How Josh Brolin's 99-Year-Old Grandmother Inspired Him to Finally Get Sober at 45

Josh Brolin is sharing how one relative inspired him to make the decision to get sober.

The 56-year-old actor appeared on the Wednesday, Sept. 11, episode of the SiriusXM podcast Where Everybody Knows Your Name with co-hosts Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson. He opened up about an interaction with his 99-year-old grandmother when he was 45 that ultimately pushed him to get sober in 2013.

He began by noting how other people who struggle with substance use disorder “talk about hitting bottom,” but he reveals he was at “bottom [and] far worse than [that]" when he was 15 years old. 

But as he reflected on his last night drinking alcohol, he explained, “There was a hit and run at Del Taco,” and there he “woke up on the sidewalk.” Clarifying, “I didn't know where my car was, and it wasn't that rare. That was just, you know, the 400th time that it happened.”

He recalled for Danson, 76, and Harrelson, 63, that although the situation was “so normal,” he was actually supposed to see his grandmother, who “was on her deathbed.”

“I was supposed to have picked up my brother and taken them 'cause I was the kind of, I was the one in the family that put everything together and structured everything and controlled everything,” he continued. “Anyway, I woke up on the sidewalk, went inside. My brother called me. ‘Where are you?’ Picked him up, walked into that hospital eventually.” 

Once at the healthcare facility, his grandmother picked her head up. “Everybody knew when I walked into the room, picked her head up and looked at me and smiled and that was it,” he said. “I was done. I said, ‘If this woman could get through 99 years on life's terms, how dare me?’ ”

Danson replied, “That's a great phrase. 'On life's terms.' ”

“On life's terms,” Brolin repeated. “I said, ‘How dare me,’ and I'd gotten away with, I was 45 years old and I'd gotten away with a lot, been in jail nine times, done a little bit of whatever.” 

“So I thought, I wonder if I could do that half of life like that and then do this half of life like this. Then I get to live two lives and not just one,” Brolin said.

Harrelson followed up and asked the actor if he was ever "dying to have a drink.” But Brolin immediately replied, “No.”

"I feel like something's been cultivated in me that I helped cultivate that, that my life now is better than my greatest romance of any drink I could have," Brolin clarified. "I actually like my life. Not that I didn't before, because I loved it before, except when I would write indecipherable texts. That—I didn't like that."

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If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.