High Times – October 2019

OBSERVED FROM THE OUTSIDE, Ivan Moody is the quintessential

tough guy. As the lead singer of the multiplatinum-selling metal band

Five Finger Death Punch, he’s got the head tattoos and piercings—and

he’s had his share of the wild tour antics—that come with the territory.

The fabled lifestyle of the rock star—or what Moody calls “cock star”—

comes with plenty of temptation. After all, it’s tough not to fall prey to

the endlessly flowing alcohol and countless admirers ready to give

musicians just about anything they desire. Ultimately, Moody found

himself in trouble as the victim of excess. The bottle had taken its toll

on him and he didn’t see a way out.

To his fans, he was impenetrable—seen almost as some kind of

deity—but behind closed doors, Moody was struggling. In 2017, drugs

and/or suicide took several of his peers, including Soundgarden’s

Chris Cornell and Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington. Moody knew it

was time to stop.

Of course, there’d been signs. In 2016, Five Finger Death Punch

released a video for “I Apologize,” a track taken from the group’s

sixth studio album, Got Your Six. The haunting visual portrays Moody

walking through a cemetery with a shovel in his hand, surrounded by

the graves of Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious, Scott Weiland, Amy Winehouse

and Layne Staley, among others—all artists who succumbed to an

untimely death due to substance abuse and/or suicide. While taking

sips from his flask, Moody starts digging his own grave and makes it

very clear he knows where he’s going to end up if he continues danc-

ing so close to the flame. Ultimately, he throws the flask into the hole

and walks away in the video. Fortunately, he was also able to do so in

real life. Now, nearly 18 months sober, the Denver native is ready to

carve out a diff erent type of legacy.

“[That video] was exposing something to everybody else that I had

a problem,” Moody says. “It was a subtle way of saying I know what PA

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CKM

AN

32 HIGH TIMES I OCTOBER 2019

Ivan Moody is

changing his life

with help from

cannabis.

ENTERTAINMENT

HELPING HAND

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH FRONT MAN IVAN MOODY TURNED TO CBD TO COMBAT ALCOHOLISM,

ANXIETY AND STRESS. BY KYLE EUSTICE