Five Finger Spencer thought drugs had killed him

Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer has recalled the horror drugs experience that finally got him clean.

He believed he was dying as he suffered convulsions after a 20-hour binge in 2012 – and all he could think about was that he’d let his parents down.

Spencer tells KZRR: “I’d been up for a couple of days in Vegas, doing coke and meth and drinking the whole time. I had a straw in one hand and a bottle of Jack in the other for something like 20 hours.

“All of a sudden my body just went, ‘Enough.’ I started convulsing, my heart was starting to skip beats, I was breaking out in cold sweats and I was shaking. It was really scary.

“I was laying on the bed thinking, ‘You may have done it this time, you idiot.’ Then I started thinking about how bummed out my parents were going to be. That their son, who left him at 19 to achieve this dream, finally achieved it – then he’s going to die.”

Spencer told himself: “‘If you get out of this one, you’re going to fix it.’” And he did: “I got myself together, went home, called a treatment facility and checked myself in. I’ve been clean ever since.”

5FDP frontman Ivan Moody last year revealed his alcoholism brought him close to being fired from the band in 2012. Admitting he’d played shows to 20,000 people without remembering a moment, he said: “I felt like a junkie. My band members wouldn’t return calls and Iost multiple tour managers. Sometimes you have to go to that extreme to find your way back.”

As a result of their experiences the band have changed their travelling arrangements while on tour. Spencer says: “We have a couple of different buses and usually the one I’m on is the mellow bus, with people who don’t want to partake in the craziness.

“Everyone’s respectful of my situation – they know I’m a better person not on that stuff and they don’t want me to die. So everyone’s supportive.”

The drummer released his book Death Punch’d: Surviving Five Finger Death Punch’s Metal Mayhem via HarperCollins earlier this month. The band have tracked four songs for their next album, which they hope to release in the first half of 2015.

Not only is one-time online news editor Martin an established rock journalist and drummer, but he’s also penned several books on music history, including SAHB Story: The Tale of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a band he once managed, and the best-selling Apollo Memories about the history of the legendary and infamous Glasgow Apollo. Martin has written for Classic Rock and Prog and at one time had written more articles for Louder than anyone else (we think he's second now). He’s appeared on TV and when not delving intro all things music, can be found travelling along the UK’s vast canal network.