Interview: Coffee And Recovery With Social Distortion

By Michael Cerio

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This scene has changed over the past twenty-five years for Social Distortion.

The equipment truck has been cleared out, converted into a boxing gym. The dressing room houses a vitamix, a juicer, and a George Foreman grill. The bus parked behind the venue is spotless and quiet, with the exception of the hum of an artisanal coffee grinder.

"This is a breville expresso machine that I bring from home. The guys appreciate it. This has paid for itself probably within the first week of the tour. I find that this helps, it keeps the morale up" says frontman Mike Ness. "I'm revolutionizing rock and roll touring."

Sometimes a revolution is brought about by survival. Such is the case for Mike Ness. The lone remaining original member of Social Distortion first got clean from drugs and alcohol thirty years ago. "Luckily I got the sex, drugs out of my life early in life. I like to tell people that I spent the first half of my life destroying my mind and body, and spending the second half putting it back together" says Ness from the comfort of his tour bus parked behind Philadelphia's Festival Pier.

It's a choice that saved Ness' life, but also informed their landmark album.

Twenty-five years ago Social Distortion made their major label debut with a self-titled album full of songs about recovery, things that could have been, and a unique brand of storytelling that was unexpected for a "punk" band at that time. "I was the only one in the band who stopped partying, and granted the other guys weren't near as bad as I was, it was still a hard environment to be around. Those guys would go out and party and I would just stay in my room and write songs" remembers Ness. "It wasn't so much a hard struggle staying sober but, this record definitely was very reflective. 'It Could Have Been Me' talks about how I was lucky and got pulled out of it. A lot of my friends didn't. They would die or went to prison. And songs like 'Ball And Chain'. That song is very interesting because it means something different to every person that hears it, but for me it was a very spiritual song that basically was being reconnected with a higher power of some sort and asking that higher power for some help."

Ness first got sober at the age of twenty-three, a time when most still feel invincible. It's a clue as to how bad things had gotten for the singer, who started using drugs and alcohol at the end of seventh grade. "The fortunate thing was that I hadn't had any real financial success with the band yet. Or I could have probably really killed myself" reflects Ness. "I started kind of at the bottom and end up even lower. I had to commit petty crimes and I had alienated what small family and friends I had, so it was a very lonely existence. I do attribute a painful childhood to maybe assisting in hitting my bottom a little sooner, because I didn't want to keep living in misery. Pain was a great motivator, and I was in a lot of pain."

There's renewed focus on Social Distortion and on Ness as the band celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of their self-titled album, canvasing the country and playing the album in full. All these years later, these confessionals still apply to Mike Ness.

"It's interesting on many levels. 'Ball And Chain' is still completely relevant to where I'm at in my life right now, because now I'm at a different level of evolution. Yeah I've been sober thirty years and I've obviously changed in many ways, become responsible and all that. Also, the being sober thirty years prepared me for what was to be the next level and that's going back and facing a painful childhood and how that affects my immediate relationships in life today. I'm constantly trying to become a better man, and this song still has relevance in that aspect."

To hear much more from Mike Ness of Social Distortion, check out the full interview above.