Ricky Byrd has lived the rock ’n’ roll cliché and lived to rewrite it. The former Joan Jett & the Blackhearts guitarist — that’s him playing on “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” — has spent the last three decades sober, using the same energy that once fueled excess to now preach something a little more radical: self-awareness.
His latest record, Sobering Times, isn’t a lecture; it’s a barroom brawler with a conscience. “I worked hard on the non-cheesy aspect,” he laughs. “There’s no preaching on this record. It’s just throwing the cards on the table and hopefully somebody hears something they need to hear.”
The album follows 2017’s Clean Getaway, both of which document Byrd’s evolution into what he calls a “recovery troubadour.” Before the pandemic, he spent his days visiting treatment centers, high schools, and even juvenile detention facilities — acoustic guitar in hand — turning recovery stories into singalongs. “I go anywhere that’ll have me,” he says. “I kind of became this recovery troubadour, and I love it. I can tell by the looks on people’s faces when I’m hitting something real.”
If Clean Getaway was Byrd finding his footing, Sobering Times shows him comfortable in his new lane — writing about addiction and redemption without sanding off the edges. “The music’s still rough and tumble,” he says. “It’s still greasy rock and roll. That’s what I do.”
He even road-tests his songs before recording them, using his audience as a feedback loop. “I play the songs first in treatment centers,” he explains. “I can tell by the reaction if I’m on to something or if I missed the mark. If I don’t see their faces light up, I put the song aside and try another.”
That direct connection led to one of the record’s emotional centerpieces, “Just Like You.” “I started thinking, ‘Maybe some of these people look at me and think, he doesn’t know how I feel — it’s been so long since he was in this place.’ So I wrote that song to say, yeah, I do know how you feel. Every time I play it, I get chills. Sometimes tears.”
The honesty is what sets Sobering Times apart from your average “comeback” record. Byrd knows how easily a message like his can turn saccharine. “There are a lot of drinking songs out there,” he says. “So why not write the other side — but make it fun?” He even flips the script on Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” giving the country classic a dose of rock grit and a recovery twist.
It’s no small irony that Byrd — once the guy playing in one of the hardest-partying rock bands of the ’80s — now uses his guitar to tell people there’s life after the fog. “When I got sober in September ’87, there were only a handful of treatment centers,” he recalls. “Now there’s so much help out there. But there’s still a stigma. People are hurting in silence when they don’t need to.”
He rattles off the numbers like a man who’s done his homework. “Even before the pandemic, 130 to 140 people a day were dying from opioids. Alcohol-related deaths are around 88,000 a year. A lot of people still think they have to suffer alone. My job is to say, ‘Hey man, you’re not alone.’”
That message might sound heavy, but Byrd insists Sobering Times isn’t a drag — far from it. The record moves with swagger and bite, a reminder that recovery doesn’t have to sound sanitized. “It’s a fun record with a message,” he says. “Yeah, it’s serious sometimes, but there’s a solution in there too.”
Grassroots to the core, Byrd even sells the album himself. “Right now you can buy it on my website,” he says proudly. “I’m literally signing copies and carrying them to the post office every couple of days. It’s old-school rock and roll, and I kind of love it.”
Three decades sober, still touring, still writing, still loud — Ricky Byrd isn’t trying to rewrite rock ’n’ roll’s story. He’s just adding a new chapter. “You can play greasy rock and roll and still have something to say,” he shrugs. “If it helps even one person pick up the phone for help, then it’s all worth it.”
Listen to the interview above and then check out the track below.
