{"id":658889,"date":"2026-05-22T17:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658889\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:47:16","slug":"brian-setzer-on-the-health-drink-that-sent-him-to-rehab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/658889\/","title":{"rendered":"Brian Setzer on the \u201chealth drink\u201d that sent him to rehab"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a rough couple of years for Brian Setzer. But after canceling a Stray Cats tour<\/a> last year due to medical reasons, he\u2019s ready to rock the 18 towns the trio \u2014 including drummer Slim Jim Phantom and bassist Lee Rocker \u2014 will start playing at the end of July.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling really good, I have to tell ya,\u201d Setzer tells Guitar Player from his home in Minnesota. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t book a tour if I couldn\u2019t say I\u2019m 100 percent. I would\u2019ve taken more time if I had to.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, the best thing for me now is just to hear that sound of that guitar and look over to see Slim Jim rockin\u2019 on one side of me and look over and see Lee on the other side.<\/p>\n

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\"Brian\n<\/p>\n

Setzer performs at the O2 Academy Birmingham, England, June 23, 2019. (Image credit: Steve Thorne\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the only ones that play this type of music, really, besides the local bands that play around,\u201d he continues. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frustrating when you sit down and your hands do nothing. You really can\u2019t take it for granted. Playing guitar is certainly on top, but so is holding a toothbrush, y\u2019know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brian Setzer<\/p>\n

\u201dBut when I hear that Gretsch guitar through that Fender Custom amp<\/a> \u2014 that sound! And when I feel the vibration of the Gretsch, it\u2019s the best feeling in the world. I need to feel that every night. When I don\u2019t get that, I\u2019m chasing it with other things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The electric guitar<\/a> maestro did, in fact, get hit with a health double-whammy last year.<\/p>\n

During early 2025, he revealed that he was battling a debilitating autoimmune disease<\/a> that led to intensive treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way I can describe it is, your nerves are like wires, and wires have sheathing on them,\u201d Setzer explains. \u201cWell, that\u2019s coating has kind of eroded, so the wires malfunction. Basically, they lock up my hands and feet. I can\u2019t move them. I can\u2019t button my pants, let alone play guitar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating when you sit down and your hands do nothing. You really can\u2019t take it for granted. Playing guitar is certainly on top, but so is holding a toothbrush, y\u2019know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Being at Mayo did give Setzer some perspective. \u201cI\u2019m lying in there and some guy next to me has got cancer,\u201d he notes. After about a year of treatment, his acumen began to return.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was able to hold a guitar pick<\/a>. That came first,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was, \u2018All right, I\u2019m more than halfway there.\u2019 And then when I was able to fingerpick, when my fingers came back, then I had the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Brian\n<\/p>\n

Onstage at O2 Academy Birmingham, England, June 23, 2019. (Image credit: Steve Thorne\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

But Setzer\u2019s return was further delayed by an unintended dependence on Kratom, an over-the-counter herbal wellness tonic that\u2019s been deemed \u201cunsafe and ineffective\u201d by Mayo, and a controlled substance in several states and the District of Columbia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started innocently enough,\u201d says Setzer, who went to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation clinic, also in Minnesota, for recovery. \u201cThey advertise it as a safe tonic to give you energy, and it\u2019s not. So that just aggravated the whole thing. I just stopped everything and went away and cleaned out and came back fresh and clean.<\/p>\n

I had to go get everything out of my system, really. There\u2019s nothing to be embarrassed about. If anyone has a problem you go and they take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brian Setzer<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to go get everything out of my system, really. There\u2019s nothing to be embarrassed about; if anyone has a problem you go and they take care of you. And thank God you can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no guarantee the autoimmune issue won\u2019t return, Setzer is confident that he and the band are in full-speed-ahead mode right now and predicting additional tours in the future. He\u2019s locked and loaded with his Gretsch G6120s.<\/p>\n

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\"BIRMINGHAM,\n<\/p>\n

With Lee Rocker onstage at the O2 Academy Birmingham. Setzer says the best thing for him now is to see his bandmates with him onstage. (Image credit: Steve Thorne\/Redferns)<\/p>\n

He also still uses the early \u201960s Fender Bassman amp<\/a> with original Oxford speakers that he put in to replace the reissue series speakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only difference now is I turn the cabinet around, because the amp is too damn loud,\u201d says Setzer, who along with his fellow Stray Cats uses in-ear monitors, primarily to hear his vocals. \u201cI want the band to be all the same volume. I don\u2019t want to blast away a standup bass<\/a>, which is inherently an acoustic instrument. Turning it around does the trick.\u201d<\/p>\n

I said to myself, \u2018This is a great one. If I could turn this into a song, it would be really fun with the Stray Cats.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Brian Setzer<\/p>\n

The Stray Cats are also coming back with two new recordings from last fall \u2014 a rendition of \u201cStampede,\u201d a circa 1959 surf instrumental by the Scarlets, for which Setzer wrote lyrics and a fuller arrangement, and a cover of Eddie Cochran\u2019s \u201cTeenage Heaven<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Stampede\u2019 had a great guitar riff<\/a> \u2014 that\u2019s the trick, is finding an original guitar riff,\u201d Setzer explains. \u201cI said to myself, \u2018This is a great one. If I could turn this into a song, it would be really fun with the Stray Cats.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Setzer, who recorded his parts at Terrarium studio in Minneapolis, adds that \u201cWhen I record songs like that, I always want to make sure I can play them. I don\u2019t layer on a bunch of guitars and put things on that wouldn\u2019t let me replicate that live.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stray Cats – Stampede (Official Visualizer) – YouTube
\n\"The<\/p>\n

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As for more new material \u2014 Stray Cats or his own \u2014 Setzer says, \u201cI don\u2019t have anything else written at the moment. But when it does happen it\u2019s really nice; I can just run down the block here [to Terrarium] with my buddy Jason [Orris] and knock \u2019em out. It\u2019s really fun making records that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s in the pipeline for me now is to play, that\u2019s all. I\u2019m just glad I can play and so many places are waiting for us and people want to see us \u2014 which I don\u2019t take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stray Cats\u2019 upcoming tour itinerary includes:
Friday, July 24, Las Vegas, NV, The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan
Saturday, July 25, Phoenix, AZ, Celebrity Theatre
Sunday, July 26, Del Mar, CA, The Sound
Tuesday and Wednesday, July 28\u201329, Highland, CA, Yaamava\u2019 Theater
Friday, July 31, Santa Rosa, CA, Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
Saturday, August 1, Saratoga, CA, The Mountain Winery
Sunday, August 2, Wheatland, CA, Hard Rock Live
Tuesday, August 4, Sandy, UT, Sandy Amphitheater
Wednesday, August 5, Colorado Springs, CO, Pikes Peak Center
Friday, August 7, Tulsa, OK, River Spirit Casino Resort
Saturday, August 8, Kansas City, MO, Uptown Theater
Monday, August 10, Huber Heights, OH, Rose Music Center at The Heights
Tuesday, August 11, Interlochen, MI, Interlochen Center for the Arts
Wednesday, August 12, Northfield, OH, MGM Northfield Park
Friday, August 14, Westbury, NY, Flagstar at Westbury Music Fair
Saturday, August 15, Atlantic City, NJ, Ocean Casino Resort
Sunday, August 16, Morristown, NJ, Mayo Performing Arts Center<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a rough couple of years for Brian Setzer. But after canceling a Stray Cats tour last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-658889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}