McFly's Dougie Poynter Opens Up on his Addiction, and Reconnecting With Self
On The Mend
High Performance
4.9 • 566 Ratings
🗓️ 17 July 2023
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first episode of On The Mend, Matt Willis welcomes his friend and fellow musician, Dougie Poynter, to the studio.
In this candid chat, the McFly bassist opens up about his drug addiction and his recovery, sharing raw and honest stories, which he has never done publicly before. He talks about his time in rehab, his lowest and darkest times when coming off drugs, and how he tries to live his life now.
Matt and Dougie share the story of how they met, how they've helped each other through hard times and discuss their individual routines for recovery. They are both very into gut health and talk about how changing their diets has made them feel so much better physically and mentally.
Dougie's career and stardom has been a rollercoaster ride, with huge rises and huge falls, and we learn a lot about the man who has, up until now, been quite shy and quiet about this side of his life. It is, above all, a life-affirming conversation between two friends, who after many years of dark times are thriving and healthy and happy.
*Please be advised that some listeners may find some of the topics discussed disturbing.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to know who's coming up next? |
| 0:01.7 | Hit follow wherever you get your podcast and you'll be the first to find out. |
| 0:17.2 | Hello and welcome to the first episode of On the Mend. |
| 0:20.5 | I'm at Willis and in this series I'm going to be taking a look at the world of mental health, addiction and recovery and how people just get through hard times. |
| 0:27.6 | My first guest is someone I've known for a very, very, very long time. |
| 0:32.6 | He's a musician, author and a pretty lovely bloke. |
| 0:35.6 | Yes, I'm talking about the one and only Mr. Dougie Pointer. |
| 0:39.1 | Now, you probably know him as the basis of McFly and McBustard, |
| 0:43.0 | but Dougie has had many, many ups and downs in his life and career. |
| 0:46.7 | And in this episode, he speaks very honestly about his addiction to drugs, |
| 0:50.9 | which was incredible, really, |
| 0:53.0 | because he's never really got into that stuff publicly before. |
| 0:56.5 | And I know he was nervous about it. We had a little chat before we did the episode. |
| 0:59.9 | He was kind of nervous about saying all this stuff. But there's something about owning your |
| 1:03.6 | narrative that I think is really, really powerful. And also removing that shame and stigma, |
| 1:08.5 | which I was really pleased he was open to. |
| 1:12.6 | And that's exactly what we did. |
| 1:18.1 | Now, I met Doug Ewan is about 15 years old, and over the years we've both seen each other at our worst, but over that time, we've been very supportive of and to each other, |
| 1:23.2 | you know, and we continue to be. |
| 1:24.6 | It's an ongoing thing, this thing. |
| 1:26.5 | So it was quite a poignant moment |
| 1:28.2 | this to sit down with him and talk openly about lots of different stuff which in the past |
... |
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