, everything's out there and this is how you should look and feel and act and blah, blah, blah.

00:50:19.97
Bill
But there's also more information out there.

00:50:20.92
Lord A phipps-warren
there's also more information out there. So I think, know, know for a fact that, you know, the alcohol consumption for the younger generation is less than what it's ever been in years.

00:50:22.57
Bill
So I think I know i know for a fact that you know the alcohol consumption for the younger generation is less than what it's ever been in in years.

00:50:30.10
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:50:30.58
Lord A phipps-warren
mean, there's, everyone seems to be applying what they're doing if they're obviously sparking up the,

00:50:30.74
Bill
I mean, there's everyone's seeing a decline. So what they're doing is they're obviously sparking up the, you know like what were we talking about, Guinness, Mike, I think, that has a, you know I mean, they're they're not alcoholic brand that they just figured like, well, let's just test this out.

00:50:36.77
Lord A phipps-warren
know, like when we talked about getting point, think, that has know, mean, they're not alcoholic brand they figured, like, well, let's just test this out.

00:50:38.57
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:50:43.86
Bill
I mean, my understanding is that's just a, it's a huge factory now because they're making so much money off of it.

00:50:43.99
Lord A phipps-warren
I mean, my understanding is that's just huge factory. making so much money off of it. So they're shifting little bit between that and that's what we've done the graph.

00:50:49.70
Bill
So they're they're shifting a little bit to treat that that different demographic. But the other thing, too, is that, you know, so, you know, I've got i've got a son that's 25.

00:50:53.72
Lord A phipps-warren
But the other thing, too, is that, you know, you know, I've got a son that's 25. I've a daughter that's 38.

00:50:58.66
Bill
I've got a daughter that's 38.

00:50:59.36
Lord A phipps-warren
Mike's daughter that's couple years older than He's got granddaughter that's just turned 18.

00:51:00.81
Bill
Mike's got a daughter that's a couple years older than me. He's got a granddaughter that just turned 18. So these kids, you know, that are, you know, again, they're, you know, adults and stuff now, but they've seen what we've gone through.

00:51:05.86
Lord A phipps-warren
So these kids, know, they are, you know, adults and stuff now, but they've seen what we've lost.

00:51:12.10
Bill
Both Mike and I have been sober now a little over 16 And, you know, they even if they don't remember, some of them remember the the real bad, some them don't, you know, but they've seen what we can do.

00:51:12.86
Lord A phipps-warren
Mike and I have been sober now, literally 16 years. And, you know, even they don't remember, of them remember that they're real bad, some of them said, you know, but they've seen what we can do.

00:51:22.30
Bill
So I think there's more examples out there.

00:51:23.65
Lord A phipps-warren
So think there's more examples out there.

00:51:24.90
Bill
And going back to like what you said, Ash, about, you know, not being anti-alcohol.

00:51:25.75
Lord A phipps-warren
And going back to what you said, Ash, about not being anti-alphaal, that's one thing that Mike have never done, I don't do to my kids.

00:51:29.26
Bill
That's one thing that Mike and I have never done. i don't do to my kids.

00:51:31.54
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:51:32.50
Bill
um My son has been 100 percent completely open.

00:51:34.06
Lord A phipps-warren
My son has been 100% completely old, but he was 90 when I got sober.

00:51:35.81
Bill
He was nine when I got sober. So as he started experimenting and things like that, my ex and I sat down and talked to him.

00:51:37.50
Lord A phipps-warren
So he started experimenting with My ex and had to talk to him to make sure that he was safe and he could always stop there.

00:51:41.85
Bill
you know, to make sure that he was safe and he could always come to us. And he did. there was never any consequences.

00:51:45.33
Lord A phipps-warren
And he did. And there were any consequences.

00:51:46.81
Bill
If he needed a ride home, it wasn't like he was getting a talking to the next day, but we're honest with him about those things.

00:51:47.67
Lord A phipps-warren
He needed to ride home. It wasn't he was getting to talk to people today. But we're honestly about those things.

00:51:52.45
Bill
So I don't know that the advertisers are still working their asses off to draw people in, you know, but I think that there's, I think, and I hope a little bit, there's more knowledge out there and more places for people to turn.

00:51:53.23
Lord A phipps-warren
I don't know that the advertisers are still working their asses off to draw people into. know but i think that there's i think and i hope a little bit with more knowledge out there is more sense for people serve

00:52:04.31
Bill
Although, you know, that could be just ah a wish in my head too.

00:52:04.58
Lord A phipps-warren
although you know that could be for

00:52:06.71
Bill
Who knows? Yeah.

00:52:08.22
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah I totally understand what what you're saying. I've got two children myself. My youngest is 13.

00:52:17.42
Bill
Right.

00:52:17.94
Lord A phipps-warren
And my eldest is 16 and they're actually upstairs right now in bed asleep, which is lovely um because my my youngest son, he lives with me now full time, which is fantastic.

00:52:23.14
Mike
Hmm. Yes.

00:52:29.69
Mike
Cool.

00:52:31.54
Lord A phipps-warren
you know Since I got sober, I got my son back and he now lives with me.

00:52:31.93
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:52:36.32
Lord A phipps-warren
he His mum wasn't on the scene. That's a completely different story from when he was when he was born.

00:52:40.77
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:52:42.04
Lord A phipps-warren
um she's She's not around anymore. um So he went to live with my mum, so he lived with his nanny for the first sort of like 10 years of his life, 10, 11 years of his life.

00:52:52.22
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:52:53.66
Lord A phipps-warren
um and then he And then he came to me.

00:52:53.89
Bill
Mm-hmm.

00:52:56.54
Lord A phipps-warren
Once I got sober, i so much changed in my life in in a short space of time. um And then all the great, wonderful things started to happen. And then my eldest son came back to me, and he doesn't live with me full time. He lives with his mum in a different town, two kids, two different mums.

00:53:13.82
Lord A phipps-warren
But he comes over and stays with me whenever he likes. And I couldn't see those boys for the first half of their life, the first half of their childhood.

00:53:19.69
Mike
Right.

00:53:21.75
Lord A phipps-warren
I will had no access to them whatsoever.

00:53:24.23
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:53:24.25
Lord A phipps-warren
um But talking about the sort of advertisements of alcohol and stuff, um my son, Harry, now might by yeah he he um he plays rugby.

00:53:35.89
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:53:36.02
Bill
Okay. Yep.

00:53:36.89
Lord A phipps-warren
So rugby has a very big drinking culture in the UK.

00:53:40.02
Mike
Sure. Right.

00:53:41.27
Lord A phipps-warren
So he will... He'll play a game on a Saturday afternoon, even though he's only 16. He'll go to the rugby club and he'll get pissed up with the boys.

00:53:46.94
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:53:50.71
Lord A phipps-warren
And I don't stop him from doing that.

00:53:53.54
Mike
Right.

00:53:54.20
Lord A phipps-warren
But I think because of the life that I had and he's seen my, he knows about my past. He knows about my history. He knows about my books.

00:54:03.73
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:54:04.77
Lord A phipps-warren
He knows what I do now for for a living and with the drug and alcohol work that I do. he's got a very good understanding of where alcohol can lead.

00:54:15.54
Lord A phipps-warren
So he's kind of got a little bit of a bit of a better insight to it.

00:54:15.66
Bill
Right.

00:54:20.19
Lord A phipps-warren
So he's he's quite sensible. He doesn't drink and he doesn't turn into a dickhead like I did.

00:54:25.24
Mike
Right.

00:54:25.27
Bill
right

00:54:25.64
Mike
Right.

00:54:25.94
Lord A phipps-warren
as And he doesn't do it very often. And um he just he you know he doesn't he doesn't get absolutely twatted all the time. It's only if he has a rugby game or something, he'll have a few. and

00:54:38.17
Mike
ma

00:54:38.36
Lord A phipps-warren
and And all the boys will do it together. So I'm not against that.

00:54:42.65
Mike
right

00:54:43.16
Lord A phipps-warren
and But I would notice the signs if it was leading somewhere it shouldn't.

00:54:46.55
Mike
Sure.

00:54:47.52
Bill
Right.

00:54:47.77
Lord A phipps-warren
My youngest son is only 13. He's never drank alcohol in his life. And I like to think that he, because he's in my life now and he knows my story, I've been very honest with him about my life and my story.

00:54:59.09
Lord A phipps-warren
He had a lot of questions. Why weren't you around when I was younger? you know why Why did I have to live with Annie?

00:55:02.68
Mike
Right.

00:55:04.79
Lord A phipps-warren
So I was honest about it all and I told him everything. And I think that's given him an insight too. so When he does get to an age where he is introduced to al alcohol, I would like to think that he will be a bit more savvy with it all and be like, you know, it could go one or two ways.

00:55:09.39
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:55:18.09
Mike
Right.

00:55:20.48
Lord A phipps-warren
It could go the complete opposite way. You just never know, do you?

00:55:23.47
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:55:24.01
Bill
Right.

00:55:24.02
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, you never know. But I'd like to think that because of my journey and my story, it's protected them a little bit. They do know the risks and the dangers of where alcohol can lead.

00:55:33.85
Mike
Exactly. Mm-hmm.

00:55:35.90
Lord A phipps-warren
um But also, i think living in the town that I live, it is a party town.

00:55:37.12
Bill
Right.

00:55:41.53
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it is a holiday destination.

00:55:41.69
Mike
Right.

00:55:44.01
Lord A phipps-warren
We're right by the sea.

00:55:44.13
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:55:45.62
Lord A phipps-warren
Every other doorway is a pub or a nightclub. so um So, it you know, it it's a drinking town. It really is. And, um you know, it's it's just one of them.

00:55:55.51
Bill
Right.

00:55:58.15
Lord A phipps-warren
I think anybody that's sort of born in Torquay is kind of doomed to the life of alcohol in some way or another. You know, it just, it just completely depends on your personality and how alcohol affects you, whether you're going survive talkie or not.

00:56:13.14
Mike
c c

00:56:13.70
Lord A phipps-warren
This is, this is how I look at it. But, um, you know, it's just one of those things, you know, they're good kids.

00:56:18.69
Mike
Yeah.

00:56:19.22
Lord A phipps-warren
and They're back in my life and I love them dearly.

00:56:20.57
Mike
Exactly. Yeah.

00:56:21.66
Lord A phipps-warren
And, um, I get, I get to be an example and not only that, I'm an example to the entire town.

00:56:22.17
Mike
And you get to be an example, which is, Yeah.

00:56:28.72
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:56:28.98
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, I think, uh, my name, you know, you,

00:56:31.94
Mike
Yeah.

00:56:32.50
Lord A phipps-warren
somebody could fart my name in ah in a library and someone would recognize it, you know, and go, I know that guy.

00:56:37.43
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:56:37.62
Bill
Right. Right.

00:56:39.59
Lord A phipps-warren
The

00:56:41.98
Mike
Yeah.

00:56:41.98
Lord A phipps-warren
ah the the good thing about it though now, guys, is I'm starting to get recognized for for better things now, which is good.

00:56:48.24
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:56:49.78
Lord A phipps-warren
people There are people out there that still recognize me for the chaos and the problems that caused, um being the alcoholic, being the drunk.

00:56:54.33
Mike
Sure.

00:56:56.86
Lord A phipps-warren
I was the clown of the town. you know and that will haunt me forever. I don't think I will ever get that um that's sort of what's the word and I'm looking for, that image away from anybody.

00:57:07.90
Lord A phipps-warren
People will always remember me as that.

00:57:08.70
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:57:09.58
Lord A phipps-warren
It's a small town. But there are a lot of people that starting to know me for what I do now as well. And I do get a bit of praise here and there, um which is nice.

00:57:21.43
Lord A phipps-warren
It is nice that you know I can walk through the town now without without people radioing other people to let them know I'm there.

00:57:21.49
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:57:28.12
Bill
ah right

00:57:28.42
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:57:29.30
Bill
yeah here Yeah, here he comes.

00:57:29.52
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:57:31.10
Bill
And, you know, in the the other thing, too, is that, and we we talked about, like, my my son's mom, um my ex, had said to me a couple of different times, but, the you know, a few different things a few different times.

00:57:38.14
Lord A phipps-warren
be

00:57:40.66
Lord A phipps-warren
everything

00:57:41.70
Bill
But the one thing she said to me at one point, and this was years ago now, and we get along really well. got a great relationship with her and her current husband and all that sort of stuff. So its everything's all good. But she had said to me, um and I think that, you know, I had made my events to her, but we were talking trying to talk about something.

00:57:58.96
Bill
And she's like, you know I don't want to talk about it. Like, that's cool.

00:58:01.18
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:58:01.40
Bill
But I said, if you ever do, she's like, I know where to come if if I ever want to talk about it type of thing.

00:58:02.12
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

00:58:05.88
Bill
But what she told me was, she said, she goes, here's the deal.

00:58:06.17
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah you

00:58:08.16
Bill
She goes, I'll make it easy for you. She said, I will never forget everything that you did.

00:58:11.38
Lord A phipps-warren
never forget

00:58:13.14
Bill
Never. She said, but I will forgive you as long as you keep doing what you're doing.

00:58:14.17
Lord A phipps-warren
what will forgive you to

00:58:17.93
Bill
She goes, if you don't, keep doing what you're doing, then we're done.

00:58:20.25
Lord A phipps-warren
which that done and then that part

00:58:21.23
Bill
And at that point, my son was, you know, he was 10 or 11 years old and she's like, you're, you're done.

00:58:23.26
Lord A phipps-warren
seven

00:58:25.73
Bill
You're done with him.

00:58:25.72
Lord A phipps-warren
go leave

00:58:26.25
Bill
You're done with me, blah, blah, blah. I mean, we were together, but you know, she was just out out of her life, out of his life, all that stuff.

00:58:27.83
Lord A phipps-warren
we were together but you know she was just autoed by this visual organic any relationship her

00:58:32.49
Bill
Even to this day, you know, again, I've got a good relationship with her.

00:58:33.91
Mike
yeah

00:58:35.57
Bill
And I think with the same thing with my kids and I've got two grandkids.

00:58:36.01
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Absolutely.

00:58:39.37
Bill
If I stop doing what I'm doing, there's just Mike and I talk about it all the time.

00:58:39.83
Lord A phipps-warren
i stop doing what up too was just much i got around all of time

00:58:44.60
Bill
So, um however, you know, we've we've been sober for 16 plus years.

00:58:44.89
Lord A phipps-warren
so um however you know we we looked over patient

00:58:47.94
Bill
OK, long time, lot of work, blah, blah, blah.

00:58:48.34
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah think there quality fit things

00:58:49.84
Bill
All these things are all these good things in our lives. But, you know, it would take less than 16 minutes, you know, to to blow it all up.

00:58:52.50
Lord A phipps-warren
but take licenses absolutely

00:58:57.53
Bill
And it's, it's not going to take long and it's not going to be that difficult. It's, it's not going to take 16 years to blow this shit up, you know?

00:59:04.79
Lord A phipps-warren
Hmm.

00:59:05.29
Bill
So that in and of itself, I mean, again, gives us reasons to go back.

00:59:05.61
Lord A phipps-warren
Hmm. Hmm. in and of itself but a team gives this reasonable back but that my point with that is that nobody ever is in amazingly like and i identifi huge conversationation process

00:59:09.79
Bill
But then my point with that is that nobody ever, it it amazes me Mike and i have had huge conversations about this. a lot of them on here is that knowing that nobody in our life, from our family members to our friends, to our kids, nobody forgets who we were.

00:59:17.43
Lord A phipps-warren
ability in our life english short strength where kids nobody forgets no are now

00:59:23.89
Bill
But, I mean, they're cool with who we are now, and it's not like they're dwelling on it, but they didn't forget.

00:59:24.22
Mike
is

00:59:27.61
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

00:59:28.41
Bill
you know It's always there, and all it's going to take is one goddamn thing, and it's all gone.

00:59:28.98
Lord A phipps-warren
always clear i

00:59:33.34
Lord A phipps-warren
so

00:59:33.61
Bill
So you know I think that that's wonderful, i mean especially with a small town and getting your kids back and all those sort of things.

00:59:34.55
Lord A phipps-warren
know i think that that's wonderful i mean especially of a small town It really is.

00:59:39.53
Bill
I mean, that's just, it's huge. And to your point, and you even said it, in a relatively short amount of time, a lot of lot of these things turned around, which is, it's mind-blowing, isn't it?

00:59:50.78
Lord A phipps-warren
i mean, it's like I just. I can't even put it into words how much my life has changed over the past two years. Now, the one thing I i do struggle with, and I still struggle with it now, is because I've only been sober for two years.

01:00:06.54
Lord A phipps-warren
It's still a re still relatively early in my sobriety journey.

01:00:10.29
Mike
Right.

01:00:10.81
Lord A phipps-warren
And when I got sober, and even now, I still i still struggle to find who I really am.

01:00:19.20
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:00:19.35
Lord A phipps-warren
and what my personality is really like. Now, I know I'm a much better person, I'm a much better human being, I behave much better, and I've done lots and lots of of of good things, what I believe are good things, and I do a lot of help in the community with people that are struggling.

01:00:27.05
Mike
Right.

01:00:36.47
Lord A phipps-warren
um But it is difficult. is It is hard for me to to do, but I feel like I have to do this because It's my way of giving something back.

01:00:50.52
Lord A phipps-warren
i feel like i you know I feel like I need to give something back to the community. I need to do something good.

01:00:55.19
Mike
sure

01:00:57.27
Lord A phipps-warren
And it also, i think a big reason of doing what I do now with writing the books, I talk at schools and prisons and colleges and universities and I go to AA meetings and I do talks in there.

01:01:13.50
Lord A phipps-warren
um and I did a course, a drug and alcohol recovery course, an understanding addiction course. Now, I didn't need to do that understanding addiction course.

01:01:22.15
Mike
Right.

01:01:22.33
Lord A phipps-warren
I've got i've got i forgot that

01:01:22.57
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:01:25.32
Lord A phipps-warren
i've got 30 years of understanding addiction under my belt.

01:01:26.84
Mike
right

01:01:28.82
Lord A phipps-warren
But I thought to myself, if I'm going to do this, and i'm going if I'm going to schools especially, and I'm talking to young kids,

01:01:28.90
Bill
Right.

01:01:36.79
Lord A phipps-warren
I need something to back me up and give me a little bit more credibility than just some ex-violent pissheads coming off the street and talking to us about booze, you know.

01:01:41.46
Bill
Right.

01:01:44.43
Bill
Right.

01:01:46.97
Bill
right

01:01:47.86
Lord A phipps-warren
So I did that course and it really and it really has helped me because it gives me that little bit of credibility and I can now talk ah more openly, more confidently, and I can share my story more confidently with without just having my own lived experience. I've actually got some certification in it.

01:02:06.90
Lord A phipps-warren
which which does make me feel better.

01:02:07.17
Bill
Right.

01:02:09.15
Lord A phipps-warren
But I think the reason why I do these things is because not only am I helping other people, but it helps me.

01:02:09.33
Mike
Sure.

01:02:15.25
Mike
Yo.

01:02:15.35
Bill
Right. right

01:02:16.50
Lord A phipps-warren
It keeps me sober.

01:02:19.27
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:02:19.99
Lord A phipps-warren
And that is what that's what I really love about doing this. you know It took me nearly two years to write the books. like When I started getting a sober, I pretty much started writing the books.

01:02:30.13
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:02:30.33
Lord A phipps-warren
And I think if I didn't have those books to write, I could have very easily fallen back into drink.

01:02:35.32
Mike
Right.

01:02:36.25
Lord A phipps-warren
very easily if I had nothing else to do.

01:02:37.47
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:02:38.85
Lord A phipps-warren
So I i dived into sobriety so quickly.

01:02:39.32
Mike
Sure.

01:02:42.73
Lord A phipps-warren
And like I say, it you guys have been sober hell lot longer than I have.

01:02:46.81
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:02:47.16
Lord A phipps-warren
But i and I've done a lot with my sobriety in the short space of two years because I believe the more I do, the more likely I am to succeed in my sobriety.

01:02:51.70
Mike
Right.

01:02:51.83
Bill
Right.

01:02:58.15
Mike
Mm-hmm. Yep.

01:02:59.96
Bill
Well, and and let me let me say this real quick, and I say this on here all the time. the The people that I'd love to talk to, whether it's on here or sitting down with somebody or meeting up with people at meetings or whatever, are people that are within that, you know, get that year under your belt first, you know, you know get get some of that cloudiness and that brain fog away and, you know, get that first year out of the way.

01:03:04.03
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:03:19.62
Bill
But between one to three years, that to me is like the sweet spot. I love talking to people in that time frame. And I mean, Mike, I think you might you might agree, but I think that And in I think we did more work.

01:03:31.81
Lord A phipps-warren
we I hard in the done 14

01:03:33.26
Bill
I mean, like hard work in the first two to three years than we've done in the remaining 14 that we've been sober, you know?

01:03:34.09
Lord A phipps-warren
don't don't anything, know, you you be, be, be, have be, you you you have you have be, you have have be, be, you have to have to have to have have be, have be, to have be, have to

01:03:35.22
Mike
Right. Oh, yeah. yeah Absolutely.

01:03:41.21
Bill
And, and I don't mean that like we don't do anything, but it's kind of like, um, you know, I use it as, okay, you're driving a car, you're getting onto the, and getting onto the freeway or you're, you know, whatever you got, I got to get a lot of gas to get up to speed.

01:03:52.68
Bill
And then you can cruise a little bit, not cruise, but your, your car's not working as hard. Cause you know what you're doing? You're on, you're on a highway and blah, blah, blah. And we worked we worked our asses off first year, second year, third year, you know, and like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:04:00.20
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

01:04:03.75
Mike
Right. To get on that highway.

01:04:05.34
Lord A phipps-warren
that eyewi yeah yeah that can make some of these think that we do

01:04:06.94
Bill
To get on that point and get to make some of these things that we do, you know, now 12, 13, 14 years later, um just it's it's habit.

01:04:10.49
Lord A phipps-warren
you don't know thirteen fourteen years later just it it habit part of our life you don't think about the meeting it doesn't organiz not need work

01:04:15.54
Bill
It's part of our lives. We don't think about doing it. It doesn't mean that we're not doing the work.

01:04:18.30
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:04:19.94
Bill
It just doesn't feel like we're working as hard.

01:04:20.54
Lord A phipps-warren
and yeah yeah

01:04:22.97
Bill
you know, as, as we used to. So my, my point, when you said only, or we've got more than you, it is what it is.

01:04:25.83
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

01:04:28.86
Lord A phipps-warren
is what time behind does

01:04:29.36
Bill
Time, time does matter. We're huge fans of time and dates and sobriety and we work for every day and all those sort of things, huge fans of it.

01:04:33.56
Lord A phipps-warren
pretty anybody

01:04:36.52
Bill
But, um, you know, the, the work that people do in early sobriety is in my opinion, uh,

01:04:36.92
Mike
Yeah.

01:04:37.43
Lord A phipps-warren
you know that the work

01:04:41.50
Lord A phipps-warren
my opinion

01:04:43.04
Bill
Hats off to you for the work that you're doing and whether it was writing a book or burying yourself in meetings or do whatever the hell people have to do to, to get through that timeframe.

01:04:43.13
Lord A phipps-warren
fun deliver was like

01:04:49.24
Lord A phipps-warren
have to do with it get

01:04:51.48
Bill
We spent a lot, we spent a lot of it in meetings, you know, I mean a ton of that time and just fucking meetings.

01:04:51.77
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:04:53.91
Mike
Yeah.

01:04:54.26
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah yeah

01:04:56.60
Bill
Cause you don't know what else to you what else to do with your fucking life.

01:04:59.80
Lord A phipps-warren
No, I suppose it's it's a bit like a marriage, isn't it?

01:05:01.69
Bill
Yeah.

01:05:02.84
Lord A phipps-warren
The first sort of two or three years of the honeymoon period and everything's wonderful and you're doing everything a hundred miles an hour and then it starts to get stagnant and boring when you're having sex with the same fanny every night.

01:05:05.88
Mike
Right.

01:05:10.74
Bill
Yeah.

01:05:12.73
Lord A phipps-warren
It can get a bit it can get a bit boring as everything gets a bit slow, doesn't it? it's ah it's It's the same with sobriety, I think. You know, the first few years, and I'm still in that honeymoon period of my sobriety.

01:05:25.90
Bill
Right.

01:05:25.88
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, I'm still in that. So, um, I'm pretty sure as as the years go on, um things will slow down and i'll start to I'll start to get more comfortable with my sobriety and I'll cut i'll slow down a bit, you know?

01:05:28.34
Bill
Well, in it...

01:05:33.40
Mike
they well

01:05:36.66
Mike
ah and yeah And with yourself, you know, you you um mentioned you said something that stood out to me. You know, you're like, I'm trying to figure out who the hell I am, you know, right.

01:05:47.94
Mike
And, you know, and still are. And I, yes, completely understand.

01:05:49.82
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah. You know, and still are. And I guess people understand I was too seriously...

01:05:52.54
Mike
I was too. um Seriously.

01:05:57.83
Lord A phipps-warren
Probably I didn't start actually being comfortable with the person that I had become.

01:05:58.11
Mike
I didn't start actually being comfortable with the person that I had become um until I was like about eight years sober, eight, nine years sober, until I started going, you know what, I'm kind of okay.

01:06:04.17
Lord A phipps-warren
So was about eight years sober, eight, nine years sober. So I started going, you know what, I'm kind of okay.

01:06:10.66
Mike
I i kind of like being this way now.

01:06:11.10
Lord A phipps-warren
I kind of like being this way now.

01:06:13.90
Mike
Because, i you know, you're still you're still figuring it out.

01:06:14.30
Lord A phipps-warren
So, you know, you're still figuring it out.

01:06:16.62
Mike
and You're still...

01:06:17.06
Lord A phipps-warren
You're still processing things.

01:06:18.20
Mike
you know processing, oh yes, like you said, 30 years of the drunken fool that everybody fucking knew is that. i would Me too. you know Walk into a room, oh shit, there he is.

01:06:27.57
Lord A phipps-warren
Shit, there he is.

01:06:28.96
Mike
Right.

01:06:29.21
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:06:29.98
Mike
Yeah, me too.

01:06:30.05
Lord A phipps-warren
And I still get that now. I still get that now.

01:06:32.02
Mike
Right, exactly. And I did too. You know, um you know well, God, it's him, you know because they didn't know.

01:06:34.04
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah.

01:06:37.58
Mike
And um you know now it's now I walk in the room, hey, it's him.

01:06:37.82
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:06:41.74
Mike
Cool. you know we We know we're not going to have any problems today with him walking in the room, which is really nice, which is part of...

01:06:42.23
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah yeah

01:06:42.61
Bill
Right.

01:06:45.40
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:06:50.01
Mike
Becoming comfortable and and realizing that what you've become is pretty fucking cool. And you'll get there, man.

01:06:56.55
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:06:57.49
Mike
You'll get there. You you's just got to keep, you know, just just stay on the course, man. Yes. um

01:07:02.07
Lord A phipps-warren
absolutely absolutely but I like yeah I car yeah yeah yeah

01:07:03.03
Mike
You know, early on, early on, I was told, you know, you have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. And that it takes a while, right? you Your first fish, shit, man, five years of sobriety.

01:07:16.06
Mike
You're s still fairly uncomfortable. um You know, and trust me today, I'm fairly comfortable being uncomfortable.

01:07:18.26
Bill
Yeah.

01:07:23.42
Mike
It's okay.

01:07:23.74
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah yeah yeah

01:07:25.30
Bill
There was a, we, we had a friend of ours on her name is Lane.

01:07:25.67
Mike
Hmm.

01:07:25.82
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:07:28.38
Bill
Um, I don't know, a few months ago, a couple months ago, whenever it was. And she told us a story about this ah relationship. I mean, well, she was just fucking nuts for this person in five years.

01:07:34.43
Lord A phipps-warren
Hmm.

01:07:36.38
Mike
Hmm.

01:07:37.42
Bill
Then I'm like, you know what? I said, I had the same thing and I didn't click right away that it was at five years when I was five years sober.

01:07:42.98
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:07:43.06
Bill
And Mike's like, you know what? He goes, five years must be the deal. So he tells his story about this fucked up relationship thing.

01:07:46.36
Mike
Yep.

01:07:48.86
Bill
All three of us at five years had unrealistically these fucked up circumstances with relationships at five to six years sober, you know?

01:07:51.08
Mike
Uh-huh.

01:07:56.91
Mike
Yep.

01:07:57.26
Bill
And it's like, that's why Mike just said that the seven, eight years or nine, whatever he said, I'm like, I'm like, really?

01:07:58.30
Lord A phipps-warren
that what i just said whatever

01:08:00.60
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:08:00.95
Lord A phipps-warren
like

01:08:01.66
Bill
But then like, oh God, oh so five years or so?

01:08:01.71
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

01:08:04.31
Mike
Yep.

01:08:04.38
Bill
And six years was here.

01:08:05.05
Lord A phipps-warren
here

01:08:05.46
Bill
What was this? And then you start thinking about when did I not that I make really great decisions all the time today, you know, but when did I stop?

01:08:07.10
Lord A phipps-warren
vote isnate i think you agree

01:08:10.47
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:08:10.49
Lord A phipps-warren
time today know the when did i stop you know

01:08:12.82
Bill
You know, again, when did I start being uncomfortable or being comfortable, being uncomfortable, being OK to ask for help every time, not just when I thought it was OK?

01:08:14.04
Lord A phipps-warren
whether that i start being uncomfortable but being comfortable with being uncomfortable being okay to ask for help every time that's just when i thought it was okay

01:08:21.87
Bill
You know, being comfortable with my decisions, but always getting, you know, somebody to kind of back me up.

01:08:22.07
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah you know being comfortable with my decision but always get you know some of you has kind of back done gets to with

01:08:27.13
Mike
All

01:08:27.51
Bill
It's a it's a process, man. It is just a it's a long it's a it's a wonderful process.

01:08:29.34
Lord A phipps-warren
just a

01:08:30.39
Mike
right.

01:08:30.45
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah.

01:08:30.81
Mike
Yep.

01:08:31.05
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:08:32.33
Bill
It doesn't have to end in in any way, shape or form that's negative.

01:08:33.94
Lord A phipps-warren
engagement thank you yeah

01:08:36.11
Bill
It just we got to deal with what we're doing, you know, and it's life on life's terms and all these different things.

01:08:36.47
Mike
right

01:08:40.09
Mike
help

01:08:40.44
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:08:40.80
Bill
And, you know, you cherish that things. God, you're kids and you're writing these books, which we want to hear more about. And, and you know, obviously the work that you're doing, all these things, you're building this foundation to carry you through for for years to come.

01:08:45.97
Lord A phipps-warren
you know they're obviously the these things you're building this foundation

01:08:52.92
Bill
And then think about this, all the things you've done in the first two years, which is normal, you know, to do all these things, because that's what we do to keep ourselves busy.

01:08:54.14
Lord A phipps-warren
bit the first

01:09:00.31
Lord A phipps-warren
yes flip it on

01:09:00.52
Bill
But think about what you can do. you know, in, in the fourth year and the fifth year and the eighth year and all these different things.

01:09:03.96
Lord A phipps-warren
fifty

01:09:06.64
Bill
I'm not telling you, you know, to plan ahead for the rest of your existence, but you know, the point is, is that we can do whatever the fuck we want. As long as we stay sober, we make these, these decisions with a sober mind, you know?

01:09:13.69
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah absolutely are can agree can agree more i really couldn't and it's some you know the the

01:09:21.82
Mike
Yeah. And it's, it's the, the bitch of it is it's a fucking slow process, man. And we like, we like that quick reaction.

01:09:31.85
Mike
We, we, that's what we're used to, you know, but a buddy of mine used to say, and it's one of my favorite sayings, we don't walk 10 miles into the woods, turn around, make two steps and expect to be out of the woods.

01:09:32.79
Lord A phipps-warren
Oh, we do. Yeah, yeah.

01:09:43.93
Mike
Yeah.

01:09:44.50
Lord A phipps-warren
No, that's right.

01:09:44.70
Mike
You know?

01:09:45.38
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

01:09:45.72
Mike
Yeah. You know? You got to keep fucking walking.

01:09:47.48
Lord A phipps-warren
i mean, you just got to walk through it and keep going through it. I mean, but you know, I have to figure out who I am, like who I really am and all this business.

01:09:51.93
Mike
Yup.

01:09:55.83
Mike
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

01:09:57.84
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm still figuring all that out now.

01:09:59.74
Mike
Yeah.

01:10:00.28
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, I'm only two years in.

01:10:00.50
Mike
And you will.

01:10:02.81
Lord A phipps-warren
But like I say, I'm happy with where I am.

01:10:02.95
Mike
Right.

01:10:05.40
Lord A phipps-warren
and The main, the most important thing is, is that I'm sober.

01:10:05.85
Mike
Yup.

01:10:08.92
Lord A phipps-warren
And I know, I know full well, and i'm I'm very, very confident that I will stay sober for the rest of my life because I know full well, if I were to go back now, it would, it would either kill me or I would end up killing somebody else.

01:10:09.10
Mike
Yup.

01:10:19.93
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:10:24.50
Mike
Right.

01:10:25.02
Lord A phipps-warren
And i I'm not, or both or both.

01:10:25.20
Bill
Right.

01:10:25.82
Mike
Or both.

01:10:26.93
Bill
Right.

01:10:27.86
Mike
Yeah.

01:10:27.88
Bill
Right.

01:10:28.22
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm, and, however that may However that may be, I'm not saying I'm going to go out and and murder somebody, but you know i could I could crash my car or anything could happen.

01:10:33.69
Mike
yeah

01:10:36.66
Mike
Right.

01:10:38.15
Lord A phipps-warren
And I just know, I just know something bad would happen.

01:10:43.42
Mike
Yeah.

01:10:43.80
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm not prepared to do that to my kids or myself or the people I've got back in my life.

01:10:45.74
Mike
Mm-hmm. Right. Mm-hmm.

01:10:49.04
Lord A phipps-warren
I just can't do it. And even though um'm even though I'm very early in my sobriety, two years in, I'll tell you what, guys, life's good.

01:10:50.39
Mike
Right.

01:10:57.41
Mike
Yeah.

01:10:57.53
Bill
Right, right.

01:10:58.23
Lord A phipps-warren
Normal life is nice.

01:10:58.42
Bill
right

01:10:59.96
Mike
Yes, it is, isn't it?

01:11:01.36
Lord A phipps-warren
It's nice. It's nice.

01:11:02.26
Mike
Who the fucking thought?

01:11:02.52
Lord A phipps-warren
to Who'd have thought? and You know, i'd never had the opportunity to experience it. I never gave myself the opportunity.

01:11:09.49
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:11:10.84
Lord A phipps-warren
I can't remember my years from birth to 12.

01:11:14.46
Mike
Right.

01:11:15.03
Lord A phipps-warren
I can't remember that far back. So all I can remember is from 12 to 40, and 42 now. from 12 to 40 was blind blur of alcoholism.

01:11:21.61
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:11:21.91
Lord A phipps-warren
um from twelve to forty was was a blind blur of alcoholism

01:11:27.48
Mike
Yep.

01:11:28.31
Lord A phipps-warren
So now I don't have that.

01:11:30.37
Bill
Right?

01:11:30.53
Mike
Yeah.

01:11:31.06
Lord A phipps-warren
And it's like, wow, like actually it's quite, oh, so that's what dreams feel like.

01:11:36.05
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:11:36.54
Bill
Right?

01:11:36.95
Mike
Great.

01:11:37.06
Bill
Right?

01:11:37.12
Lord A phipps-warren
That's, oh, so that's what these emotions feel like.

01:11:39.99
Mike
Yes.

01:11:40.44
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, that's what having ah a good night's sleep feels like. That's what, oh, so that's what it feels like waking up in the morning and not having a hangover.

01:11:43.73
Mike
Uh-huh.

01:11:48.66
Mike
Right.

01:11:49.37
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, oh, that's what it feels like stumbling, you know, that like coming home from from a nice meal and not throwing up all over the floor.

01:11:50.14
Bill
right

01:11:57.38
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:11:57.72
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, that's what it feels like. And it's all new experiences.

01:12:02.07
Mike
Yes. yeah Getting up and and and hitting the light switch and the lights come on because the fucking power bill's paid.

01:12:08.20
Lord A phipps-warren
The power bill's paid, you know, and sort of getting up in the morning and having a decent breakfast that you're actually able to eat and enjoy.

01:12:13.82
Mike
Yes. Mm-hmm.

01:12:16.41
Lord A phipps-warren
And you're not sat there feeling sick like you're going to throw up all over the place, you know, which was a daily occurrence for me.

01:12:20.38
Mike
Right. Absolutely.

01:12:23.12
Lord A phipps-warren
I mean, I've got a house now, and not to gloat or brag, but I've got a three-bedroom house now.

01:12:25.63
Mike
Yeah.

01:12:28.47
Mike
Yeah, hey, me too.

01:12:28.70
Lord A phipps-warren
And it's like, I've never had that.

01:12:28.92
Bill
Right. Right.

01:12:32.28
Mike
Yeah, neither am I.

01:12:32.55
Bill
Right.

01:12:33.07
Lord A phipps-warren
I've never i' had never heard that.

01:12:34.86
Mike
Right.

01:12:35.51
Lord A phipps-warren
And now I have.

01:12:35.62
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:12:36.23
Lord A phipps-warren
And it's like, wow, this is this is incredible.

01:12:36.92
Mike
Yep.

01:12:38.91
Lord A phipps-warren
like Life is good. There's so many good things out there. And alcohol can just strip it all away from you at any moment. And i know I know full well if I was to ever go back, andt then all it would take is one sip.

01:12:47.03
Mike
right

01:12:53.58
Lord A phipps-warren
That one, I know full well if I had one sip, I'd probably, if I had a sip, I'd drink of glass.

01:12:59.32
Mike
Oh, yeah. right right Yeah, right.

01:12:59.80
Bill
Right.

01:13:00.38
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:13:01.16
Mike
I mean, you know, it's funny.

01:13:01.76
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, they don't have enough.

01:13:03.12
Mike
I'll go into a bar and, you know, for whatever reason, see a band or whatever or a function with someone and um somebody will say, you know, why don't you have a drink?

01:13:04.68
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:13:07.86
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah

01:13:14.10
Mike
And I'll just look at them. I'll go, they don't have enough.

01:13:16.98
Lord A phipps-warren
yeah they they don't have enough

01:13:18.07
Mike
You know, there's there's the bar with, a you know, 100 bottles and no, they don't have enough.

01:13:19.64
Lord A phipps-warren
says

01:13:22.97
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:13:23.83
Mike
They don't have enough for me.

01:13:24.31
Lord A phipps-warren
No, this is it. Yeah. And it's very, very true.

01:13:26.49
Mike
Yeah.

01:13:27.56
Lord A phipps-warren
It's it's such a true saying because it's never enough.

01:13:27.80
Mike
Yeah.

01:13:30.93
Lord A phipps-warren
I used to drink so much that I would throw up.

01:13:30.98
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:13:33.37
Lord A phipps-warren
My belly would swell and i'd I'd throw up all over the place just to empty my belly and then fill it up again.

01:13:34.00
Mike
Mm-hmm. Right. Yep. Yep.

01:13:39.77
Bill
Right. Yeah.

01:13:39.96
Mike
Yep.

01:13:40.63
Lord A phipps-warren
I do.

01:13:40.79
Mike
Me too.

01:13:41.39
Lord A phipps-warren
I do that three or four times a night.

01:13:43.67
Mike
Sure.

01:13:44.82
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it's ridiculous. But, you know, that's we we are alcoholics. And even though I don't drink anymore, but I will always be an alcoholic.

01:13:53.08
Bill
Oh, yeah.

01:13:53.30
Mike
Me too.

01:13:53.48
Bill
Yeah. Right. Yep. Me too.

01:13:54.73
Lord A phipps-warren
yep Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's why and that's that's it's our curse and it's our superpower.

01:13:56.38
Bill
So.

01:14:01.34
Mike
Yes, right.

01:14:01.85
Bill
Right. Absolutely.

01:14:02.36
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, it's our curse and it's our superpower because the curse is we're alcoholics and the superpower is we can recognize we're alcoholics.

01:14:11.61
Mike
Mm-hmm. We found the solution.

01:14:12.54
Lord A phipps-warren
So that's what we found the solution.

01:14:15.54
Mike
Yes, we found the medicine that we need every day so that we don't have to inflict ourselves on the people that we love.

01:14:22.07
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly that.

01:14:22.14
Bill
Right.

01:14:22.78
Lord A phipps-warren
Exactly that. And the first step of recovery is realizing that you are an alcoholic and it's a problem.

01:14:27.82
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:14:28.92
Bill
Absolutely.

01:14:29.02
Lord A phipps-warren
So, you know, it's a blessing and a curse all at the same time.

01:14:32.44
Bill
So tell us ah tell us a little bit more. I mean, obviously, as you started to say before, you started writing the book right away. So is it, you've got the one book, but am I catching this right? You're working on another one or almost done with another one or or tell us about whatever you got.

01:14:43.67
Lord A phipps-warren
Well, it's a trilogy. So there's three books.

01:14:48.60
Bill
Okay.

01:14:48.65
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:14:49.24
Lord A phipps-warren
All three books

01:14:49.62
Bill
I missed one. Okay.

01:14:50.62
Lord A phipps-warren
all three books are now written.

01:14:52.98
Bill
Okay.

01:14:53.69
Lord A phipps-warren
Two of them are out and available to buy. So the first book is called The Inner Upgrade, and that is about my transformation. I touch on my life a little bit in there, so I give a little bit of background about my life and how it used to be, but nothing in too much depth.

01:15:12.30
Lord A phipps-warren
It's more about my transformation, how I sort of... um found spirituality and manifestation, how I was able to manifest a better life for myself, get myself sober and transform my life in a short space of time.

01:15:24.70
Lord A phipps-warren
That's what The Inner Upgrade is about. um And it goes very, very deep into a lot of spiritual sort of woohoo stuff, which I'm a big believer in.

01:15:33.54
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:15:33.59
Lord A phipps-warren
um And the second book is called Before The Inner Upgrade. So it's a prequel to the first book. And that is about my life of chaos. So that the second book is all about all the bad shit I did, um all the prison sentences, the rehab sentences. There's a couple of suicide attempts in there that I was able to survive. We haven't talked about it on this podcast, but there was times I got stabbed in the face.

01:15:58.84
Lord A phipps-warren
I nearly drowned. that There's 30 years of very, very bad things that I've put all into that book. So that's before the inner upgrade. And then the third book, which is being released in September this year,

01:16:12.35
Lord A phipps-warren
It's called After the Inner Upgrade, and that's all about how my life is now since I stopped drinking.

01:16:14.73
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:16:19.51
Lord A phipps-warren
So it's all about the challenges that I face now that I'm sober. It's about getting my children back, how I managed to um be able to now speak in schools and colleges and prisons about the dangers of alcohol and things like this. and and And it's all about that. And there's a few letters in there that I wrote. I wrote a letter to my children in there.

01:16:38.78
Lord A phipps-warren
um which I thought about writing privately and putting it in an envelope to give to them. But I thought, you know what, if I'm going to tell my story, I need to tell it in full.

01:16:50.78
Lord A phipps-warren
So I put those those letters in the book for everybody to read. i think um i think it's and I think it's an important message.

01:16:56.15
Mike
Nice.

01:17:00.28
Lord A phipps-warren
So the the whole the whole story is basically a journey of my life from 12 to up till now, but in three parts.

01:17:06.79
Mike
Mm-hmm. Nice.

01:17:08.63
Lord A phipps-warren
And um yeah, so it's ah I'm very, very proud of those books. um And I'm looking forward to the to the trilogy being being out and you know and and it all being done.

01:17:19.52
Lord A phipps-warren
you know

01:17:20.20
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:17:20.54
Lord A phipps-warren
Sometimes I sort of think to myself, because I finished writing in the third one not that long ago. It's been sent off to the editor now.

01:17:27.19
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:17:27.58
Lord A phipps-warren
And I sort of sit there and I think, oh, it's almost like you know it's took me two years to do these. And it's almost like I've lost my baby.

01:17:34.68
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:17:37.00
Lord A phipps-warren
I don't know what to do with myself now because I used to get up early in the morning and I'd go, oh, I'll pop to the office and do a bit of writing.

01:17:39.20
Mike
aha

01:17:43.93
Lord A phipps-warren
And now i I wake up and I sort to go, oh, well, I kind of finished it. There's nothing nothing left to write.

01:17:50.04
Mike
yeah

01:17:50.71
Bill
okay

01:17:51.12
Lord A phipps-warren
I'll just go and have a coffee and sit in the garden instead. But, you know, I've got lots and lots of other plans. So I do have things to keep me busy. I do have things to keep me going. I've booked in with lots of different podcasts and I've got lots of booking schools, colleges.

01:18:05.87
Lord A phipps-warren
and I'm going to my local college soon in Torquay, which I'm really looking forward to um because it's in my hometown.

01:18:10.54
Mike
Nice.

01:18:13.94
Lord A phipps-warren
So I think that's going to be a very very big, important one for me to to be invited to the college, to speak to the kids at the college and hopefully give them a little bit of motivation and inspiration um to not make the mistakes that I made.

01:18:28.47
Lord A phipps-warren
So really, really pleased about that.

01:18:28.64
Bill
Right.

01:18:30.93
Mike
Nice.

01:18:31.04
Lord A phipps-warren
Amazon is the one.

01:18:31.13
Bill
And, and I was just doing a quick search on, on the books and stuff like that. Cause I didn't have a link obviously in the, um, in the promo that we, that we did, but I think probably knowing that there's the three books like that, we, we try to get people a little bit of credit that, you know, if they're, if they don't know how to listen to a podcast, they probably know how to use Google.

01:18:47.24
Bill
So I'm going to recommend that people just look up the inner upgrade with your name, which I just did. And I was able to

01:18:52.47
Lord A phipps-warren
amazon is the one

01:18:54.26
Bill
Yep. and I saw Amazon. I saw Target. I saw a couple other things, Google Books. It looks like they're and it's in a variety of of areas that it might be available. You know, so obviously people can have their choice. But um the other thing, too, and like ah you you made a good point, and it's kind of funny. we um Again, we we do we started doing things a little bit different with the stories because we don't. We just despise drunkologues.

01:19:13.37
Bill
But I think it's kind of cool when somebody comes on here with a book because, you know, if you want to hear a story, go buy his go buy his book, man. You know, because, um I mean, i

01:19:21.08
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, yeah, yeah. there's ah There's an awful lot that we haven't talked about on this podcast. And it's all it's all in the books.

01:19:26.75
Bill
Right.

01:19:28.09
Lord A phipps-warren
So it's an interesting read.

01:19:29.11
Bill
Well, and and that's the thing. Yeah, even if you've talked about it on other podcasts, it's not everything. So I think it gives people the opportunity. It's one thing to hear you talk about these stories, but I think that people get an opportunity to to listen to them.

01:19:41.05
Bill
And so you said the third one's coming out in September, but um that's a great way to do it.

01:19:41.59
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:19:45.01
Bill
I mean, doing the the initial thing and then kind of going back to the to the darkness and then the after fact, I think that's that's an interesting way because I know a lot of people, I mean, I i don't do a lot with you know reading a lot of recovery books, but I've done a lot of um you know, podcasts and things like that and listen to stories and, you know, some, some audio books where, you know, like celebrities that have gotten sober.

01:20:04.06
Lord A phipps-warren
know like celebrity that of that so yeah

01:20:05.90
Bill
So you hear the whole story in there and usually people just go into it within their own, you know, just one book, but to do it in three, I think is a, is an interesting way to do it.

01:20:09.24
Lord A phipps-warren
we with in don at all you one book that you read that difficult is' an interesting need to do it so

01:20:14.58
Bill
So how, how's that been received by people?

01:20:15.74
Lord A phipps-warren
how that been

01:20:17.32
Bill
I mean, between the first two, is that the people seem to like that it's separated like that?

01:20:21.56
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah, it seems it seems to be received really well. um I'm getting some really good feedback from the books.

01:20:27.70
Bill
Good.

01:20:27.83
Lord A phipps-warren
it's It's funny though, because I was going to i was going to release it was i was going to release one a year. It was going to be a three-year project.

01:20:35.14
Bill
Right.

01:20:36.75
Lord A phipps-warren
I was going to release the Inner Upgrade this year, and then I was going to release the second one next year, and the third one the year after 2028. And I released the first one and people read it and they were like, right, we we want more.

01:20:48.66
Lord A phipps-warren
We want more of the story. And I was like, there's more coming. It's going to be a trilogy, but you have to wait till next year. And people were like, oh, we can't wait that long. We can't wait that long.

01:20:56.25
Bill
a

01:20:56.54
Lord A phipps-warren
and i thought And I thought to myself, do you know what? Actually, with these kind of books and these kind of stories, I think I need to bring them all out quicker. So I wanted to bring the trilogy out all this year.

01:21:07.70
Lord A phipps-warren
um It just, I think is it was good for me to do, obviously, because it kept me busy and it keeps me on the on the straight and narrow path. But I also think if I left it too long in between, um it's not going to reach the right people. that The whole point of the books in the first place was to try and help people.

01:21:29.91
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:21:30.58
Lord A phipps-warren
So I wanted to get my story out there in full because I really want those books to fall into the hands of people that need to hear it. People that are struggling themselves, people that are either in sobriety and struggling or people that are heading down the path that I was that i was leading down.

01:21:47.03
Lord A phipps-warren
um And I'll tell you what, I've had some quite good feedback from people that have read it and they've said, you know what, I read your book recently, because I'm on Instagram, I get some messages on Instagram from people saying, look, I've read your book recently and I just want to say, like, you know, I haven't had a drink for three days because of your book.

01:22:05.62
Mike
Nice.

01:22:05.85
Bill
Right?

01:22:06.33
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm like, you know what, three days is incredible.

01:22:09.60
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:22:09.83
Bill
Right?

01:22:10.36
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, that's amazing. that Let's turn that three days into three years, you know.

01:22:12.02
Mike
Yep.

01:22:14.86
Lord A phipps-warren
And I try and help people online as well.

01:22:14.88
Mike
Yeah.

01:22:18.23
Lord A phipps-warren
you know i've i' I'm starting to build a more of a following on my Instagram now. um I had a really bad time with it. I actually got hacked.

01:22:28.59
Lord A phipps-warren
My Instagram got hacked on the day that I released my first book.

01:22:29.93
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:22:32.95
Bill
Oh. Oh.

01:22:33.97
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. So I was like, shit, because I use social media to advertise my books.

01:22:40.57
Mike
Right.

01:22:40.73
Bill
Oh, sure. Right.

01:22:41.50
Lord A phipps-warren
And I was like, shit, I've lost all my followers. I've lost and I've got to start a whole new book, a whole new um a whole new Instagram page. And then I thought and I thought, that's fate. That's fate, that is.

01:22:54.17
Bill
Right.

01:22:54.81
Lord A phipps-warren
That's fate because now I can start a whole new Instagram page, but I can now start one specifically around my books and my brand.

01:23:04.15
Mike
Right.

01:23:04.68
Bill
Right.

01:23:04.70
Lord A phipps-warren
So I kind of looked at it as a bit of a blessing, really. So it was like i lost confidence. But then I had to rebuild again from scratch. So it's like everybody that follows me now, they usually follow me because they like the recovery journey.

01:23:19.16
Lord A phipps-warren
Whereas before, my old Instagram, I had all kinds of stuff on there, pissed up me in town. And, you know, and it was all, you know, fuck this and fuck that.

01:23:24.82
Bill
hey

01:23:28.22
Lord A phipps-warren
And, you know, me being angry at the world.

01:23:28.80
Mike
Right.

01:23:30.79
Lord A phipps-warren
And there was so much on there that when I look at it, I look back now, I think embarrassing, horrible stuff from my past.

01:23:33.30
Mike
right

01:23:37.24
Mike
is

01:23:37.59
Lord A phipps-warren
um And that's all gone. And it was really, really, really weird sort of spiritual thing that happened.

01:23:39.35
Mike
right

01:23:43.28
Lord A phipps-warren
What are the chances that the day I release my book, that account gets hacked and I lose it?

01:23:48.31
Mike
Yes.

01:23:48.92
Lord A phipps-warren
I lose all of it.

01:23:49.18
Mike
Yeah.

01:23:49.34
Bill
Right. Right. Right.

01:23:50.81
Lord A phipps-warren
And I've got to start again. Somebody somewhere, I mean, you know, somebody somewhere had had done that.

01:23:53.80
Mike
Yep.

01:23:57.78
Mike
Doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Cool.

01:24:00.28
Lord A phipps-warren
exactly that.

01:24:00.73
Bill
yes

01:24:01.44
Mike
Cool.

01:24:01.44
Lord A phipps-warren
So, so I've built, so I've built this new brand on my Instagram, which is great, you know, and I always invite people to follow me on there because I'm very active on there.

01:24:01.88
Bill
as ah

01:24:06.14
Mike
cool

01:24:11.48
Lord A phipps-warren
Um, I do advertise my books and the things that I'm doing on there. I record a lot of my, um my talks when I go to the schools and the rehab centers. Now I'm not allowed to film, um, the kid, that would I'm not allowed to film the clients at the rehab centers, but I do film myself doing these talks.

01:24:21.87
Mike
Right.

01:24:24.53
Mike
Mm

01:24:29.18
Lord A phipps-warren
So, um, that's uh that's good i post that on there as well so people can see what talk about and how i talk and how i try and help others so that's what that's what i've dedicated the the last half of my life to i mean i don't know how long i've got left on this planet you know none of us do i don't know how much damage i did to my body or my liver over the 30 years you know i i might have 10 years left i might have 30 but i'd like to try and do some good in that time um

01:24:45.08
Mike
hmm. None of us do.

01:24:46.78
Bill
right

01:24:50.97
Mike
Right.

01:24:59.16
Mike
ah One day at a time.

01:25:00.82
Bill
Right.

01:25:00.92
Lord A phipps-warren
One day at time. And guys, what? I'm enjoying every single sober day up.

01:25:02.58
Mike
he

01:25:04.04
Lord A phipps-warren
You mean, thing. Like you said, know, it's just matter know, nobody what have But the feeling part know, getting to the point, I don't remember how this sober or

01:25:08.09
Mike
Beautiful.

01:25:08.92
Bill
Yeah. And, you know, I mean, that's, that's the thing. And like, ah like you had just said, you know, just a matter of ah who knows, I mean, nobody knows, you know, what, what we have left, but the the coolest part is, that you know, getting to the point where, and I don't remember how long i had been sober until I got to this point, but you know, you, you get to a point where you kind of got your shit together and you, you're settled everything with all the people that you completely fucked over.

01:25:29.20
Bill
And I mean, I don't want to die, you know, tomorrow, but I know that if I do,

01:25:32.21
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah. Yeah.

01:25:33.35
Bill
die tomorrow. um I mean, there's nothing left unsaid, undone. There's no regrets. I've said what I need to say to people. And when I do have something to say, I say it. We've had you know and people pass in our lives and and thankfully the same thing.

01:25:45.54
Bill
You know, there's none of this shit that's left undone, which is what we we learned, you know, in this whole recovery process.

01:25:45.97
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:25:51.38
Bill
You know, so that's a great thing. But I wanted to ask you a quick question, too, because i know you said that you go out to schools and rehab centers and prisons and that sort of thing. Just curiosity out of all those different things and podcasts and whatever you're doing, you know, outside of that.

01:26:04.09
Bill
What do you consider? or What do you think is the most i don't want to say enjoy doing most? What's the most gratifying for you to do out of all those things?

01:26:12.40
Lord A phipps-warren
I'll tell you that the most, my favorite part of that whole journey, I'd be honest now, I love doing the talks. I love talking to you guys. I love doing the podcast. That's great.

01:26:25.14
Lord A phipps-warren
But the biggest one for me was writing those books because that's that's my legacy in those books.

01:26:25.26
Mike
hmm.

01:26:28.62
Mike
Yeah.

01:26:28.69
Bill
Right.

01:26:32.80
Mike
hmm.

01:26:33.08
Lord A phipps-warren
And they will always be there.

01:26:34.65
Mike
Right.

01:26:35.35
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, if I was to die tomorrow, people can still hear my story and hopefully help somebody.

01:26:41.08
Mike
hmm.

01:26:43.82
Mike
Yeah.

01:26:44.18
Lord A phipps-warren
You know, if I was to die tomorrow, I can't talk on these podcasts anymore. I can't go to the rehabs and centers.

01:26:48.28
Mike
hmm.

01:26:49.54
Lord A phipps-warren
I'm not going to be on this planet anymore. i'll be in a different realm, but my books will still be here. So that was the most important thing for me. And I think that was one of the reasons as well that I wanted to bring it all out so quick.

01:27:00.33
Bill
Right.

01:27:00.57
Lord A phipps-warren
because I thought, you know what, the future isn't, nothing's certain, tomorrow isn't promised to anybody, um I need to get these books out there, I do believe I can help other people, and I am helping other people, and I have helped other people, and I think these books are going to be a big help, and for my children as well, and the members of my family, the the books will always be there, if I die tomorrow, people can still buy my books, and so writing the books and getting them out was the really big one for me,

01:27:05.85
Mike
Right.

01:27:30.29
Bill
Right.

01:27:30.33
Lord A phipps-warren
um that that was That was the one that sort of trumps everything else, really. and And now I just enjoy doing what I do now. I enjoy doing the talks and I enjoy doing all that. But if it all came to an end tomorrow, the books are still there.

01:27:43.77
Mike
Right.

01:27:43.92
Bill
Right.

01:27:44.66
Lord A phipps-warren
So my my story can still be told, even if I'm dead and buried or wherever it is, I go when I die.

01:27:44.84
Mike
There?

01:27:50.84
Lord A phipps-warren
Nobody knows.

01:27:51.12
Bill
Right.

01:27:51.29
Mike
There?

01:27:53.37
Lord A phipps-warren
Yeah.

01:27:53.53
Bill
So what what else? I mean, what what did we and I guess maybe is there anything that either we missed anything you want to wrap up with any anything you want to to let people know or direct people give the names of the books again where to find you anything like that to just kind of as we're wrapping up here.

01:28:09.82
Lord A phipps-warren
Yes, I mean the books, The Inner Upgrade by Lord Ashley Phipps Warren. um I use my my real name on the books, of course, because it makes me sound a little bit more special than just Ashley.

01:28:18.82
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:28:21.40
Mike
he

01:28:23.83
Lord A phipps-warren
So yeah, it's Lord Ashley Phipps Warren on the books. um And, you know, don't know how you can get them in America. I think they're in Barnes & Noble in America, to be honest So you can get them there. Amazon, you can get them. In the UK, you can get them in Waterstones as well, which is a bit like a Barnes & Noble store, but it's in the yeah UK, our Waterstones stores.

01:28:44.47
Lord A phipps-warren
um And my social media, that's a big place where people can get in touch with me. The links for the books are in there as well. My social media lordphipswarren underscore author.

01:28:57.21
Lord A phipps-warren
So I invite anybody to add me on Instagram. My Facebook is just ashleyphipswarren. Because for some strange reason, they won't let you use Lord.

01:29:09.18
Mike
Ha ha ha ha.

01:29:09.62
Lord A phipps-warren
And I don't know why, which is really weird. um But yeah, my Instagram is open to anybody. And, um you know, I invite anybody to follow me there. and And if anybody wants to talk to me as well on that, I do get a lot of messages on there where people want to ask me questions about stuff.

01:29:26.42
Lord A phipps-warren
And I'm always active. And I do i do do my very best to answer every message I get. um and I enjoy doing that, i I just want to help people, and I don't want people to make the same mistakes that I did, and go down the same routes that I went down, it's no way to live, as you guys know, you know, alcohol can destroy lives, and it does destroy lives, and

01:29:48.98
Bill
Right.

01:29:55.58
Lord A phipps-warren
If I can just help a few people out you know before I die, that's what I want to do. So you know I think i think that's really that kind of really wraps it up for me.

01:30:05.22
Bill
Okay. Yeah.

01:30:05.84
Mike
Beautiful.

01:30:06.06
Bill
And, uh, and we have the, um, we, we have the link to your Instagram and I usually, that's the easiest way for people. So if anyone's listening to these, you can pop into the description on the episode and click over the Instagram or again, hopefully you know how to use Google.

01:30:18.64
Bill
Hopefully if you're not an Instagram, you can go to Facebook.

01:30:19.23
Mike
Yep. Well, there you go.

01:30:20.85
Bill
You're going be able to, you're going be find them everywhere.

01:30:22.90
Lord A phipps-warren
I didn't know how to use I didn't know how to use Google to two years ago so I got sober I didn't even have a phone

01:30:22.98
Bill
That's why usually do that quick search.

01:30:26.94
Mike
well there you go

01:30:27.10
Bill
ah Well, well, it, um,

01:30:31.06
Mike
Yeah, exactly. I was going to say, it's a little tough to use Google when you have a device to access it.

01:30:32.92
Lord A phipps-warren
and yeah that's right yeah

01:30:35.70
Bill
Yeah, and that's it that's it that's a good point.

01:30:36.40
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:30:37.38
Bill
So i'm I'm just saying, hopefully people are listening to this because usually if you're listening to a podcast, a lot of people listen on their phone or a computer. so I'm like, that should give them access. But good point. Very, very good point. But but bottom line there is you're you're easy enough to locate and obviously follow up on Instagram and um check out his books.

01:30:50.03
Lord A phipps-warren
I I won't guys Okay, but Thank you everyone for listening to yet another episode of so demature

01:30:53.94
Bill
And yeah, it's been it's been a treat. But you know speaking of a treat, mike's got it Mike's got a wonderfully fun way of closing out the podcast.

01:30:56.89
Mike
Mm-hmm. see

01:31:01.16
Bill
But Ash, do that remember, don't hang up yet. And did Mike's going to And Mike's going to do a little bit of a closing thing here.

01:31:04.73
Lord A phipps-warren
i won't guys

01:31:07.68
Bill
Then we'll say our goodbyes and we'll stop recording. But yeah, you don't want to hang up yet till we're all done. Okay. So your turn, Mr.

01:31:12.41
Lord A phipps-warren
okay but

01:31:13.44
Bill
Mikey.

01:31:14.14
Mike
All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for listening to yet another episode of Sober Not Mature. Thank you, Ash, for coming on It was great.

01:31:20.05
Lord A phipps-warren
Thank you, Ash, for coming on. It was great.

01:31:21.82
Mike
We had a killer time talking to you.

01:31:22.19
Lord A phipps-warren
We had a killer time talking to you.

01:31:23.94
Mike
As always, be good to each other.

01:31:24.63
Lord A phipps-warren
As always, be good to each other.

01:31:26.22
Mike
be kind to each other.

01:31:26.67
Lord A phipps-warren
Be kind to each other.

01:31:27.58
Mike
Go out and do something nice for somebody else this week, and don't tell anybody you did it.

01:31:28.21
Lord A phipps-warren
Go out do something nice for somebody else this week. Don't tell anybody who did it.

01:31:32.14
Mike
Now, from the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul, from the beginning of time until the ends of the earth, always and eternally, fuck you

01:31:32.75
Lord A phipps-warren
Now, from the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul, from the beginning of time until the ends of the earth, always and eternally, fuck you.

01:31:44.28
Mike
Now it's time, kids.

01:31:44.53
Lord A phipps-warren
It's time for you to fuck off.

01:31:45.96
Mike
It's time for you to fuck off. Then keep fucking off.

01:31:48.25
Lord A phipps-warren
Then keep fucking off.

01:31:49.24
Mike
Keep fucking off till you get to a gate with a sign on it saying, you cannot fuck off past here. Climb over that gate. Dream the impossible dream and keep fucking off forever.

01:32:03.58
Lord A phipps-warren
that was incredibly theatrical I love it

01:32:03.79
Bill
That's...

01:32:06.07
Mike
Why, thank you.

01:32:06.39
Bill
Yeah, it's, uh, there's a long story behind it, but that's the way we end every episode. Now we've done it now for what?

01:32:11.48
Lord A phipps-warren
brilliant absolutely brilliant

01:32:13.30
Bill
200 plus episodes. I'm guessing Mike, probably if not. So yeah, that's, that's our thing. But, uh, Ash, uh, I mean, I can't, I can't tell you how much, uh, it's, it's been enjoyable. It's been a lot of fun. Um, I'm glad you took the time and appreciate you taking the time, especially with it being late and stuff like that.

01:32:26.98
Bill
So, um, yeah, but stick around. We'll, we'll go over what's going on with the episode itself after we, after we end up, uh, stop recording here, but Mike, I love you, brother.

01:32:34.87
Mike
love you too

01:32:35.96
Bill
I know we'll talk soon.

01:32:37.14
Mike
We shall.

01:32:38.36
Bill
Everyone else, goodbye.

01:32:40.08
Lord A phipps-warren
Goodbye guys.

01:32:40.37
Mike
Bye.

01:32:41.24
Lord A phipps-warren
Thank you very much.

01:32:42.55
Mike
Thanks.

01:32:43.37
Bill
You're welcome.