[laughs]

So I, um, and, and I spent a few nights just really up fighting with this, you know, 'cause I knew it was me, and I suddenly knew how scared I was 'cause I'd been kinda circling the drain for a little while, getting a little lower each time around.

More destroyed vehicles, more destroyed limbs, more crutches, more casts, lost jobs, kicked out of school, whatever.

And, uh, then I finally said, "Okay, they're suggesting this.

I'm gonna try," as like, "Okay, God, take it." And I suddenly got very calm, 'cause I'd been pretty agitated for, like, three nights and not really sleeping, and I haven't had a drink since.

And-

Hmm.

About, I guess, 2000, yeah, 13, I was diagnosed with a tumor in my spinal cord and had the surgery to take it out.

Huh?

Man, I tell you, man, it's good to be alive and it's good to get sober while you're living.

Kind of hard to get sober while you're dead, I tell you.

Hey, I'm glad to be in the land of the living, and I'm glad to know y'all people in here.

See, everything I spit from this podium, 99% of it comes from people and alcoholics and nothing.

You understand what I'm saying? It's the voices of AA, the experience of AA that helped me live this life.

And, hey, that's good and bad, you know.

Dee.