By the time you read this, Ville Valo will have been sober for more than three months. In July the HIM frontman finished work on his band's new album, 'Venus Doom' and, without a word to his bandmates, checked himself in to the Summit Centers Rehabilitation Clinic in Malibu, California.
"I drank so fucking much, it was ridiculous," he says matter of factly.
If you saw HIM's performance at April's Give It A Name, you'll know exactly what he means. Valo was, to put it mildly, a mess. And it's an observation that many who have met the singer have made in the past. In 2005, Kerrang! noted how out of it Valo was during a show at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire and during a trip to Japan last year, despite being in one of modern rock's most successful bands, Valo admitted to going through a period of extreme personal turbulence, washing it down with an ever present bottle of beer.
Fortunately, Valo eventually noticed it too, and duly decided to sort himself out, waking up to the realisation that if he didn't, he could very well drink himself to death.
"It's nice not to vomit and shit blood," Valo bluntly states. "Right before I went into rehab I went to a doctor, and he said, 'It's either rehab, or it's the emergency room, because you're going to have a heart failure soon.'"
For the full story, pick up this week's Kerrang! magazine.
im so sad ur gone man we love you and you cha