The one lesson I’ve learned from life

Musician Moby

RICHARD MELVILLE HALL, known as Moby, 55, is a multi-award winning american singer, songwriter and music producer. he has sold 20 million records worldwide. single, with no children, he lives in la.

IT’S OK TO ADMIT YOUR WEAKNESSES

I come from a family of addicts — my dad died from a drink-driving accident when I was around three years old and my mother was a pot-smoking hippie.

I fell in love with alcohol myself when I had my first drink at the age of just ten. A friend’s mum gave me a glass of champagne at a New Year’s eve party. As soon as the liquid passed my lips, the world felt perfect. It was a feeling I hung on to for 34 years of alcoholism.

In the late 1990s things started to become really problematic. By then I was an established artist, having taken up music as a child, and I’d had hit singles and albums around the world.

But I was living in New York and going out every night. By 2003 I was having 15 to 20 drinks every night.

my goal was to start at 10pm and finish at 8am. I avoided doing shots so I could keep drinking for longer. my favourite tipple was vodka and sparkling water with a slice of lime, or beer.

I was also doing cocaine and ecstasy. of course, the obvious downside was that alcohol and drugs only made me feel good for a few hours. I was so sick and anxious the rest of the time that I didn’t leave my house.

I don’t know what made october 18, 2008, special, but on that day a switch suddenly flipped in my brain and I finally realised my lifestyle wasn’t working. I was depressed to the point of wanting to kill myself.

Asking other people for help was one of the hardest things for me to do. When I was younger I’d played in punk rock bands and someone I’d known then was a reformed alcoholic who had been sober for two years, so I turned to them.

I joined a 12-step programme and it worked. I struggled for the first six months of sobriety, but I haven’t been tempted to drink in almost 12 years. That was a huge turning point in my life. I learned that it is OK to be vulnerable and admit your weaknesses.

Nowadays, I go to sleep at 10pm and wake at 5.30am. I go hiking, work on music and live an ordinary life. Yet I love it.

■ Moby’s album Reprise is out May 28.