Artie Lange: Why He Won’t Say He’ll Never Get High Again

Hey man. What's up Joe Rogan? My brother. What's happening? Hey, I'm alive. You're alive? Look man, I've been following this whole, everybody's been following you. But first of all, thanks for being so nice. You're very supportive Joe. I mean that means a lot to me. I'm happy to see you healthy. You look good, your face looks good, you look thin. You look healthy. You look like you're vibrant. Yeah, no, I'm present. I took to David Tell and David Tell came to visit me in rehab and he said, you're present. You don't want to leave every five seconds. Yeah. Which is what cocaine does to you. Right. You know, so now I feel good. I feel good. I mean, it's, I got nine months clean. That's amazing. Yeah. That's amazing. Two days ago was nine months. What's the hump? Like, what do they say you have to get over before you can stay clean? Well first of all, my drug history is insane. It started when the first time I got high and I tell these young kids, cause you know, I'm 52 now. So I was in, you know, I was in rehab and jail and a halfway house the last eight months. And with some of the craziest motherfuckers you've ever met in your life and they all have stories. But once they know my story, cause I had some success in life, basically as a full blown junkie, they're fascinated by it. And the first time I got high was 1979. Jimmy Carter was president. So when you tell a 22 year old kid that they're like blown away that I'm even alive. And I am too. I was, I hit a home run in little league. I'll never forget this. And I, my buddy's older brother, we used to call this kid Sick Jack. I don't know what happened to him, but he, he handed me a joint and I took a puff of weed and from 11 years old, I knew I, I loved it so much. I just loved being, I loved the feeling of being out of control. You talk to a normal person, they go, I hate being out of control. I loved it. I love like, wow. And you have an excuse for it. I was fucked up. Yeah. That's the thing. Yeah. Excuse for being wild. An excuse for just being a screw up to, you know, and my old man was a lunatic. He was not a drug addict or an alcoholic, but he was a criminal. You know, he was a low level criminal. He came to the streets of Newark and got to like the 10th grade in high school. And he was like my favorite human being of all time. He was like my older brother, but I saw him do a lot of bad shit. You know, I saw him fight all the time. He was a boxer when he was young and just the real street smart guy and his life was chaos. And I loved the chaos. I was addicted to risk. That's why I'm a gambler too. So when cocaine came into my life a few years later, I was 16. The first time I did a line of blow. And that was really fun because now you're up all the time. And that started basically a 35 year drug run that didn't end to like nine months ago. I mean, I don't know if it's ended, you know, that's the thing. I don't put pressure on myself. I'm like, it's one that one day at a time stuff. It sounds so cliche. But I take it one minute at a time. I can't guarantee people I'm never going to get high again. I just know I'm not going to get high in the next 10 minutes. And that doesn't want to get high again. Is there a risk of saying that you don't know if you're ever going to get high again? Like you know, the direct opposite is true. That's what they tell you in a program like Narcotics Anonymous. And again, I'm not some big program guy. I didn't turn into some God guy, anything like that. But I'm a little more spiritual, I would say. And you know, it's all stuff. You know, you used to tell me the last time I was on the show, you know, you were telling me to try to live right. Like exercise anything, anything that gets you through today that's positive. In other words, by saying you'll never get high again, and I used to do that all the time, when you're really bullshitting yourself and everybody else, you put a lot of pressure on yourself. You know, like to say, even these young kids, these poor kids, man, are looking at a lot of jail time, prison time, they're living under a fucking bridge, some of these kids, and they got nothing. That's why, you know, the careers of me and you have, and congratulations on everything you've done, Joe, man. You're just a solid guy, a great talent. But you know, the careers we have are such blessings. I mean, we're living out a dream, you know, and these kids have nothing. And for a 23-year-old kid to say in a group therapy session anywhere, I'm never going to get high again, it's daunting to say you're never going to do anything again. And even for me at 52 years old, I love it. You got to say I love being high. I love the chaos, I love the lifestyle. You get addicted to the lifestyle too, because you live like, you don't live like everybody else, you know? And I had a means of making money legally. And you know, these kids had a rob to get all their shit. And so that was enabling too. We live in an enabling world. But to say you're never going to get high again is so much pressure. To say I don't know and just work on the next day. And for me, it's like I take it minute by minute, literally. I got high, like we're here on the Lower East Side of Manhattan right now. I got high everywhere here. Back in the 80s, I used to come here with my buddy's older brother and get mescaline hits, ludes back in the day, you know, weed in Washington Square Park, blow. So there's triggers all over the place. So I just say, if I can get this one more, just get one more block without fucking up. That turns into a day and then time, you know? So it's harder to say for yourself, I'll never get high again.