I Turned to It for the Wrong Reasons | Sam Ryder
On The Mend
High Performance
4.9 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 16 February 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week’s guest is Sam Ryder, someone who knows the struggle of chasing a dream for years, only to face the crushing reality of near-misses and setbacks. For over 15 years, Sam toured the world in tiny vans, scraping by with borrowed hope, never knowing if success would come. But when the door finally cracked open, it did so with an unexpected, life-changing shift.
In this episode, Sam talks candidly about the long grind and how he found peace with failure before success even arrived. He shares the moment he made peace with the idea of never “making it,” the power of redefining what success truly means, and how, after years of struggle, he embraced gratitude as his new driving force.
This is a raw, honest conversation about the non-linear journey to success, the dangers of “okay jobs,” and why comfort can kill creativity. Sam reveals his decision to get sober and the importance of protecting his voice, his gift, while rejecting the toxic hustle culture that fuels so much of the music industry.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to know who's coming up next? Hit follow wherever you get your podcast and you'll be the first to find out. |
| 0:07.0 | Why did you stop drinking? |
| 0:08.0 | I knew that it wasn't serving me. I knew I was turning to it for the wrong reasons. |
| 0:13.0 | I think it was quite like just habitual to turn to. I like myself better. |
| 0:18.0 | No substance can be the source of that light. So now I'm not |
| 0:23.5 | trying to be anyone but myself. Hi everybody. Welcome back to On the Men. It's me Matt Willis. |
| 0:32.8 | And this is the podcast where we look back at life's toughest moments to figure out how we move |
| 0:37.1 | forward. Now, |
| 0:37.6 | today's guest, I'm so freaking excited to have you on, mate. I'm so very excited. I mean, |
| 0:43.4 | you need no introduction, but ladies and gentlemen, it's Sam Ryder. So Eurovision, right? So how did |
| 0:49.0 | that happen? How did you first get approached? Mate, I was sitting in my, uh, my partners, uh, |
| 0:54.1 | high-enday gets in in a lay-by. |
| 0:56.6 | I got a phone call. |
| 0:58.8 | And it was just sort of someone very much, like, tentatively on the edge of their seat |
| 1:04.5 | asking me if I'd do this thing, but they were scared to tell me what it was |
| 1:10.1 | because they thought I'd be like, not a chance, see you later, and put the phone down. So they were like, hey, man, I've do this thing, but they were scared to tell me what it was because they thought I'd be |
| 1:11.2 | like, not a chance, see or later, and put the phone down. So they were like, hey, man, I've got this real big opportunity coming up and, um, and listen, keep an open mind. And like, they were sort, you know, how they sell this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, what is it? What is it? Yeah, come on, tell me, and I go, and there'll be so many people watching, |
| 1:25.9 | and, uh, this could beat a big time. |
| 1:28.1 | And I'll say, yeah, what is it? |
| 1:29.3 | What is it? |
| 1:29.9 | And I go, there'll be so many people watching and, and this could be the big time. |
| 1:28.4 | And I'll say, yeah, what is it? |
... |
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