California native Cedric Bixler-Zavala, former frontman for Mars Volta and At The Drive-In, was once a notorious pot smoker, even spending up to $1,000 a week on weed. In a new essay in Vulture, Bixler-Zavala opens up about how he went from relying on weed for his creative process to abstaining completely.
“I was a total monster,” he reveals. “I was spending $1,000 a week on weed, and everyone I was in the band with at the time smoked as much as I did. There’s so much stupid behavior caused by weed, but I always had that cliché: I needed it for creativity. I’ve come to realize that at the end of the day, it’s only you yourself that creativity comes from. It doesn’t come from weed.”
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The Grateful Dead fan goes on to explain how he now connects with different aspects of the Dead’s music now that he’s no longer high.
“There are aspects of the Grateful Dead that I love now that I don’t smoke that are the opposite of what I used to like. Now I find myself being like, ‘Just gimme the goddamn hook!’ When I was smoking I could probably listen to Infrared Roses on repeat. ‘This is awesome! This is great!’ I mean, it’s not bad. It’s interesting, it’s a cool adventure in art, but now I just find myself wanting to listen to the core of the song, the core of what someone is trying to communicate.”
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Weed was a part of his identity and his art, but he doesn’t want to be defined by it anymore. “That’s not to say I don’t like trippier music anymore,” he clarifies. “We still play a song that’s nine minutes long where I kind of exercise an old personality that I came to love. And that’s cool to do sober.”
As for the benefits to being sober? “I’m better off socially. I talk to fans. I’m cool with taking pictures. I’ll sign whatever they want me to sign. That wasn’t me when I was smoking weed.”
Read the entire essay here.