Former Doors Member Opening Doors to Sobriety

by Conor Harrison

Marc Benno’s been there, done that.

Now, he wants to help people who are there now.

A former guitarist for The Doors and leader of his band, Marc Benno and the Nightcrawlers, which featured a young Stevie Ray Vaughn, Benno has seen his share of substance abuse, alcoholism and chemical dependency.

Benno recently opened Doors To Recovery, a private chemical dependency counseling office in Kerrville. The idea is to help people, especially past artists and performers, get to the root of their dependency.

As a former, and current performer, Benno has dealt with addiction first hand.

“I was a rising star in the music business back in the day,” Benno said. “Drugs and alcohol took my focus off of the path. It changed me, took away opportunities. People who are addicted think more about the past and the future.

They tend to forget about the present.”

Benno certainly doesn’t want to condemn the people who are addicted.

“It’s the social lubricant,” he said. “I drank a bottle of my aunt’s rum when I was 13 and found out nothing bugged me — it made me happy."

Benno stayed “happy” for 28 years before he sobered up at age 41.
“It was the ’60s, Woodstock. You felt left out if you didn’t drink and take drugs. There was a lot of peer pressure, and I tried everything,” he said. “When I started with The Doors, everything was basically legal because of who we were. My addictions fueled my entitlement, and I got farther and farther from reality.”

Benno explained to be an addict is to live a very lonely life.

“When you’re an addict, you don’t feel normal. It’s very lonely and depressing. In recovery, you feel like part of society and mankind in general. Recovery goes way beyond abstinence — you get to have a rapport with yourself and other people. It’s a very serene feeling.”

Benno understands that chemical dependency is a disease. People who turn to chemicals think, “If you’d been through what I went through, you’d be an addict also.”

“I watched a lot of friends die,” Benno said.

Instead of that being a wake-up call, Benno said he and his friends “just went deeper into it.”

“Alcoholics have a low pain threshold. They don’t deal with adversity well, especially death. When a friend died, I just used it as an excuse to use more. It was all out of balance.”

Benno wants to bring his message to people who can identify with what he went through and talk about what is going on in their lives.

“Identification is the number one key,” he said. “Counseling is like going to the gym for the first time. After that first visit, you’re going to be a little sore, mentally. But, you keep talking and your threshold for pain starts to increase — your self-esteem starts to rise. People are afraid to talk. You have to talk it out to get rid of all of the anger, depression and isolation. It’s a long journey between your head and your heart.”

Benno began counseling several years ago as an intern at La Hacienda. After a stint at Starlight Rehab, he decided to go into private practice.

“Twenty years of sobriety is my biggest accomplishment,” said the Grammy Award winner. “I learned recovery works better if you don’t drink or use drugs.”

Benno is hoping his message will resonate throughout the community.

“Even though I want to help performers, this isn’t limited to those people. We are all performers on the stage of life.”

Contact Conor Harrison at conor.harrison@dailytimes.com