Listen via: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | More Platforms
The Head and the Heart are here to help us officially launch Season 6 of the Going There with Dr. Mike podcast! The series continues to find artists opening up at the crossroads of music and mental health, and this new episode finds the band’s Charity Rose Thielen and Kenny Hensley getting real about competition in the industry, addiction, and what it means to have a “welcoming energy.” Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Get The Head and the Heart Tickets Here
Thielen and Hensley discuss how The Head and the Heart formed in the welcoming community of the Seattle scene, and how that balanced with the innate competitiveness of the music industry. Eventually, that comes around to how the group deals with internal struggles, particularly when it comes to their experience with addiction. They touch on what it was like for co-founder Josiah Johnson to leave the band during the recording of their third album, 2016’s Signs of Light, to battle his addiction to drugs.
Hensley himself has since faced his own issues with alcoholism and self-medication. “I had to leave the band for a while and it’s still one of those things that’s really tough to think about and to remember,” he says. “But that gives me all the motivation in the world to just do the opposite. And I could happily say that the last year or two of my life have been night and day different and better, and I have no reason to go back to any of that.”
Thielen gives her impressions from the outside looking in at bandmates struggling with these issues, noting that alcoholism rates are high in music not leastwise because young bands are often paid in drink tickets. “And you’re exhausted, maybe we had arguments with somebody in the band, but we don’t have time because we have to schlep our gear and sound check, and we’ll brush it under the rug,” she says. “‘I’ll escape through these free drinks, and I’ll feel better for a little bit.’ And rinse and repeat, you know.”
Listen to The Head and the Heart on Going There with Dr. Mike above, and watch a video segment of the discussion below. Make sure to like, review, and subscribe to Going There with Dr. Mike to show your support.
The Head and the Heart are heading out on the road in support of their newest album, Aperture, beginning at the end of the month. See their tour schedule and grab tickets here.
Going There is created in partnership between the Consequence Podcast Network and Sound Mind Live. This season is brought to you by Johnson & Johnson, who believes that health is everything. Their strength in healthcare innovation empowers them to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through their expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, they are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at www.jnj.com, on the @JanssenUS and @JNJInnovMed on X.
Content shared from consequence.net.