Meet Shellter Stone | Singer/Songwriter & President of Sobriety Sounds

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shellter Stone and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shellter, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
I approach risk analytically, but the final decision is often very visceral. My thought process is a spectrum of weighing pros, cons, cost, time, and net impact. The visceral part of my decision making is directly related to the passion I have for the risk. It’s not imperative for me to enjoy the process, but the gratification that will come from the best-case results of the risk needs to outweigh the dissatisfaction of the worst-case scenario. Once I’ve considered all of this, then comes the hard part (for me). After battling all considerations and mental road blocks, the hard part is when I put all my energy into a risk, while others disagree around me. Something I’ve learned, especially with my most recent nonprofit venture, is that your expectation should be that no one will match the same level of excitement and passion that you bring to the table. Negativity and naysayers are lurking all around us and I compartmentalize each statement categorically based on which type of naysayer it comes from. The first type of naysayer will be someone who is truly providing feedback because they are trying to help. I accept what they say and use it constructively. The second type of naysayer, are those who can’t help but to be negative. So many of these people exist and it’s important to recognize that what sets you apart from them (a positive attitude) is what will allow you to succeed. Lastly, there will be people who you love and respect that will discourage you from taking a risk. As difficult as it is to not get the encouragement you want from your loved ones, often, the reason they may discourage your risk taking is because they care enough to not want to see you fail. Identify who your source is and focus on the positive, while being solution oriented.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a singer/songwriter in recovery from addiction/alcoholism. Addiction has been challenging. I’ve gone from homeless, to a house in the country. From poor, to making a high salary. From completely unknown and isolated to and getting fifty thousand video views in a week. All of this progress means nothing when sobriety isn’t the most important thing in your life. The difficulty with being in recovery, is that if your recovery isn’t on solid ground, all your progress can come crashing down quicker than it took to build it. In a flash you can fall right back down to the bottom, just to slowly work your way up again.

I’m grateful to have another opportunity at life because there’s only so many times the universe will allow me to be brought back after an overdose. Being a musician in recovery was very difficult for the first year of sobriety because I always associated my creativity with my using. I communicate through my music. Not knowing how to write without drinking or using drugs can be a unique struggle when songwriting is how you speak to the world. In the very beginning of sobriety, I had nothing. My instruments had been pawned and I had pushed everyone away. Feeling like I couldn’t effectively communicate my feelings through songwriting, like I had been used to, was a feeling I never want to experience again.

In early sobriety, I used to drive around with a buddy of mine. We’d have nowhere to go and we’d just drive around aimlessly trying to stay sober. I wouldn’t find out until a few years later that he played the acoustic guitar, just like me. He even did covers of my favorite artist (Darius Rucker). I didn’t find out that he was a musician like myself until I was waiting to kneel at his casket after he died of an overdose. His family had videos of him playing guitar inside the funeral home.
I was baffled that I didn’t know this about him during the times we were driving around. Usually, playing guitar is one of the first things that comes up in conversation. Even if I did know he played guitar years ago, I was living in a halfway house at the time and had nowhere to play guitar with him if I wanted to. Plus, it took me a while to get my instruments back from active addiction.

I started doing research about relapse rates in the recovery community. Within the first year of stopping, the relapse rates for drugs and alcohol are absolutely insane. There are many studies out there with slightly different relapse percentages, but the statistics for the first year of recovery are astronomically high. As an example, the first-year relapse rates for opiate users is as high as 90%. Addiction has billions of dollars’ worth of economic impact in the United States. WHY ARE WE NOT GETTING BETTER RESULTS FOR THE MONEY? We need to change how we focus on helping the recovery community because what we’re doing now is not working. My friends are dying and I’m tired of going to funerals.

I’ve created an organization called “Sobriety Sounds”. This facility will be available to those in the recovery community, while targeting the maintenance stage of recovery. In a perfect world, we plan on the facility having a main room with tons of songwriting desks that include an amplifier, music/instrument stands, and free notebooks at each station. Things like studio headphones to plug into the amplifiers, picks, capos, guitar pedals, and tuners will be available to sign out and use. It will have an acoustic room for instruments that can’t have their sound controlled by headphones and a group room where people can create their own bands. The goal of this organization is not to be someone’s recovery, but a tool to someone’s recovery. It will have consistent and accessible operating hours so that the next time two musicians are driving in a car, desperately trying to stay sober, they’ll have a place to go. Other services that exist can be very helpful, but they can be time restrictive and end before the first year of recovery is over. I want people to be able to learn an instrument on their own time, in an environment that is sober and supportive.

I want experienced musicians to know that they have a place to go to refine and maintain their talent, pick up a new instrument, or collaborate with others. I want people to learn how to record on equipment that is realistic for them to obtain in the future for home recording and I want people to be able to record their music for free so that they can feel accomplished for creating something tangible. I want classes to be offered to the community for free, including intro to keyboard, guitar, bass, creative writing, an audio production.

Our articles of incorporation have been submitted in New York, where my recovery could have used a facility like this the most. We are waiting on our nonprofit status to be granted by the IRS and have planned out everything we will need to create a facility like this. It will NOT be easy to fund. It’s already been difficult and there have been plenty of people who focus on the negative instead of finding solutions, but I’m confident that my vision will come to fruition. We need more services that target the difficult maintenance stage of recovery and I’d like to help with Sobriety Sounds.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Go see my buddy Zombie Joe. He’s one of the nicest people you’ll meet and his creative work is inspirational.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My father is my biggest supporter and strongest advocate in my endeavors. In a world where it can feel like everyone is against you, it’s nice to have someone who’s always in my corner.

Instagram: @shellterstone

Twitter: @shellterstone

Facebook: www.facebook.com/shelltermusic

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShellterStone

Image Credits
Studio Hound