Love and Theft's Eric Gunderson on Alcoholism and 7 Years of Sobriety: 'I Was in Fear of Losing My Life'

Cindy Watts

19 September 2022 at 8:10 pm·5-min read

Chase Lauer Stephen Barker Liles and Eric Gunderson of Love and Theft

Eric Gunderson should be dead.

One half of country duo Love and Theft, Gunderson's alcohol addiction was so serious seven years ago that he was experiencing the precursors of organ failure.

"I've had a couple bad scares," he admits. "I got a little bit addicted to alcohol. I didn't realize it was so easy. I come from a family with a history of addiction. I guess there's that genetic predisposition there, but in the music business, I think idle hands are definitely the devil's playground."

Love & Theft recently released their EP, Better Off. The diverse six-song collection is the first project the duo, which also includes Stephen Barker Liles, has released since Gunderson got sober. The men co-wrote every song and self-produced the album largely from Gunderson's home studio.

"We just wanted to write the songs in a fun, charismatic and carefree way," Gunderson, 37, tells PEOPLE. "We didn't want to force our ideas into a machine and just crank out another typical radio-friendly project. We just took a few more risks and did what the song called for."

Gunderson couldn't have co-written and co-produced the EP if he hadn't gotten sober.

"I wouldn't have had the bandwidth before to even take on producing a project like that," he says. "I was more wrapped up in the appearance. That's part of the reason I drank so much; to stay numb. You combine the dependence with the emotional issues and it's really a recipe for disaster."

His motivation was more compelling than his career. The singer is a Type 1 diabetic, which makes alcohol even more harmful to his body. Gunderson says he didn't want his wife of 12 years, Emily, to get a call from the duo's tour manager saying he died in a hotel room. Gunderson didn't realize he was slipping into the addiction. Alcohol is everywhere in the music business, and he says he went from drinking a few beers a night on tour to consuming a couple of cases of beer and a fifth of whiskey in the same time frame.

Love and Theft often occupied support slots on major tours, which means they played in the early evening and then joined the headliner on stage later in the night. The schedule created the perfect storm to feed his alcoholism. The duo frequently played at 4:30 p.m. to the fans tailgating in the parking lot, and Gunderson tells PEOPLE he felt like he had to look like he was having as much fun as they were. That means he was drinking before he went on stage. He wanted to maintain that buzz before he joined the headliner on the main stage, so he drank for the next five or six hours until it was the duo's turn to walk out.

"You had to pace yourself just to try to get there and then just get as drunk as you can on stage," Gunderson says. "Then you have to make it back to the bus and hope you don't pass out."

The nights didn't end there. Often the people on tour played drunken football in the parking lot.

"I just got to the point where I had to drink so much just to maintain that level of drunkness that I was injuring my liver, injuring my kidneys, injuring my whole body," he says. "There were a couple of times where people couldn't find me, and I did a really good job of hiding. I was never an angry drunk, either. I was just kind of happy, happy, sloppy, then black out and then pass out."

Chase Lauer Love and Theft's Better Off

Gunderson admits passed out so many times that the incidents run together, and he doesn't remember who found him.

"It was a wakeup call to have a couple of near-death experiences," he says. "As a Type 1 diabetic, I run the risk of accidentally taking too much insulin. When you're inebriated like that, it's hard to properly dose yourself. You can wake up from an insulin shock or not wake up."

He felt his career and his marriage slipping through his fingers, and he couldn't stop it. Gunderson went to the doctor, who ran a few tests and noted that some of his levels were dangerously high. The singer denied he had an alcohol problem but checked into rehab a couple of weeks later.

"That was one of the times where I was in fear of losing my life just because the detox was so brutal," he says.

Gunderson relapsed six months later and started drinking again. Then he quit cold turkey and now, he hasn't had a drink in almost seven years.

"It's not been a struggle every single day wanting to have a drink," he says. "It's fueled my desire to stay sober because I recognize how much better my life is without the constant stress and feeling like crap because of alcohol."