Darryl DMC McDaniels Ten Ways Not To Commit Suicide

Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of iconic Hip-Hop group Run-DMC has many layers to his life and he’s revealing more of them in his new book Ten Ways Not to Commit Suicide.

DMC has been very open about his life post-rap. In 2004 he allowed VH1’s cameras to follow him as he sought to meet his biological mother for the first time. Ironically, he discovered that he was adopted when he began talking to his parents while writing a first draft of his memoir. Fast-forward to now DMC has picked up the pen again to finish what he started. The final result is his memoir Ten Ways Not To Commit Suicide.

Screenshot: Amazon

He sat down with PEOPLE Magazine to talk about some of the events discussed in the book. He reveals that he was a shy kid and started drinking young to boost his confidence and that the drinking accelerated as he became famous from being in Run-DMC.

Photo: WENN.com

He tells PEOPLE:

“I started from drinking a 40[-ounce bottle Olde English 800] throughout the day, right before I would go on stage…But I had more money, so I didn’t have to go buy bottles of beer. I could just buy a case. So that’s when it got obsessive. It got to the point where it was five 40s before I went onstage, but it still didn’t take effect.”

As Run-DMC’s fame grew, so did McDaniels’ struggles. Though he’d written much of the trio’s early tracks, he says Simmons and Mizell didn’t respect his creative input shortly after they broke out.

“When I look back, it all started when I was looking for my confidence,” he says. “I didn’t need alcohol when I was 12 years old, sitting in my bedroom writing just rhymes in my notebooks: it was fun; there was no pressure of, ‘Man, I gotta write this rhyme. I hope it’ll sell.’ When you have expectations, that destroys.”

McDaniels said pressure from his band-mates, label and himself pushed him to drink more and more, and by 1991, he was drinking a case of Olde English 40s a day. Until he ended up in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.

Photo: WENN.com

photo: WENN

DMC would quit drinking cold turkey when doctors pretty much told him that if he kept drinking he would die. Even though he was sober, he still wasn’t happy as he saw his role in the group he helped build become more diminished. Those feelings led to him sinking in depression for a number of years. The depression worsened in 1999 when he was diagnosed with the throat condition  spasmodic dysphonia that took his voice. He tried to pick himself up by starting work on a memoir, but when he found out that he was adopted early in the writing process he sunk even deeper in depression and even started drinking again.

Per PEOPLE:

“I drank the whole bottle – not with Coke, like it was water – and I sat and looked and thought, ‘I can’t get no higher. The tolerance thing was starting to happen.'” recalls Daniels. “You feel good when you drink; you feel invincible. But it wears off, and then you feel worse. I had to think about my wife and son.”

Checking into an Arizona treatment facility after living sober for a month, McDaniels learned the root of his drinking.

“I was diagnosed with suppressed emotion: I wasn’t telling my truth and telling people the truth because I was so worried about what they would think of me, and I didn’t wanna hurt their feelings,” McDaniels says of an epiphany from counseling. “I was compromising who I was just to please Run and Jay.“

DMC would bounce back and get himself back together. He began performing again and even started his own comic book company. Now that he has overcome his demons he is sharing his story in hopes of inspiring others living with depression and suicidal thoughts.

Ten Ways Not To Commit Suicide hit bookstores on Tuesday, July 5.