Everclear's Art Alexakis talks addiction from a Starbucks

Art Alexakis, leader of Everclear, brings the band to the Music Box on Saturday, November 21. Alexakis took time out from hunting down a Starbucks in Greensboro, North Carolina, to take a few phoner questions.

What comes to mind about San Diego gigs?

“There was an old-school punk club there for years, underneath an overpass. We played there once — this is just when we were starting to get label interest, I had a 103 temperature, and we had six dollars to eat on. But we had all these label people coming out. I was so sick that show, but we played. I walked offstage to the back room, threw up, and then walked out to meet people. Full fever.

“And I remember playing later, a sold-out show, it was an L-shaped hall or an inverted L. So, 600 people couldn’t see the band! They didn’t have videos screens, speakers, or anything [laughs]. I remember getting into it with the promoter. It just wasn’t fair.”

Did you win the argument?

“I always win, one way or another [laughs]. I think we did a second show, for those people. I had them rope it off, to the line of demarcation. I don’t think [the promoter] liked it very much because he had to pay his staff. It wasn’t about winning. It was about compromise.”

Does sobriety get easier or harder with time?

“It gets easier, but speed bumps come up. You get a sense of entitlement. I’ve done this, I got this, I could have a drink, it’s not gonna hurt me. I meet people who have been clean and sober 20 years, and they go have a glass of wine at a wedding, end up two months later living with a stripper, wife’s kicked ’em out of the house, froze their bank accounts — Oh! That could be me! Thank you, universe, God, whatever!

“I’m an addict. I smoke cigars. It’s an outlet for me, like sex or candy or anything else. I’m an addict, I don’t do anything halfway. I have to be present, conscious, and aware of my addiction in everything. Sometimes it’s No, I don’t need to eat a whole cheesecake. No, I don’t need to smoke ten cigars. No, I don’t need to have sex with 20 people. It feels like it’s gonna fill the hole. It doesn’t. It just makes the hole bigger.”