Tremonti says, "Probably towards the end of 'Human Clay', the second record, I think with all the pressures of 'you gotta come out with your next single', 'your sophomore album is going to be a failure if you don't do this,' 'your next single is not gonna do this,' 'you gotta stay on tour'... It was always... if you don't do this your career is going to be over kind of thing. So we were always pressured to stay on tour and put out this music... some people deal with that better than others.

"When you're the frontman of a band that's always in the spotlight and on top of it you are getting.. you know people are taking pot shots at you. I think it just kind of weighed on him and drinking turned to pills, turned to this and whatever.

"He was never really open about it. I think he would do his own thing and party but wouldn't tell us what he was doing. To me, I always thought he was drinking or on a painkiller because his back hurt. I think the painkillers because his back hurt turned into just doing what he got his hands on."