People See My Tattoos & the First Thing They Do Is Offer Me a Drink or Drugs or Both — They've Got Me Completely Backwards

Episode 81 | Ashley Baker — Rocket Fuel at 13, Death Metal in Dubai & 17 Years Sober His Own Way

Ashley Baker was born in the UK but never lived there. He grew up in Dubai in the late seventies and eighties — before it was trendy, when it was still mostly desert — the only child of an English mum who'd stayed after his dad left when he was four. She tried to take her life twice before he was old enough to understand why. He grew up with four languages, an Arabic school, a private English school, and by thirteen, a can of Fosters nicked from his parents and a plan to be the coolest kid on the 31st floor of the Hyatt Regency.

The plan involved rocket fuel — everything in the drinks cabinet mixed into a 1.5 litre water bottle, downed on a dare in front of his friends. He fell into the pool, woke up the next day still drunk, got on the school bus, and everyone applauded. That was it. He was the man. He never really stopped drinking after that.

At seventeen his family moved to Germany, where he discovered that you could buy alcohol in supermarkets at sixteen and that every death metal bar in Stuttgart was open until dawn. He got an apprenticeship as a chef — the one job in the world where drinking before a shift was not just accepted but culturally expected — and spent the next fifteen years being the best and worst version of himself simultaneously.

By thirty-one he was drinking two bottles of wine before he could get out of bed, going to his neighbours to ask if they had any wine left, and shaking so badly he had to medicate the withdrawals with more alcohol just to get upright. He went to rehab twice — the first time he left after two weeks and was back drinking within a week. The second time it stuck.

Seventeen years sober. Fully tattooed. Qualified addiction counsellor and sober coach in Stuttgart. Completely at peace. And still listening to death metal.

You can find Ash on instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/ashleybaker.sobercoach?igsh=dnJobnFnZXdsNHRn

and his Linktree at:

https://linktr.ee/ashleybaker.sobercoach

The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle

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Boiling Point - Stephen Graham

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My Instagram is:

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And you can find all my other links at:

https://linktr.ee/jimmythistle

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Alcohol Explained - William Porter

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This Naked Mind - Annie Grace

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A Million Little Pieces - James Frey

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