Horror master Stephen King isn’t shy about discussing his own experience with drug and alcohol addiction. In the 1970s and ’80s, he wrote many books under the influence, though it became so concerning that his friends and family staged an intervention in the late 1980s. This dose of truth and honesty worked, and King has been sober ever since.
Now he’s given a nod to another beloved celebrity who’s kicked a damaging habit. Danny Trejo was smoking marijuana at age 8, shooting heroin as a teenager, and ended up incarcerated for trying to sell drugs to an undercover police officer. While behind bars he vowed to go sober and is now celebrating his 50th year clean. King’s reaction? “Terrific“.
The replies are full of encouraging words about beating addiction, admiration of the commitment, and that this is “a fight worth fighting”.
If you wanted two advertisements for sobriety, King and Trejo are hard to beat. Since the 1980s, King has cemented his position at the pinnacle of the horror genre, his books remain bestsellers and movie adaptations are box office smashes. Meanwhile, Trejo has become a bona fide national treasure, scoring an audience of cult movie fans while breaking through in Star Wars via The Book of Boba Fett.
If you’re in the mood for some King, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines is due in October, the long-awaited new adaptation of Salem‘s Lot has got to arrive soon, and King is working on upcoming Max show Welcome to Derry.