Human Nature’s Andrew Tierney is thankful his daughter never saw him as a drunk.
Revealing the depths to which his alcohol use went, the award-winning Australian artist said he “mostly” had the issue under control before nine-year-old Violette was born.
“I’m so grateful for that, that she’s never going to know drunk dada,” Tierney said in the season launch episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.
Tierney, 51, speaks at length about turning to alcohol behind closed doors amid crippling anxiety.
There have been bumps in the road however. One instance was before a gig at Twin Towns when the Las Vegas-based singer was in Australia touring with the band.
Then, he bought a bottle of vodka, which his brother, fellow band member, Mike, discovered, breaking a rule he had requested that no alcohol be in common areas backstage.
“I thought I’d hidden the bottle really well,” he said.
“That was extreme, that was when I thought I was wearing it as a badge and when I was kind of the guy that’s got a drinking problem, that was kind of my thing and everyone knew it and I kind of got sick of that after a minute. I didn’t want to be that guy and that’s probably maybe where I fell off the wagon a little bit, but now I don’t, I guess it’s just white knuckling it (now). I don’t want to wear it as a badge because I feel like it’s not like only my struggle, it is like so many people are struggling with that particular thing.”
Betraying his wife Heather’s trust was a huge thing to overcome.
She is though his biggest supporter.
“I had to win my wife’s trust back because I was lying to her about drinking,” he said.
“I was keeping it from her. I had probably driven a couple of times and drunk. I’d lie about drinking and fill bottles back up in the house to where they looked like they were full and stuff like that.”
Tierney will tour Australia in August with Tierney Brothers side project album, Soundtrack of My Life.
As a musician, with Human Nature and with his side endeavours, Tierney is undeniably one of Australia’s most successful and memorable artists of recent decades.
To maintain relevance in a challenging, age obsessed industry, is not easy.
“I am grateful that at my age, I’m still making music and people want to still buy tickets to see me sing,” the 51-year-old said.
“You know, when you’ve got your Benson Boons and your Sabrina Carpenter’s out there, I think anyone that is in this part of our career, I imagine we’d all be grateful that we’re able to still do it and people still want to be part of our music.”
He continued: “As a creative and an artist myself, I never want to just camp on what I’ve done, I kind of want to be doing and still doing things.”