Jason Mewes Reinvented Himself as Sober Podcaster After Relapse

Jay and Silent Bob Get Old

After a relapse in 2010, Jason Mewes had the chance to reinvent himself. He launched the podcast Jay and Silent Bob Get Old with longtime collaborator and friend, director Kevin Smith, as a way to stay accountable in his recovery. He recently talked to Civilized about his new life as a podcaster in recovery.

Before that relapse, Mewes said he’d been sober for “almost five years.” But apparently it was a lonely endeavor.

“I told [Kevin] at that moment in time when I’d relapsed, I wasn’t really accountable to anybody. I wasn’t going to AA meetings or anything,” said Mewes, who is best known as Jay of Jay and Silent Bob, the inseparable best friend duo who appear in all the Kevin Smith classics: Clerks, Dogma, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, and in 2001, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

By doing the podcast every week, Mewes now has a lot more people who are invested in his sobriety. “I had no idea we’d still be doing it six years later. I’m over seven years sober now,” he told Civilized.

The traveling podcast draws audiences all over the world. Mewes says that at every show, at least one person thanks him for helping them stay sober. “That’s something I didn’t expect. I had no idea it would help other people,” he said. “That’s been a really amazing part of this whole process. I really dig it. Not to mention that Kevin and I have also gotten to be better friends.”

Though the nineties stoner icon doesn’t usually dispense advice to listeners, he did say that “surrounding yourself with good people even if they drink or they smoke” is a major part of what motivates him to stay sober. His friends know better than to hand him a joint or a drink, he says. “I can be around drinking, and I can be around smoking and not even think about doing either one.”

But the temptation isn’t as easy to resist when it comes to heroin and other opioids, his drugs of choice. “The opiates are my downfall,” he said. “So if they were popping pills in front of me, I can’t imagine I’d be cool with that. But marijuana and drinking and stuff, I’m okay with.”

Mewes sees the good that came out of his opioid addiction, relapse, and recovery, though he says “the drugs definitely detoured me from doing more stuff.” Despite everything, Mewes’ filmography and cult icon status from his Jay and Silent Bob days aren’t too shabby.

"The weird thing is if I hadn’t relapsed, Kevin and I wouldn’t have been touring for the past four years," he said. "There’s all these really good things out of the relapse."