Artie Lange's Longtime Manager Says Comic Is ’100 Percent' Responsible For Own Sobriety
Jan. 31 2020, Updated 8:47 p.m. ET
Artie Lange is celebrating one year of sobriety, and his longtime manager told RadarOnline.com exclusively that the comic did it all on his own.
"Artie deserves one-hundred percent of the credit," Tommy Nicchi said. "I'm proud of him."
Lange, 52, has struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for over a decade. but in the past year, he has come a long way.
On Thursday, January 30, Howard Stern's former sidekick posted an Instagram photo of a white square with the caption: "I'm one year clean today. No deep thoughts to share. Just #gratitude."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Lange was arrested on May 21, 2019, after he failed the terms of his probation.
“Lange is non-compliant,” officials told RadarOnline.com at the time. “Consequently, he will be taken into custody by officers from the Essex County Sheriff’s Office. He will be returned to the Essex County Correctional Facility in Newark.”
Lange spent the next three weeks in jail, and re-entered an intensive nine-month drug rehab program after his release.
Following his time in the treatment center, he made his triumphant return to public life in September 2019.
Upon his release from jail, Lange announced his first comeback tour. In Bridgeport, Connecticut, during one of his first performances, Lange explained how his time behind bars made him think twice about doing drugs.
"The best thing about jail for a drug addict is, it actually locks you away from the drugs for a little while," Lange explained. "See cocaine made my life chaos for a long time. But when heroin came into the game, forget it. Lights out. If I saw some kid thinking about trying heroin for the first time I would tackle them. I would do anything. The only way to stop is prevention. Once heroin gets in your system you need it like every eight hours. You need it."
But Lange still has a long way to go before he is completely off the hook. According to a court insider, it will take Lange about two more years to graduate from the drug court program in New Jersey’s Hudson County.
“There is no way to know what will happen with the case of anyone in drug court,” the insider told RadarOnline.com. “It depends on how they do in recovery. It takes participants about three years to graduate from drug court.”
The star’s current legal woes stem from an initial 2017 arrest for cocaine and heroin possession, though he has struggled with drug addiction for years. In May 2019, Stern gave a rare interview in which he admitted he loved his one-time sidekick but reached a point where he had to let him go.
“What’s happening with Artie makes me very sad. We’ve lost touch, and that’s my doing,” Stern admitted. “I got my fingers crossed for the guy. And it wasn’t a clean break.”
“It was many years of wanting Artie to get help. I know that a lot of fans want me to talk about Artie and feel it’s a cop-out for me not to. I’ll take that. I don’t want to do anything that would rock his boat,” he continued.
Lange was forced off The Stern Show in 2009 following a series of run-ins with the law involving drug possession.