Muse have revealed that they came close to firing bass player Chris Wolstenholme on several occasions due to his severe drinking habits.
Ultimate Guitar reports that Wolstenholme managed to keep his alcoholism secret from the band for years as he “wasn’t a nasty drunk”, but went public with his problem in 2009 after a meltdown on April Fool’s Day:
“Everything I should have dealt with in the previous 10 years suddenly hit me in the face. There are some things I regret”, said Wolstenholme at the time.
“There are probably moments I should have enjoyed more than I did and that’s a bit upsetting. With the mess I was in you don’t feel any intense emotion any more.”
Drummer Dom Howard said that the band didn’t realise that there was a problem until they started counting how many drinks Chris smashed on-stage.
“For some reason he could still play the bass, even though he was sh-tfaced”, Dom told NME.
“He was drinking on stage. I started counting how many drinks he was having during the set and I could see him getting more and more glazed.
By the point we came off stage he’d be f–ked. It just got too weird.”
Howard and bandmate Matt Bellamy gave Wolstenholme an ultimatum “a few times”, but ultimately they kept it together.
“Chris now says things like, ‘I can’t believe they put up with me for 10 years’. Which is true. I can’t believe we did. But we did,” he said.
“I’ve always believed in band integrity and sticking together.”
Bravo Dom, bravo. Muse released their new album The 2nd Law on the weekend – check out more info on the record here.
