The Determined Society with Shawn French
Saving Lives Through Music: The Untold Story of Recovery Unplugged
Tue, 08 Apr 2025
Grammy-winning songwriter Richie Supa and Recovery Unplugged founder Andrew Sossin sit down with host Shawn French to share the powerful story behind a revolutionary addiction and mental health recovery movement. From rock bottom to redemption, they reveal how music is used as a catalyst, not a crutch, for evidence-based therapy. With over 18,000 lives impacted and counting, this episode is a raw, emotional, and inspiring look at what it truly means to heal. If you or someone you love is struggling, this episode might be the spark of hope you need. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is Recovery Unplugged and how did it start?
Chapter 2: How does music play a role in addiction recovery?
So before we get into it, for the audience that isn't familiar with Recovery Unplugged, can you guys give a little brief description of what it is that you guys are doing and how it was founded?
Sure. So the back story was over 13 years ago, I had several family members and friends in and out of treatment centers, and I was just lost in how to help them correctly.
The revolving door culminated in one of my family members being arrested, another one ODing on the teacher's lounge and living, and a friend of mine, I was at a Tony Robbins event, and I said it would be cheaper for me to open up my own treatment center than keep paying for other ones. And he said, well, I know some people that are interested in doing that with music.
And I said, I'm not a musician. I'm not a therapist. I know nothing about it. And Marshall Geiser introduced me to Paul Pellinger and Paul introduced me to Richie. And Richie had this concept already called Recovery Unplugged. And the second I met Richie, I knew that's what we were.
18,000.
Yeah. In 12 years. Yes. Yeah.
And it started with, you know, 20 to 30 people a month at the beginning. And now we have almost a little under 500 a month that we're treating.
Wow, that's amazing. Richie, what's been your journey in this with Andrew? Because, I mean, I know you play a big part in it and you're taking your own personal experience and bringing it into this venture. I mean, it's very interesting.
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Chapter 3: What inspired Richie Supa to join Recovery Unplugged?
Well, after I wrote The Big Aerosmith Hit Amazing, the response I got from people who had addiction problems was, captured my heart. And I started to write songs about, this is prior to getting together with Andrew. I started writing songs about this disease and I wrote a song called, there was a website, which is the largest website for recovery called In The Rooms.
And I wrote, they asked me to write their theme song. I wrote the theme song. We went to, and they submitted the song to the Prism Awards in Los Angeles. And I was up against, you know, Eric Clapton and a bunch of people, great songwriters, and I won Song of the Year in 2009. And the response was just unbelievable. And then in 2011, I wrote a song called, What the hell?
You've done so many, it's hard for you to remember. And I won again. And my heart was captured. I wanted to do something. So I started to go around with my guitar and play at detoxes and treatment centers my one-man show called Recovery Unplugged.
Love it.
And I did that for a year and a half. And then the timing was such that I got to meet Andrew through through through Paul Pellinger and other people. And I think the treatment center was called Harmony at the time.
We first started. We opened up as Harmony Treatment Center for about two months. And then we met Richie. And when Richie came in one day, and he did his recovery unplugged, they said, no, we're recovering unplugged. 24 hours later, Richie was our partner, and we've been recovering unplugged since that moment.
It was just like that. Literally. They wanted to think outside the box, and I said, well, why don't we call it recovery unplugged instead of Harmony, which is very vanilla. And Andrew, I remember him going like this. I like that. That's how it started.
I have zero musical ability. If I sang, the windows would break. Same, bro.
Same.
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Chapter 4: How does connectivity through music impact recovery?
Yeah.
And I had to learn to change my thinking. And our approach with the music is... It helps, like Andrew said, it opens them up. It's non-threatening.
Yeah. We were talking a little bit off air, and I told you how my wife and I, when we want to connect, we listen to music together. And then you mentioned music is about connectivity, and it connects people, right? From different paths, and everybody has a story, and you're able to connect really well through music. And like you mentioned, it disarms you. It disarms.
And I want to go back real quick. You talked about when you wrote Amazing, that big hit. I was watching some of that stuff prior to the interview. And just you and Steven Tyler on set singing that song. And I'm listening to his words. And the overarching thing is life is not about the destination. It's about the journey.
right and i love this because i'm getting goosebumps like no joke guys because a lot of my platform i talk about hey you know do the small steps every day forget about what that macro result is you want but let's focus on the journey and who you become within that you know every single day and you know you're out there for a year and a half doing recovery unplugged just by yourself and then all of a sudden you're you're doing that every single day
And Andrew, you guys have harmony, right? And you're doing what you do every single day. And all of a sudden, when the time is right, connectivity. And because of music, now you guys are working on your 18,000th patient. This is incredible. This is about doing the work every day with purpose and it opening up to something so much greater.
I just want to say for me, you know, I won a Grammy. I won three Prism Awards. There is no greater reward. than having a parent hug me, crying, saying, thank you for saving my child's life. There's no comparison. And I was taken. I literally stopped as a professional songwriter and started this journey because I can't keep what I have unless I give it away.
And God blessed me with the gift of writing songs. How could I turn my back on that?
I would also, you know, take that and say for my own family, my kids have a grandmother, aunts, cousins that have all been through our program. And they're alive today because of it and everybody else. And, you know, it's interesting, you know, because we didn't share. I didn't tell you this part of the story, but you brought those words up.
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Chapter 5: What is the significance of personal stories in healing?
Yeah. He actually, on day one, sat in my groups with his arms crossed.
Wow.
Head down, total walls around him. And it was, and I heard him, you know, I started a thing called Open Mic on Wednesdays. And I heard him sing. And I sat him down one-on-one. I said, you have a gift. You have a gift. I'm telling you as a professional in the music industry that you have a gift that you don't want to destroy with drugs. Wow. And I'm going to work with you.
And I stayed with him and on him. encouraging him to play some song ideas. I played him some of my songs and it inspired him. And again, it was connectivity. Sure. We connected through the music and my journey because I had a lot of years clean and I was part of Recovery Unplugged. And look where he is today now. It's incredible where he is today. Praise God. That's the magic.
Yeah, it sure is. You know, it's funny, you're talking about, we keep going back to the word connectivity, and there's a reason, right? So when I look at your little concerts, right, whether it was you and Steven Tyler, Flo Rida, I'm looking at the crowd. I'm looking at... the residents within the facility. And I'm seeing some super open and just flown with it. And there was just one, right?
I believe it was the Flowrider video. I saw her in the front with her arms crossed, kind of looking around, wanting to come out. But I can see in her eyes that she was wanting to, but wasn't comfortable yet. But then as the video... continued, you can see her facial expression changing to a little bit more joy because there was so much love and fun going on around her.
And again, the connectivity of the music, having someone big like Flo right on the stage, right? Right there in your little room was pretty dang cool. It was, but it gave them a chance to just be and connect, right?
And that's one of the things that I saw very early on. So you could go to our facility in Austin, Nashville, Charleston, D.C., New Jersey, or Florida, any of them. And what you'll see, because, again, people don't come for a day. People are with us for three weeks, four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks. It depends on the situation.
But you'll see somebody's first couple days on their first Feel Good Friday, for the most part, They got their arms crossed. They're sitting in the back. And maybe they're tapping their foot. And then by the second week, they're in the next row. And they're moving their arms. And by the last week, they don't want to leave. They're in the first row. They're singing along.
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Chapter 6: How does authenticity contribute to success?
And so because we use that sense of purpose and connectivity, it builds the person up. And then from there, we use the evidence-based traditional therapy.
You know, it's interesting, guys, because, you know, I look at this, you know, obviously music is art. And what I do is an art in its own right, interviewing people and things like that. And when I started, right, when I started this show, I started it with an iPhone in a car and I was just venting. And for me, it was getting things out.
And but also when what I noticed is, you know, I had that imposter syndrome earlier. Who the heck am I to, you know, to start a podcast? No one cares what I have to say. So it was that self-worth, right? And I continued to do the work. And what I found was even when I would go on a rant, it resonated with somebody and it helped somebody heal. And I'm like, wait a second.
This could be so much bigger. So I doubled down on it and I kept working and I kept working. And then all of a sudden now this massive team behind me and we're able to get this message and have conversations with you two legends on the show to talk about your impact. And I'm, I'm making impact by delivering it.
I also believe that what you just said is because you're genuine and you're not afraid to use your voice for something that matters. Um, and you said rant, uh, last night I was with Michael Rappaport and people could think whatever, you know, he he's out there, but I love the fact that he is genuine. I love the fact that he says what he means and he has a following because of it.
And I, and I, and I agree with some of what he says, but when he was talking about podcasts, somebody asked him last night about podcasts. He said, if you're genuine and you're not afraid to use your voice for what you believe in, that that's what makes the difference. You're not trying to be somebody you're not.
And when I watched some of what you've done, it's incredible because you did start in the car and you are having, you know, last week, the big actors and you, you have people that, that, that, you know, or who they are that want to be part of this because your message means something. And I believe today people are craving something. for meaning they're craving for purpose, right?
You know, you can sit on Instagram all day and see the fake world, or you can tune into what you're doing and some others that actually have a meaning and a purpose, which is what people are searching for.
Yeah. I mean, you know, and thank you for that because to me, I always, when people meet me in person, like when, when we meet, you're like, you're the same guy. And to your point, social media does highlight some of the, well, most of the highlight reels of things. And when you meet somebody, sometimes the energies don't match. And to me, that's scary and that's dangerous, right?
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