Five Finger Death Punch leader Ivan Moody has thanked Judas Priest singer Rob Halford for helping him reach his one-year sober anniversary.
The rocker is a recovering alcoholic and during a new radio interview with Hatebreed star Jamey Jasta, Moody confessed he would have slipped back into his old habits if it wasn't for friends like Halford and Korn star Jonathan Davis.
Ivan, who celebrated his first year of sobriety in March (19), said, "Rob is actually one of my... sober coaches. He's been sober now for almost 40 years, and when I went through recovery, and even my bandmates and I weren't talking, Halford was on the phone with me.
"I got two 10-minute phone calls a day, and Halford was one of them every single day. No matter where he was in the world, he picked up, he left me messages, he sent me cards. Jonathan Davis was the same way; he was very supportive of me.
"And this was coming from a kid who grew up on Judas Priest and I'm turning around and this guy is a father to me in certain ways and very much a piece of who I am now."
Moody's alcohol problem, which almost cost him his job in Five Finger Death Punch, was so severe he knew Alcoholics Anonymous classes wouldn't work if he hoped to stay sober.
"I have never been very orthodox with sobriety," he added. "Neither was J.D. (Davis) or Rob (Halford)... That's what I really appreciate. I don't go to a lot of (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings. I respect it, and I understand why other people used and benefited from it, but for me personally, it's just not what I need. So that was something I always looked to with guys like J.D. and Rob.
"I did go to meetings when I first got out (of rehab). I walked in. I was optimistic. I was like, 'This is gonna help me. This is what I need', and I would walk out of there and feel like I absorbed everybody else's (problems)... It's like this competition. I would walk out feeling like I was used, like somebody was feeding off of me - and that's not how I wanted to feel...
"Sitting in a room full of people drinking coffee and reeking of cigarettes, telling me how they're not gonna make it through another night, that scares me."
