This IS a good interview, GabrielC. Thanks for posting. Richie comes across much more at ease in this one. Still funny, but his jokes aren't nearly as slap-stick and, idk, pervasive, ill-timed... whatever, as they were in The Cutting Room video.

Lots of quite interesting comments...

really great interview...its been a long long time since i ve seen richie so sincere and down to earth. i noticed he described his furstration of the music business twice...the second ep maybe do a little better than the first one which seems like very few noticed

Lol, yeah, that was cute. Much better interview here.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But that is exactly the case for Richie. He is an addict.

Richie may have initially started drinking too much as a way to cope with what he was going through, but his problem drinking eventually became a full blown alcohol addiction, on top of his pain pill addiction. He has been in rehab three times (that we know of) because addicts like Richie are incapable of drinking in moderation. Alcohol dependence changes the physiology of the brain, and an addicted brain simply can't and won't stop after just one or two drinks. Richie himself even said a couple of years ago that it is a constant struggle to stay sober, though it is clear he hasn't been sober for some time now.

Abstinence is the only solution for Richie. Three failed stints in rehab prove that.

Richie was drinking for years before the death of his father and the break up of his marriage, and he was a perfectly fine, functioning human being. Those things happened and it seems to turned to Alcohol in extreme quantities to cope. That is using drink as a coping mechanism, not as an addiction.

The problem with a lot of rehabs is that they go for the quick fix, and don't treat the problem, so they get cleaned up let them out, but don't deal with the reason WHY they were drinking in the first place, so it happens again. I have a friend that used to work with musicians in LA that were struggling with drink and drug abuse, and she says that this happened all the time...

As I said, it's very dangerous to presume that people are drinking simply because they are addicts...

I always like more live
One Night Of Peace (live): https://youtu.be/k4zSaYxHPQE

Thinny, using your reasoning, what if you were addicted and been to rehab for another substance abuse? How much meth, heroine, or cocaine would be appropriate for someone to be a functioning addict without placing themself in danger by playing with the substance that could have destroyed them?

You all make valid points. Yes, Richie is an addict and always will be. But he does seem to have a better handle on it than he did in 2014, if that is indeed what caused the erratic performances back then. Yes, he has publicly stated that he drinks socially. Is it a good idea for him to do that? Probably not, imo; but that's his call, not mine. Does that necessarily prove that he didn't mean what he said during Aftermath promos? I don't think so. A lot has happened since then, and people often fall back onto old coping mechanisms; but it doesn't mean that he wasn't being genuine when he said it.

I don't know why it is that every time something positive is posted on this thread, the discussion has to immediately turn negative: poor ticket sales, the delay in releasing music, comments Richie made 10 or 15 years ago about plans to release solo work, or when all else fails, the ever-convenient "Richie's addiction".

I guess that's not quite true. I know why, but I still don't get it.

People have whined for 4 years about when new music is going to be released. But now that it's happening, all people care about discussing is Richie's drinking? Seriously?

Thanks for posting this, Yovanna. It's a beautiful song and, from this and some of the other videos from the show, it seems to have been a great success.

If you don't, or choose not to, understand what I've been saying then i can't help you any further. You clearly believe their is only one version of how this all works, but you are wrong. You can't dismiss using alcohol as a dependency rather than an addition, they are not the same.