Ivan Moody
“I’m a former alcoholic and active in my recovery. Listen, alcohol turned me into the worst possible version of myself. At the peak of my alcohol addiction, my bandmates damn near didn’t talk to me. I had family and friends I had grown up with who wanted nothing to do with me,” discloses Ivan Moody, lead singer of famed hard rock band, Five Finger Death Punch.
This “romance” with alcohol would often mean he’d miss out on “moments, hours, days, weeks, even months” of his life and career, moments he will never get back. “I lost time with my family, my friends, and respect from my peers. I f*cking hate alcohol. It nearly destroyed everything I worked so hard to build and literally cost me my life at one point.”
Nowadays, cannabis is his go-to substance for relaxation. Weed, he says, balances him out, and helps him focus and unwind.
“There is no comparison. Cannabis [will always beat alcohol]; the results are in. What do you think of the new me?”
The Road To Recovery
Now a better version of himself, Ivan looks back at the recovery process. Ditching alcohol was no easy feat.
“The doctors prescribed me a ton of medication. I mean my medicine cabinet was lined in rows with medication to take, at all different times throughout the day,” he says. “It just felt non-conducive to recovery and it also made me feel tired and sluggish. It felt overwhelming and like it just defeated the entire purpose.”
Cannabis played a huge part in this recovery process and replaced about 80% of those prescriptions. “It also allowed me to have control over my dosage, which is something I couldn’t do pharmaceutically.”
And he clarifies: “My team and I would never recommend not listening to a doctor or physician. Everyone is different. However in my opinion, cannabis gives you the luxury as an individual to help discern what ‘medications’ help or hinder you in the healing process.”
However, Ivan’s relationship with cannabis wasn’t always the same.
“Like most of us (partakers of the ‘devil’s lettuce’), I started smoking cannabis at a young age. I grew up in Denver and from my early years I was exposed to numerous holistic forms of healing and relief,” he voices. “Cannabis is something I’ve always been a huge advocate of. It had always been in my life recreationally and socially, but it really wasn’t until I went through alcohol addiction recovery and was prescribed an excessive amount of medication for issues like anxiety, loss of appetite, and restlessness, that I realized the magnitude of the all-natural relief found in THC and how it replaced a majority of those medications.”
Cannabis was, he assures, the cornerstone of his path to wellness. “It allows me to optimize what’s valuable to me in life and it helps manage those things on a daily basis. The stigma of cannabis has to be lifted and I’m just sincerely proud to be a part of something that will be so valuable to the rest of society in the long run.”
Getting Clean And Down To Business
According to information procured exclusively ahead of an official announcement, Ivan is launching a cannabis brand of his own: Greenings by Moody’s Medicinals.
This a high-quality, edgy cannabis line, features a variety of premium flower, infused pre-rolls and gummies. It was created through a partnership with Exhale Brands and Exhale Dispensary in Las Vegas.
Ivan Moody shows off Greenings brand
What inspired Ivan to launch this brand was actually his recovery journey. “I’ve been sober now for over four years and being able to do so the holistic way is something I’m very proud of. Cannabis has become one of the (if not the) most important tools for the artist, assisting him daily in this “house of recovery” that he continues to build.
“My experience of what I call ‘The Great Secret…’ I was dead from alcohol, lasted a full three minutes in ‘human’ time; to me, it was an eternity. This was caused by me trying to quit alcohol cold turkey,” he says. “For me, to have a second chance at life, I felt compelled to share my struggles, my journey, and my success with cannabis with the world.”
“I launched Greenings as a testimony to the powerful change it had on my life and now I get to share that passion and relief with others,” he says. “Also because, Method Man ‘told me to,’ and ‘Wu Tang is for the children.’”
But Ivan is not new to the cannabis business world. Back in 2019, he launched a premium CBD health line, Moody’s Medicinals. The new line, Greenings, will be available starting December 2022 at Exhale Dispensary and other locations. It features several high-quality hybrid strains of cannabis including Angel De La Muerte, Ill Moody and Mood Swings, as well as infused pre-rolls.
Greenings’ gummies are available in Strawberry, Dragon Fruit Punch and Sour Blood Orange, and boast 10 milligrams of THC per serving. The company plans to expand the brand to California and Arizona in the near future.
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Ivan Moody on his new cannabis line. Between his global success with Five Finger Death Punch along with his Moody’s Medicinals line of CBD products, Ivan brings a unique passion to everything he touches,” says Pete Findley, CEO of Exhale Brands. “His cannabis line brings with it an edge that fans of Ivan and the band can totally relate to.”
Ivan supplements these words: “There is no ‘I’ in team. But there is one right in front of Ivan. I enjoy cannabis. I use cannabis. I utilize cannabis. I educate in the name of cannabis. And, I recommend cannabis to all who seek ‘higher’ learning.”
Weed And Creativity
For Ivan, “experimenting with the sweet leaf has always been a part of artists’ culture and world but it has been applied in so many facets, outlets and walks of life that it really has little to nothing to do with a specific genre of music, much less the music industry.”
However, he adds, “it was always really cool to listen to ‘Garage Days’ by Metallica in the basement smoking a joint with my friends.”
Cannabis is also a part of the musician’s creative process, albeit in an unusual way.
“I really don’t know how I write. It’s never been about what’s in my system; it’s how I utilize it,” he explains. “Writing is very different for me. I know that everyone has their own methods, but for myself, when I get too far into a piece, cannabis is my go-to and ‘friend’ when I need to pull myself back, and remember that I’m not living in a song, I’m just writing it.”
By means of conclusion, he gets into the topic of legalization. “There are more reasons to legalize it than there are to not federally legalize it. We are beating a dead horse at this point. As I said earlier, the stigma has to end. In the words of the great Peter Tosh, ‘Legalize It.’”
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2022/11/28/five-finger-death-punchs-ivan-moody-talks-weed-and-his-road-to-addiction-recovery-what-do-you-think-of-the-new-me/