How has music played an impact on your life? In addiction treatment, there are various ways you can do to get the help you need or get to that place where you can find healing for true recovery to happen – music, being one of them. 

On today’s episode, Duane speaks with John Dillon – a singer and songwriter, radio producer, guitar maker, and author – to talk about his latest album, Hope Road: From Addiction to Recovery. John shares his story of finally finding sobriety and spiritual growth through the 12-step community and what led him to share his hope and wisdom through his music. 

It's interesting to hear John talk about how he tracked his own recovery through his album. John decided to write this album and share it with others who may still be struggling and who need more hope in their life so they can ultimately achieve recovery.

John learned how to play the guitar at 13 years old. Growing up in the 60s, which was the hippie generation, John was a rebellious teenager. And back then, drugs and alcohol were part of the music scene. Seven more years later, the drugs and alcohol were not fun anymore. Then in the 80s, he just became addicted to cocaine. 

There was also a time when John joined a spiritual community in New Mexico, which gave him a sheltered life, without drugs and alcohol for eight years. Once he left that path, the drugs and alcohol started to creep back into his life again. 

John’s divine intervention came in the form of a run-in with the law, where he ended up getting pulled over by cops who found a bag of cocaine inside his car, along with an opened bottle of wine. At that point, he was ready to surrender and got into the 12-step program.

In this episode, you will hear:

• John’s love of music
• His addiction to cocaine
• Going deep into his spirituality
• From being sober to coming back to addiction
• Living a double life
• Running in with the law as the start of his surrender process
• His 12-step journey
• How music played a role in his recovery
• A walk through some tracks in his album

Key Quotes:

[16:55] - "Music has been a very important part of my life, all through these ups and downs."

[22:59] - "There's a certain magic about music. It carries a message in a way that can reach people more directly, more powerfully than the spoken word."

[24:30] - "All my life I've there have been little pieces that are starting to make sense."

[27:49] - "Being grateful and sharing gratitude is a real key to my sobriety."

[28:45] - "It doesn't matter what your religion is, there's a way to get better."

[30:18] - "The drug is just the beginning, then you get to dig in deep and find out what were the causes and conditions, and what things you can change and how you can change them."

Subscribe and Review

Have you subscribed to our podcast? We’d love for you to subscribe if you haven’t yet. 

We’d love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts. Simply select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast.

If you really enjoyed this episode, we’ve created a PDF that has all of the key information for you from the episode. Just go to the episode page at www.theaddictedmind.com to download it.

Supporting Resources:

Get John’s album onwww.hoperoadmusic.com (on a "Pay What You Wish" basis) 

Book: The 20-20 Creativity Solution