What Works for Me: Appetite for Redemption

Guns N' Roses bassist Duff McKagan pinballed from vice to hedonistic vice until life tilted out of control. Here's how he made it out alive-and shredded.

- By Charles Thorp. Photo by Katarina Benzova

Drink More...Water

I didn't start out drinking all day long. The crowd I was hanging with drank like world champions, and it slowly began to take over. I had to take a shot of vodka as soon as I woke up or the withdrawals would hit. I was having a gallon of vodka a day, and however much cocaine, Valium or Percocet I could get my hands on, just to get normal. I was floating through life, and I couldn't think straight because my brain was drowning in drugs and alcohol.

Being that fucked up was not part of the dream. I wanted to be a rock star, not a junkie or alcoholic. I wanted out, but every time I tried, I'd slide back.

I was 29 years old and I believed I was going to drink myself to death. A year later, my pancreas burst. I woke up in the hospital and my insides were burning so bad they had to put me on morphine. They wanted to send me to rehab, but I didn't need to go. I wasn't going back to that way of life. I started by drinking water. I'd never touched it in my 20s, because in my mind it was a waste of fluid intake. But now I start my day with lemon water instead of vodka, and feel a lot better.

Heal in the Hills