Bill Burr Reveals the Pivotal Moment He Knew it Was Time to Stop Drinking, Says ‘Addiction is More of a Spectrum’
Comedian Bill Burr reveals he doesn’t view himself as an alcoholic but stopped drinking when his behavior became dangerously close.
On the May 19th episode of the Steve-O’s Wild Ride! podcast, Burr was initially talking about outfitting a vehicle for traveling.
He mentioned wanting to install a cigar lounge in the vehicle before saying, “But then you gotta watch because then, then all your demons are just right there.”
“That’s another thing too. I learned that’s when my drinking got outta control was when I brought it home to the house,” Burr said. “I don’t have to go out to a bar cuz before, like I always had it under control because I had to go out, you know.”
He continued, “If I felt like getting a drink, but I was at home and I was watching a game. You’re in your sweatpants, it’s like, dude, ‘I don’t wanna fucking take a shower and fucking go out and do all of that shit.’ So then you just wouldn’t drink and then it wouldn’t get ahold of you.”
Burr turned to watching old TV shows during the pandemic which, he says, inspired him to drink a little during each episode.
“I started watching like Me TV and all these old fucking shows from when I was a kid and everybody on those shows drank and smoked,” he said.
Burr says his drink pours began to get heavier and heavier. “Then my wife started getting on me, like ‘Jesus Christ, look at the size of that.’ Then I started, I go, ‘It’s a home pour.'”
On one particular night, Burr’s wife warned him not to have another drink. “She goes, ‘Don’t have another one. When you have three, you start snoring like your dog.’ So I was like, all right, alright. And then I was like — ‘I can just have two.’ Then I was just like, you know, there’s eight minutes left from the show, pour another one. So I poured the other one and it was over and I was walking down the stairs to our bedroom and I didn’t know if she was still up or not.”
“I literally was hiding it on the side of my leg trying to make sure the ice cube wasn’t gonna clink against the side of the glass,” he recalled. “I was just like, ‘I am like this close away from having a bottle in the back of the toilet.’ Let me, let me just step away from this shit.”
But Burr doesn’t consider himself an alcoholic, “I’m not like an alcoholic, you know what I mean? But I do think that addiction is like more of a spectrum than you either are or you aren’t.”
He added, “I think that if you’re a habit guy like me, no different than sugar and salt. I never crave McDonald’s unless I was in a jam and I ate it. And then for like the next three days, I see the golden arches everywhere. Like ‘I’m gonna get a fucking another double cheese.'”
Listen above via Steve-O’s Wild Ride!
