Joe Rogan on the End of Sober October 2019

Sober October's over. But we were allowed to smoke cigars during Sober October for whatever reason. But they do get you high. They do give you a nice little buzz. They do. It's weird that that's thought of as being a sobriety thing. Is it really? I mean, if you're smoking, people smoke cigarettes when they're sober. All those fucking AA guys, remember, right? Those guys were always... Those guys are always smoking. Those guys will tell you you can't have a non-alcoholic beer, which I do. I haven't had a drink. It'll be fucking 30 years next month that I haven't had a drink. Didn't you have like one or two when Mini died? When Mini died, I had some scotch. That's a weird one, right? I had like... I didn't get drunk, but I had like a few shots. Did you like feel weird about that? I've been all those years. I think I felt so weird about him being dead that the whole thing felt surreal anyway. I haven't really... I can't say I can't have the desire. It's more of just like you feel like there's times where you want to just do what everybody else is doing and just chill out. You see everybody getting more mellow and relaxed and social. And especially if I'm in a situation where it's a bunch of people I don't know that well. Maybe it's your kids, friends, parent kind of situation. Nice glass of wine to take the edge off. But you did the the cup of glasses of scotch and then you didn't go right back to it. You became a 21 year old drunk Greg again. Right. Well, a lot of it has to do with my father. He was an alcoholic and I saw his depression. The guy had the same depression as he does and I felt like when I drank it wasn't always for fun. It was a lot of times it was like dealing with feelings and bullshit like that. I saw him as an unhappy guy who was unfulfilled in a lot of ways and I saw the alcohol was a big part of why his life wasn't what it could have been. And I just sort of feel like, you know, maybe I could drink but maybe I can't. Why fuck with it? No, why fuck with it? I'll tell you what, man. I just got done with a whole month of being sober and then I had my first drinks this weekend. I felt like shit. No kidding. I felt like shit. Had a couple of glasses of wine, went to play pool and I was having a hard time focusing on the ball. Three glasses of wine? That's all it takes. Three glasses of wine I'm having a hard time seeing. Because everything's just a little off. It took like an hour for my liver, processed it enough, where I could play pool well again. Do you think you just lost your tolerance? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I mean, I've never been a big drinker anyway. But it was interesting doing sets. That's what's always interesting. It's not like a shot before I go on stage. I always like to do a shot of Jack. Before I go on stage, just whoa. Just a little bit of whiskey. That's a standard for you? Yeah, a little bit of whiskey. Wow. For a big show, just one shot. Bang. Yeah, Brian Regan, one shot of frozen peppermint schnapps before he goes on. Or of peach schnapps. It gives you like this. But it's not necessary. It's definitely not. I mean, I did a lot of shows this month, Stone Cold Sober. Isn't it weird though, the human condition that we're born with this set of, you know, this brain and these neurological pathways and this relationship to the universe and the people around us. And that we want to, whether it's smoking pot or drinking or taking opiates, we want to change the natural state of our brain. Yeah. Isn't that fucking weird? It's very weird. Because it's all we talk about. All people talk about, dude, what'd you do last week? Oh, dude, we got fucked up. I changed my brain. I made myself dumber. All weekend, I made myself dumber. Did a bunch of stupid shit I should have never done. And I did stupid shit. Because in our natural state, we don't do goofy shit enough. Right. But then I learned when I quit drinking that I could be just as crazy. People didn't realize I quit. I'd be hanging out with my same friends in the same bar until four in the morning. We'd go to a wedding. I'd be the last guy on the dance floor, first guy on the dance floor. And I just was like, you know, this doesn't have to change me. You know? Yeah. You can just enjoy fun. Just enjoy fun. It takes a little bit more of... I think you have to sort of break through walls a little bit more, as opposed to just the booze does that for you. Yeah. But you can still get there.