When I first heard the album “You’re Not Alone”, I was fairly new to sobriety and in the process of a divorce. Everything in my life was raw and fairly new. Most people who get sober don’t make it past the first year. Too many things bring them back to the drink.
While working the steps of Alcoholics Anonymous with a sponsor was key to my sobriety, a few other things happened that helped.
You’re Not Alone
This album was definitely one of them. Andrew WK’s “You’re Not Alone” album was/is fifty two minutes and thirty four seconds of infectious positivity. After all, “You’re Not Alone” is a major theme for recovering addicts, and one of the first posters in a meeting I saw when I first got clean.
The album talks about life being worth living and that you never have to go back to your painful past again. The cover of Mad Season’s “I Don’t Know Anything” is my favorite song on the entire album. My daughter and I still sing it in the truck when we’re by ourselves.
And, perhaps the most profound of tracks on the album: “The Devil’s On Your Side”. The notion that hard times exist to make your life better is a huge middle finger to the comfort most of us seek. Life is hard. That’s for your benefit.
I have the limited edition vinyl of this album. My friend Scott got it for me for my birthday in 2018. I still hang on to it like a shrine of hope.
Everywhere I go today, I see negativity. It’s infected my friends, family, and strangers all the same. In light of all the doom and gloom in news media, I feel like an hour of straight hope is some damned good medicine. Andrew WK’s message of hope and party is a great one.
