Former Wildman Josh Brolin Confesses It Took Hit and Run Incident, Blacking Out 400 TIMES and Family Death To Finally Force Him to Get Sober
Josh Brolin candidly discussed the night he decided he needed to get sober.
Sept. 12 2024, Published 7:30 p.m. ET
A death in the family was the wake up call former wild man Josh Brolin needed to get sober.
RadarOnline.com can reveal the No Country for Old Men star candidly spoke about his sobriety journey and how his grandmother's death inspired him to clean up his act when he was 45-years-old.
Brolin, 56, recalled his last night binge drinking during an appearance on Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson's Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.
Brolin opened up about deciding to get sober after his grandmother's death.
The Goonies star's history with alcohol and substance abuse dates back to his teen years.
As Brolin put it, some who struggle with addiction issues "talk about hitting bottom" but in his case, he was at rock "bottom (and) far worse than (that)" when he was just 15-years-old.
Looking back on his last night drinking, Brolin revealed "there was a hit and run at Del Taco" in which he "woke up on the sidewalk".
He added: "I didn't know where my car was, and it wasn't that rare. That was just, you know, the 400th time that it happened."
Brolin said he had blacked out 400 times in his life.
While the jarring experience had become "so normal" for him, it ended up having a profound impact on his sobriety journey.
Brolin explained he was actually supposed to be visiting his 99-year-old grandmothe – who "was on her deathbed" – when he "woke up on the sidewalk".
He recalled: "I was supposed to have picked up my brother and taken them 'cause I was the kind of, I was the one in the family that put everything together and structured everything and controlled everything."
"Anyway, I woke up on the sidewalk, went inside. My brother called me. 'Where are you?' Picked him up, walked into that hospital eventually."
The actor admitted he had 'gotten away' with living dangerously.
After finally making it to the hospital, a final interaction with his grandmother rocked Brolin to his core.
He said: "Everybody knew when I walked into the room, picked her head up and looked at me and smiled and that was it.
"I was done. I said, 'If this woman could get through 99 years on life's terms, how dare me?'"
Danson replied: "That's a great phrase. 'On life's terms.'"
Brolin continued: "On life's terms. I said, 'How dare me', and I'd gotten away with, I was 45 years old and I'd gotten away with a lot, been in jail nine times, done a little bit of whatever.
"So I thought, I wonder if I could do that half of life like that and then do this half of life like this. Then I get to live two lives and not just one."
Brolin has been sober for eight years.
Eight years later and Brolin is still sober and has stayed out of trouble.
When Harrelson asked if he was "dying to have a drink", the Sicario star quickly answered, "No".
He added: "I feel like something's been cultivated in me that I helped cultivate that, that my life now is better than my greatest romance of any drink I could have.
"I actually like my life. Not that I didn't before, because I loved it before, except when I would write indecipherable texts. That—I didn't like that."
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