Lincoln Townley says being sacked by Peter Stringfellow saved his life

Six years ago Lincoln Townley met presenter and actress Denise Welch in a nightclub in the early hours of the morning, but while their relationship blossomed, his person life was spiralling out of control.

Speaking about this time on the podcast White Wine Question Time, Lincoln told Kate he was not in a great place when the pair met.

“I knew I needed to make the change; I knew I was in a very dark place.” he said. “I look at it that the only good thing that came out of it was my relationship with Denise.”

READ MORE: Peter Stringfellow’s life in pictures

At the time the pair met, Lincoln was head of PR and marketing at nightclub Stringfellows, but his addiction to drugs and alcohol meant he lost his job.

“I worked with Peter Stringfellow, who I miss dearly, who was like a father figure to me,” he told Kate.

“He sacked me because he had to sack me in the end because of what I was getting up to. He said to me, ‘You know, my license at the club is going to be [revoked] if I don't get rid of you. I've got to sack you, Lincoln, and you're sacked.’ He gave me so many warnings and it was very, very hard. I used to drink and I used to do cocaine in my office at Stringfellows and he found out about these things.”

Lincoln revealed the former nightclub owner offered him many gems of advice while he was working for him.

“I sat down with Peter Stringfellow for a dinner once,” he recalled. “He puts two knives on the table and he said to me, ‘This knife here Linc is the journey you're on now. I know you've taken drugs. I know you're drunk… If you looked at that as a journey, you know where it ends. And this knife over here is the journey of sobriety.’”

Lincoln went on to say that Peter told him how he used to argue with this brothers, Paul and Geoffrey Stringfellow, about their drinking, saying it was a constant fight. He said Stringfellow finished off his advice by saying: “You don’t know where that sobriety will lead you because it's an unknown road, because you haven't taken it.”

READ MORE: Denise Welch: 'I’d like everyone in the world to have clinical depression for 15 seconds'

“He was a businessman and a family man and a warm-hearted man that I got to know over many years and realised that he had a love for me in giving me those those gems.”

Lincoln believes losing his job and hitting rock bottom was really the turning point for confronting his addictions. Meeting Denise also gave him the desire and drive to do better.

He said: “In Denise, I met somebody that I felt was looking at me and saying, there's something good about this guy. I knew that Denise was a decent person… And I think that she saw something in me that I felt that the other people didn’t.”

From rock bottom, Lincoln built his life up again, choosing to paint to help him through his dark times.

“My grandfather taught me how to paint,” he told Kate. “I used it during my life and when I was in my late 30s, I used it in a cathartic way of expressing the way I felt about the environment I was in.”

Since his first small private show in a pub in Soho back in 2012, Lincoln has gone on to amass a celebrity following and his art has been shown internationally. He believes his creativity comes from the same place as his self-destruction did.

READ MORE: New research uncovers personality type most likely to binge drink

“I believe many people like me have a hunger inside them,” he explained. “Now you can use that hunger in a bad way… In a very destructive way. Or you can use it in a creative way, which I hadn't done before.”

Lincoln and Denise both got sober seven years ago and his contemporary figurative paintings now sell for six figures.

Hear Lincoln and Denise talk openly about their road to sobriety and the ups and downs of their relationship in the latest episode of White Wine Question Time. Listen on iTunes and Spotify.