Of Mice & Men frontman Austin Carlile has revealed he was suffering from withdrawals from pain medication while recording the band’s upcoming album Cold World.
The vocalist had been taking painkillers for 10 years to numb the effects of Marfans, but he opted to go cold turkey and give up the pills before the band hit the studio.
Carlile tells Metal Hammer: “For the past 10 years, I’d been on some kind of pain medication for Marfans. I was a walking pharmacy.
“It’s a normal thing, and once you get to that point, you don’t take the stuff to feel good or to get high. You take it because your body burns and it hurts, and you take it just to level out.
“But in the studio, I stopped everything, from my depression medicine, to all my opioid painkillers, to even my blood pressure medicine, because it makes me feel lethargic. I stopped taking it all.”
Stopping the medication so suddenly played havoc with the singer’s body.
He adds: “Six nights out of seven, I would be in agony. I’d be going through withdrawals. I’d be shaking, and throwing up, and shivering, and my body contorting, and crying, and it was a very, very hard experience.”
In the exclusive interview, Carlile also discusses how he lost his religious faith when his mother died, but decided to get baptised recently to set an example to the band’s fans.
Of Mice & Men are the covers stars of issue 287 of Metal Hammer magazine, which is available now in print and via TeamRock+. Find out more about TeamRock+ and sign up here.
Of Mice & Men’s fourth album Cold World is released on September 9 and they launch a European tour in late September.
- Corey Taylor has another fan thrown out of Slipknot gig
- Slayer’s Payback performed by ukulele duo
- Fans have sex on rooftop during Attila festival set
- Killswitch Engage's Jesse Leach on next Times Of Grace record
Of Mice & Men tour dates 2016
Sep 30: Birmingham O2 Academy, UK
Oct 01: Manchester O2 Apollo, UK
Oct 03: Nottingham Rock City, UK
Oct 04: Newcastle O2 Academy, UK
Oct 07: London O2 Forum, UK
Oct 09: Cardiff Great Hall, UK
Oct 11: Paris Trabendo, France
Oct 12: Utrecht Ronda, Netherlands
Oct 13: Cologne Live Music Hall, Germany
Oct 15: Frankfurt Batschkapp, Germany
Oct 16: Munich Kesselhaus, Germany
Oct 17: Stuttgart LKA Longhorn, Germany
Oct 19: Solothurn Kofmehl, Switzerland
Oct 20: Vienna Arena, Austria
Oct 21: Leipzig Taubchenthal, Germany
Oct 23: Berlin Columbia Theater, Germany
Oct 24: Hamburg Grosse Freiheit 36, Germany
Oct 25: Antwerp Trix, Belgium
Everything you need to know about Of Mice & Men's new album Cold World
