Motion star Danny Trejo celebrated 55 years of sobriety in a motivational post — reassuring others affected by addiction that they will overcome their “struggles.”
“I’m 55 years clean and sober today by the grace of God!” the 79-year-old actor wrote in a post on X, formerly often called Twitter on Wednesday.
“I’ve done this someday at a time, and for anyone on the market struggling YOU CAN TOO.”
Together with the celebration and words of encouragement, the “Machete” star shared a photograph of himself, arms wide open in an LA Rams jean jacket and hat, with a joyous smile.
Trejo told Fox News in July 2021 that he realized he “needed to” get clean during his stints out and in of jail in his youth.
“I needed to get clean,” Trejo recalled. “I wouldn’t have gotten up to now in my life if I didn’t take that step. I might have just stayed the identical person.”
In his 2021 memoir, co-authored by fellow actor Donal Logue, titled “Trejo: My Lifetime of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood,” the actor detailed his battle with staying sober after growing up in an abusive household in Los Angeles, leading him to fall into a lifetime of crime in his younger years before finding God and acting, the “Machete” actor told the outlet throughout the interview upon the book’s release.
The reformed felon turned fan-favorite on the silver screen shared that by the point he was 8 years old, he had already began smoking marijuana — and by 12, was drinking.
As a teen, Trejo became hooked on heroin before he found himself locked up in a few of America’s most violent penitentiaries, including the notoriously dangerous San Quentin State Prison, positioned about 25 miles North of San Francisco, within the late Nineteen Sixties.
During a jail riot while incarcerated at Soledad Prison in California in 1968, the actor was isolated in solitary confinement after he hit a guard in the pinnacle with a rock and faced the death penalty for attempted murder.
The daddy of three shared that faith played a detrimental part in staying sober all these years, explaining he “made a take care of God in 1968,” pondering he was never “getting out of prison.”
“God let me out of prison,” the “From Dusk Till Dawn” actor told Fox.
The costs were later dropped against the actor because of a technicality, and Trejo — along with his latest devotion to faith — joined the 12-step program, which helped guide him on a path away from the lifetime of crime he’d been living.
“I got clean in ’68 in prison. I then got out of prison in 1969,” Trejo explained, sharing that he didn’t realize he’d ignored his underlying substance abuse issue before entering this system.
“I didn’t think turning me on to marijuana was abuse after I was 8. I believed it was sharing. It was a type of abuse. I didn’t know,” the actor shared. “So once you finally start realizing, ‘Wait a minute man, this isn’t right,’ that’s when the healing really begins.”
Following his release in August 1969, the actor kept his promise to himself and God and stayed clean, ushering in over five many years of a flourishing acting profession.
Since landing his first acting role in 1985’s “Runaway Train,” Trejo has 420 acting credits under his belt, in keeping with the star’s IMDb page.
“I get up every morning and say, ‘Dear heavenly Father, please let me help whoever I can for my fellow man. And I’ll say your name day by day, and I’ll do whatever I can,’” Trejo shared.
His strong faith and guidance from God haven’t subsided within the years since his release, with the actor still keeping a dialogue with the upper power.
“He lived as much as his deal. I’m living as much as mine,” he told the outlet. “I even asked God a few days ago, ‘How am I doing?’ He said, ‘Trejo, you’re doing great. Stick with it. You’re almost out of hell.’”