The Zac Clark Show - He Robbed a Convenience Store for Heroin at 18. Now He Helps Thousands Recover | Corey Warren on Recovery, Relapse, & Faith

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

At 17, Corey Warren was shooting heroin. At 18, he robbed a convenience store to support his addiction and faced up to 30 years in prison. What followed was a journey through addiction, recovery, success, relapse, and redemption. After more than a decade of sobriety, Corey began drinking again – which nearly cost him everything. Instead, it led to a powerful spiritual awakening, a relationship with God, and a deeper commitment to recovery. Today, Corey is more than four years sober and has built Rise Recovery into one of Michigan's largest recovery communities, helping thousands of people find freedom from addiction. Through his advocacy, treatment programs, and social media platform that has reached hundreds of millions of people, Corey has become one of the most influential voices in the recovery space. Corey is unapologetically open about the perils of alcohol and addiction, and why he believes his relationship with God transformed his recovery.   We also discuss: Shooting heroin as a teenager and robbing a convenience store at 18 Facing prison and rebuilding his life through recovery Alcohol addiction, AA, and finding lasting sobriety Drinking after 10 years sober -- and the profound spiritual experience that followed Faith, purpose, and spiritual transformation Building Rise Recovery into one of Michigan's largest recovery communities Growing a social media platform that reaches millions and inspires people to seek help Family, fatherhood, and staying grounded through success Connect with Zac: https://www.instagram.com/zwclark/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/zac-c-746b96254/ https://www.tiktok.com/@zacwclark https://www.strava.com/athletes/55697553 https://twitter.com/zacwclark If you or anyone you know is struggling, please do not hesitate to contact Release Recovery: [phone] releaserecovery.com @releaserecovery

I was 18 years old and I was strung out, man. I needed drugs and I had no money. And I went across the street. There was a convenience store there. And here I am, strung out, committing armed robbery. Police came in from all over. I was like, holy shit, my life's over. Corey Warren was a heroin addict at a young age and eventually turned to alcohol, which took him to his knees. Today, Corey proudly sober, about five years, had a relapse. He talks about it on the show. And recently, in the last two years, has taken to social media to share his story where he's amassed over 250 million views. He learned a lot on this path.

And he is someone who is using his platform, his experience to help other people. And if you want to quit drinking, hit me up. I'll do it with you. Peace. I'm going to ask you this question. So, and then we'll get into your story. Did you, I ask people a lot, I believe certain people are given pressure that can handle it. I believe certain people are given responsibility that can handle it.

And you're one of those people. I mean, there's a reason why you have the following that you've built. When did you know? When you got sober, did you, was there a thought? And it can be a humble thought, but like, I believe, like, you guys were asking me a little bit about my experience on the Bachelorette. And like what I truly believe about that experience is that God, the universe gave me this platform so that I could help some people. Yeah. Yeah, man, I think that I knew as soon as I got out of rehab that last time, I went there, I was 21 years old.

I just got out of rehab. And I knew that the only way I was going to stay sober is if I helped other people get sober. I knew I had to work in this field. I knew I had to live in this field. I had to be in this field. This was my life. And if I didn't make it my life, I was, I was at. that I could relapse at any point if I got back into, you know, just whatever the case,

maybe I knew that recovery had to be sobriety needed to be my career, needed to be my life, my everything. I had a couple guys that were living with me in a small little two-bedroom apartment and they were getting out of rehab. They'd come live with me. I'd bring them in. All of a sudden, we had like three to five guys living there. My apartment smelled like, it was terrible. Just before you got clean or? No, this is right after I got sober. Right after I got sober, I started taking people into my apartment like hey you ain't got nowhere to go come live with me old school bill wilson come on and

you know what i mean yeah exactly that's what it was when all we did is hit a-a-meetings it was like three a day dude we hardly had jobs we worked like coffee shops and like like little mall gigs that we had going hardly could eat ramen noodles we were just so broke dude and like no responsibilities but we were just going to meetings bro i would kill for that like people when people come into our program i'm always like dude you're going to come back in three years and wish you had a day where you could just dick around, go to four meetings and like hit on some grill, it has no interest in you. That's 100% right, man.

That early recovery, enjoy it because it's not going to be like that. You'll get responsibilities. You'll get a job. You'll get all these things that are bound to come if you just don't pick up. But that's how it all started. It was like four dudes, five dudes living in my apartment. I needed to get them out. So we got this little apartment building and I shipped them off over there.

And then more people came. And it was like, wow, we need more space. So we bought a house and we put people in there. And then more people. We bought another house. And now we have like 17 facilities, two apartment complexes. And they're just paying your rent? Like is that like?

No, no, no, no. So we contracted with the state of Michigan. Yeah. We do a lot of Medicaid stuff. Good for you, man. We have self-pay too, but a lot of people are funded to be there. And also our brand, clean culture, our brand supports a lot of that as well. So all the money that comes through, we'll go back to how it's a nonprofit.

Yeah, yep. Rise Recovery. We got to link you with our foundation. That's so cool, man. So for people in Michigan, they can access some insurance, but otherwise, you guys are raising money and help people get help with them out. We've flown people in from all over the country. I mean, we will help anybody. All you got to do is call us.

Yeah. Whether it be reach out through me, all my links, reach out to rise. We have a 24-hour call center that's there that can help anybody get help wherever they're at. So you started doing that, and then when did you start creating? When did you start doing the TikTok thing? 18 months ago. Oh, that was 18 months ago? Yeah. Well, yeah, 18 months, two years. Yeah, just about. And how long you clean? How long are you sober? So I got clean when I was 21 of 36. So part of my story, though, is a huge relapse that took me out about four years ago. Nice. But other than that, I didn't drink up until

up until that point. That's a wild story. We're going to hear that one because here's a deal, And that word relapse for me, I think it kills people, man. That relapse was the best thing that ever happened to me. Because of the guilt and shame. Yeah. And people get, like, I'm, like, I am proudly 14 and a half of year sober, and I think it's important to keep your time, but also I've seen way too many people live in lies because they don't want to acknowledge that there was a slip.

So I was, I was very newly sober, and I was working, or not working, I was volunteering. for A.A. Central Office. And what they had me doing at this point was converting old cassette tapes of speakers at different conventions around the world, cassette tapes into CDs. So all day long, I'm just putting cassettes in, burning them into CDs. That's what it was. This was, you know, obviously like a decade or more ago, but that was my like volunteer job. I remember there's this guy working there. He was working the phones and he had about 30 years or more sober. And I looked up to this guy. I thought he was like, you figured it out. You did it. So I wanted to. So I wanted to, want to stay close to him. I showed up one day to go volunteer and he looked so stressed out. He was

just pacing outside and it wasn't his normal behavior. And I went up to him, I was like, are you all right? Like, I have no business like helping you, but like, are you okay? And I remember the only thing he did. He didn't say nothing to me. He just took a coin and he flipped it at me. And I caught it and I looked at it and it was a 24 hour coin. And he said, that is the only coin that you're ever going to need. So that prompted a lot of discussion. The night before he found out that his daughter had an illness that's not curable. His wife had lost her job or something like that. And he was on his way to the bar. 30 plus years sober, he was on his way to the bar. His wife barricaded him in the house, did not let him leave, took his keys, all this other stuff. And he said,

if it wasn't for that, I would have. 24 hours is all we have. So I'm a big advocate. I got guys that are always talking to me like, man, I went 30 days and I relapsed. You should be so proud of yourself. You went 29 out of 30 days sober. That's like in the 90 percentile. Like that's awesome. You know? When a call this is just like it puts so much fear into the family. The family gets so scared when they hear about a relapse and it's that perspective

is the one that we all need, which is like, hey, if you two years ago when your kid was ripping and running and you, would you sign up for him to be sober 29 out of 30 days you would have? 100%. Because he's got a shot. 100%. Yeah, yeah. Well, cool man.

So Mason, Michigan is where you grew up. Can you, like, give a little bit of a picture of what that looks like. Farm town, dude. You and your mom have, like, special relationships. I want to hear about that. Yeah. So Mason, it's just a little farm town in Michigan. I spent a lot of my life there between there and another local city called Okamist.

But my story actually never started with alcohol. So at a very young age, at the age of 17, I was shooting heroin. So my junior year of high school, I started shooting heroin. and that last... Before you drank ever? Well, I probably drank. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I smoked weed.

I might drink. I mean, there were some pills in there, but it was, it was heroin at a very young age. Now, it's not heroin like what you see today. It was like, like, people weren't dying, like left and right. Like, you didn't have like overdoses. It was an actual probably heroin. A hundred percent, right? Which for the listeners, like, and you don't understand.

So I'm a heroin addict. Corey's done heroin. Like, like, when I was doing, so I'm 42 year with 36, you said? Yeah. So, like, there was actual heroin on the street. you go to the street now and you're buying fentanyl or xylasein or whatever, like you have no idea what you're getting. Yeah. And that's why you have so many deaths. Yeah. I mean, so back then it was like you might kind of like not out. You might go to sleep for a second. But like you're not, there wasn't a ton of risk at least that I knew of at that point. And we had a group of us that were all doing it. We would do it in class. We'd break from class, go to the bathroom, shoot up, come back to class. We played sports. We were involved with friends. We had a good life. I came from the suburbs. I came from a good home. My mom did a very good job raising me. I didn't have like some broken family. I just got caught up with a couple of guys that were.

we're using. So I started using. Well, that initial opiate, like that first opiate high or opioid high is amazing. You get energy. You get focus. You get all the things. I cannot. People have been like, what is it like? I'm like, I can't even describe it. You know, and I'm not trying to trigger people, but there's a reason why you go back. There's a reason why it's so addicting. So that's what it was for me. I went to a rehab really early on, sobered up, got cleaned up, didn't go back to using. But a lot happened in that point that shaped who I am today. So I remember it was the summer. I was 18 years old. It was July. And I was strung out, man. I needed drugs and I had no money. My mom had cut me off at this point. And I remember I was at a buddy's apartment. And I went

across the street and I had this little airsoft pistol. And I went across the street and there was a convenience store there. And I walked in and I didn't have like a mascot. I didn't have like a hood. I had like normal clothes. And it was just like me. Like I'm walking in. Like today. And I'm I robbed the place. And I was 18 years old. Good home. And here I am strung out committing armed robbery and had no idea what I was doing. Police came in from all over. Dude, I was running around this apartment complex. I jumped in the back of the pickup truck and I just started praying. I was like, God, if you could just get me out of this, I'll shape up. I won't use drugs anymore. If you could just help me. And I woke up to the sound of a bunch of sheriffs yelling for. freeze. They lifted me back or up out of that truck bed, took me to jail. It's my first time in jail. They shut that door in jail and I was like, holy shit, my life's over. That judge told me, Corey, you're facing 30 years in prison. 30 years in prison. And I was 18 years old. I couldn't even comprehend that. My mom's crying in the back of the courtroom. Jackie. Jackie. She's crying in

in the back of the courtroom, dude. I'm like, what did I just do? What happened? I was pretty fortunate. My grandfather was a circuit court judge. He had retired at that point. So the judge knew me and gave me a lot of grace and a lot of mercy. And it was, I ended up spending almost two years in jail. I went to rehab on the back end of that. And I got out and that's when I shaped my, that's when I was like, I'm done with drugs. You stayed, you were in jail for two years. Yeah, yep. Between two different jails, almost, almost two years. Yeah, I mean, the newspaper wrote it up at the time as, um,

They said the polite bandit because I was like so like, like, I was like, look, can I please have all the money that's in your register? Like, I wasn't trying to be like mean about it. I was like, you know, I'm so sorry to do this. I guess the girl that was working was like, I didn't feel any fear. I wasn't scared for my life. I knew this dude didn't want to do it. So there was a lot that like led into that. The judge is like, this dude's not like prison material.

He just needs to stop using drugs. So I stopped using drugs, but that's when I was like, does that help you? Like when you're being tried, like your court is being heard or your case is being heard, do you acknowledge that that's what it was for? And do they give you any grace because you were obviously dope sick and trying to get money for it? Now, especially and back then a little bit. So the court system has came a long way, especially in Michigan. Like our court system, these judges are all for rehabilitation.

I mean, we're not just throwing away the key anymore. They're trying to get the, our local jail has 20. 29 programs. Ingram County Jail currently has like 29 programs for people who are in jail to try to rehabilitate. That's incredible. There used to not be one. We just went to a graduation at the jail where they graduated from, they got GEDs, college credits. I mean, these people are getting better. Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was early in New York City, IA, there was a commitment where we'd go into Rikers Island. We'd take a meeting into Rikers Island. And it was always fascinating. to me because if you did it enough, you'd see the same people coming back.

Like, you'd just see the same people. And even there, the willingness, you're like, at that point, like, aren't you willing to do anything? I don't know. But, like, it's not, like, there's no scared straight with this thing. Right. Yeah. 100%.

Yeah. So that was that, man. I started drinking after that. Drinking was like. So you got arrested. You got out of jail. You're 20 years old. You started drinking.

drinking and you go back to rehab like a year later. Is that kind of the timeline? Yep. I got to drink in. It was, it was college? And boo, was booze really your thing? I mean, is that, yeah, that's what, that's what really hit. So alcohol, man. You don't hear the heroin to boo's story much. You kind of use you typically the other way around. So alcohol is like, it's like normal. Society doesn't care. My mom didn't care. Nobody cared. It was like, this is normal. You go to college. You drink. You have fun. You're, I mean, so I could do, I could do. I could. experience this high or this feeling, but do it in a way that nobody's, because at least Corey's not using heroin. So it's perfect. At least he's not out robin stores. So he's good. And by the time

I was 21, dude, I was drinking almost two fists of vodka every single day. Amazing. And my skin was turning yellow. My eyes were turning yellow. I knew I was going to die. I had an alcohol and due seizure where I woke up on the floor at EMTs were surrounding me. I didn't know if I was never going to be able to walk or talk again. So you skipped the whole. going out the bars. I did it for maybe like six months. Yeah. And then it was just in your...

Yeah. Every morning, every night, sit at home at the apartment and just get tanked every day. And dad is nowhere in your life ever? My dad's an alcoholic too. So now I take care of him. He's in a nursing home for alcohol-induced dementia.

So if anybody's like curious of what happens if you don't get help, that's where you end up. He doesn't know his grandkids. He hardly knows. I mean, he's out of it. He's out of it. He'll live.

rest of his life like that. And is that just service? Like, why do you choose to forgive him? Because he's my dad. Yeah. You know, I don't, I haven't seen him in probably three months before that. I didn't see him in six. I don't really have an interest in, like, being friends.

But you take care of him. Yeah. Somebody's got to. He burned all of his bridges on the only one he's got left. Yeah. You know, so I go out there. I make a trip every now and again and say hi. How does mom feel about that?

that one. She's been married now for going on 20 years. She doesn't. She saves out of your business when it comes to him for the most part. Yeah. She'll ask about him occasionally if I go see him. Of course. It's not that he's like dead to me. Like it's not that deep. It's not like I hold some sort of like crazy resentment about him or what he did when I was growing up or anything. I mean, I just don't have an interest. Well, you also, I mean, I think it's probably confusing for listeners that aren't alcoholic, you know what he's dealing with. Yeah. And-

Alcoholism, like, I think the alcoholic has sympathy for the alcoholic. Yeah. Yeah, there's definitely a piece of me that has a lot of compassion for him. Like, he just never got the help he needed. And now he's in that place. Yeah. So sucks, man. I'm sorry to hear that.

Yeah. You're a good dude for showing up. So how do you get sober? What happens? I ended up going to a 14-day medical detox, little residential on the back end of that and they kicked me to the curb and they probably had no business.

I mean, I was hardly out of withdrawal and I went back to like an environment where there was alcohol around. I just knew if I kept drinking, I was going to die. That's when I went to AA for the first time. And people are like, go to AA, go to AA, and I walked into an AA meeting as a bunch of old guys sitting around a table

he could smoke back then at a meeting. So everybody's smoking cigarettes and you're like walking in there like, holy God. Are you still meetings now today? Yeah. Yep, yep. A.A. saved my life. Yeah.

I have saw, to me, A.A. is the best place to start. It can evolve, but A.A. is a good foundation for multiple reasons. I think the program's great. I think the fellowship's amazing. I think it connects you with other people in recovery. Yeah, I think the conclusion I've come through with A.A. is like, if you go there and you stay, you better, like, and that's going to be your thing. You got to stay and you got to stay in it. You got to be at meetings.

You've been sponsoring guys. if you're not like if you're just going to kind of be on the outside you got to find something else you got to be like you know like for me like the running I'm probably both because I'm still in doing the AA thing but whether it's running or working out or some kind of purpose to fill that void that drinking yeah you love running don't you yeah I'm a sick oh man if it works for you go right ahead you know but so I got out of rehab that's when I had that apartment that's when I started bringing guys in that's when the program of guys got created and uh It was great, dude. It was very humble beginnings. We didn't have money. We didn't have. We weren't, like, I would buy my staff like Wendy's for lunch. I wasn't paying them.

I didn't have money to pay them. We were giving guys beds for free. It wasn't ever about money. But in our 10 years of business, we started landing contracts. And we started to actually build, like, we were the largest recovery community in Michigan. We were successful. I started collecting paychecks. Paychecks went up.

all of a sudden, like, I'm getting married and buying houses and I bought a boat and I bought new cars and trucks and quads and side by sides. And I was like, holy crap, dude, I'm living. Like, this is awesome, you know? Like, it started to be about the money. So it went from, like, helping people to like a dollar sign. It's so honest. And a paycheck. I didn't want to be around rise. I didn't really want to be around those people. I just wanted to be successful. I just wanted the business to do good. So I was 30, maybe 2, 31, something like that. And we went up north and we were riding side by sides and we came to this turn in the

trail. There was a cooler in the back and the cooler had a couple drinks in it. My wife drinks like a normal person, which I don't, she don't even do that. She drinks like once every year and it's like half a glass. I don't understand it. It doesn't make any sense to me. It's the stupidest thing. She'll have like half of her drinks.

drink and then put it down and be like, all right, you're ready to go? And I'm like, what are you going to do about the rest of your drink? She's like, I'm good. Normal drinking is weird for me to understand. But that being said, she's got a drink in the back of the cooler. So does my mom. And they crack it open. I smoked cigarettes at the time. So I lit up a cigarette. You still smoking to Dr. No. No, done. Done. So we pulled off on this little trail. They were drinking and it was like right then and there. I was like, why can't I drink normal? wait a second. I got sober when I was 21, dude. Like, I haven't even experienced life. Like, maybe I'm not an alcoholic. Maybe I was just young and dumb. I mean, look at me. Now, I got two kids.

My daughter was born in 2000. She was born when I was in my 20s. And my son was born six years ago. So I'm like, I have a son, a daughter. I'm married. I have a house. I have responsibilities. I run a successful business. Dude, like, I could probably drink again. And we're so good at manipulative. So good at manipulating that I had convinced my wife and my mom who know my complete story that I could drink. And they both went to the bar with me. I ordered a Miller Light. I cracked it open. And I had a drink.

After 10 years of being sober, I had a drink. And I put it down and went home, went to bed. That's like the big. I mean, that part had you thinking like, oh, yeah, I'm cured. Yeah, I can do this. I only had one. And then I went home. Like, I'm not an alcoholic.

So the next weekend, I had two. And I put it down. I didn't drink anymore. And I was like, see, dude, I got my whole life back. I have no chance. Dude, I could never do that. Within three months, I was blacked out. My wife had taken the kids and moved out of my house.

I didn't show up to work anymore. I was drinking in bed. I couldn't even get out of bed. There's orange juice and vodka stains all over the room, all over the bed. I was just living like an animal. What did the treatment guys say? Did they, I mean, when do people start to find out, I guess? It was my best friends.

my family and the guy who runs my whole finance department, also one of my best friends, he was chasing me down trying to like get me to rehab. And he would take me to rehab the first time back, got me in his truck, took me to rehab. I was like, fine, I'll go just to shut him up. Walked in the front door, walked out the back. And this moment was when everything in my life shifted. Everything changed at this moment. I walked in the front door, out the back door, caught a ride back to where I'm from. And I was drinking and I remember sitting in a bar, sitting in my barn and I was just crushing beer. And my neighbor showed up, whose property at deer hunt, he showed up and a farmer buddy of his showed up. And this guy walks in,

an old guy, walks into my barn on my house and says, do you know God? And I was like, for real, like, you're going to come all the way to my house, interrupt what I'm doing right now to try to see if I know God. Like, I don't have time for this. And no, I don't care about God. I don't care about your little Jesus talks and all that kind of stuff. You need to leave. That's how it was. Who was he?

He's a pastor who lives down the house. I didn't know him. He's just a random dude for me at this point. About a week later, I go to rehab. And I was in there for, again, about 8. to 10 days, something like that, and I get out. And this is when, dude, I was going to AA. This is probably two days after I got out of rehab. And I left my house to go to a meeting, hopped in my truck, and I drive down the road. I'm about a quarter mile away from my house. And I'm still thinking,

this whole thought about this guy's rattling around in my head. I hit the stop sign, turn on my radio to country music. That's what I want to listen to country music. So I turn it on a country music. And it's like church choir, like Southern choir, hands raised, hallelujah music, not like Christian country music. It's like hands raised weird. I was like, this is, I turn my dial, I turn it back. Same thing. In my screen and my truck is reading country music, WITL 100.7 country music, but this is not what's playing in my truck by any means. So I'm starting to think about this whole thing. I'm starting to think about this whole thing. I'm like, what is going on right now?

I turn my truck off. I open my door to shut it down. I started back up. Same exact thing. So I called Britt and I was like, okay, FaceTime me, go out in the garage, get in your Jeep, turn on 100.7 and tell me what's playing. She's like, you are a whack job, dude.

So she facetimes me. She walks out. She gets in her Jeep. She turns it on. I see her dial turn to 100.7, and it's a Luke Bryan song. And we are a quarter mile away from each other, face-timing each other. I'm on this same station as she's on.

My truck's playing this godly music. Her truck's playing, or her Jeep's playing Luke Bryan. And I was so scared, Zach, for the first time in my life. So scared. More scared than I was when I went to jail. More scared than I was when I robbed that place. I shut my truck music off. I drove to that AA meeting.

I couldn't tell you a thing of what they said inside that meeting. Nothing. I didn't pay attention. I didn't listen. I was so scared. I left out of that meeting. I flew home and I called that farmer and I said, I need you to come to my house. And we started talking and he had a Bible study that he hosts at his farm. And I went for the first time, like maybe the next week on a Wednesday. Then I went to this Bible study. And I don't know how versed you are with the Bible or scripture, but they opened up to the book of Revelation, which is the end of the Bible. It talks about the end of times and how crazy everything's going to get. And it scared the crap out of me. Are we in it right now? In what? The end of time? Shit's crazy. I have opinions. We won't get into that now, but I was so scared. My wife was not a believer at the time. And so I came home and I was like,

babe, like, we got to get our shit together. Like right now. The world's going to end and we're all going to go to hell. And I was so scared. You know what I mean? Like it was just that very new. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what I was doing. But what did happen is I kept going back. The same as I'd go back to AA meetings, I kept going back to this Bible study. And over time, I developed a relationship with God. That was the reason for my relapse.

That was the best thing that ever happened to me. Above my wedding, above my kids being born, above anything that I have in my life, my relationship with God, filled that hole in me that drugs tried to fill, alcohol tried to fill, sex tried to fill, women, whatever the case may be, I finally, it was full and I finally felt peace and I finally didn't care about a dollar and I finally didn't care about what truck was in my driveway. I didn't care about all this other crap that I had. I had a relationship with who created everything and I felt it. And it was the craziest experience of my life. What was your prior to that moment, did you have any?

faith? No. Zero. Faith in myself? Church? Ever go to church? No. No. Never. Maybe when I was like a kid, my grandma would take me there on like Easter. No, I mean, it's a fascinating conversation because I, one, I'm very open-minded. My sobriety has taught me, I think, to be very open-minded. So the idea of Jesus, God, heaven, hell, like, I'm, I'm open to it all.

I have not had the same experience that you have had. I grew up going to church on Christmas and Easter. My dad still goes. I'll go with him. I'm not closed off to it at all. Like when you say, I don't know what your experience is with God. I also support and love when people have these moments because I believe in miracles.

Yeah. You know, it was a struggle for me too. My mom is not, she believes in God, but not in a, not in Jesus, not in a Christian God. And I didn't either. I wasn't raised like that. So when I found out, when I went to this Bible city, I started digging into myself and doing my own homework, what I realized, this is on my own.

This is not somebody telling me. This is not a preacher. I don't go to a brick and mortar church. I don't go to one of these fancy churches. I go to a friend of mine's basement where we read the Bible and we just learn about God. Is this a friend from before? No, this is who I met.

This is who was in my barn. Now he's like a father figure to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I call him in the worst moments of my life. He's my first call. how have you found your voice with your friends, like with the people that have known Corey prior to this experience and after this experience? They have all became believers and we all attend Bible cities together and we all do church because it's very simple, dude. I was in doing my homework, I'm like, okay, if the Bible's true, great.

If it's not, whatever. I don't know. You don't know. She don't know. Nobody knows. we just know that that's what people say. So I'm just a business guy. That's how my brain operates.

I'm kind of like a percentage person, risk, reward, how, you know. And so this Bible that people say is real says that if I want eternal life in heaven, it's through a faith in Jesus. It's not through anything else. There's no other way. That's what the Bible told me. That's what it was saying. So I'm thinking to myself, if I believe,

in this other God or whatever, universe, whatever it is, then if the Bible's right, I'm screwed. Right? So for me, it's like, this way is what guarantees if it's right that I'm fine. If it's wrong, then I'm fine. If reincarnation is a thing and everybody's getting reincarnated, no matter what the case may be, then if I believe in Jesus, I'm fine. If we are all turn into little bulbs of energy and float off into the world and split up into a million different pieces and whatever the case may be, if I believe in Jesus, I'm fine. But if heaven is real and hell is real, and I don't believe in Jesus, I'm screwed. If I believe in Jesus, I'm fine. So for me in the very early stages, it was like, this is a no-brainer. From a numbers standpoint,

this is the only way to go. If there is any sort of faith, this is the only way to go because it's the only one that covers me, no matter what happens when I die. That's what brought me in. What do you say to the guy in AA that says, I don't believe in God? Because I feel like that's the thing that I see, the last thing you want to do is turn someone off from the program. Yeah. Because you know how important it is that they get sober. Yeah. You know how important it was to you. Yeah. So you get a new guy that comes in and says, dude, don't, don't bring your God stuff to me. Right. I think it's tough. I think it just depends on the context of the conversation. and if it's somebody who is extremely close-minded, I don't know what I'm, I mean, I'm going to pray

for them on my own. I'm going to pray that God work with them in my truck when I leave up out of there. I'm not going to give up on them, but if you're not willing to have that conversation with me, all I can do is pray. I don't have any other way to do it. However, if there's even a sliver of a door open, like I'll sit and tell you my story. I'm not going to tell you what to believe. All I'm going to tell you is my story. I'm going to tell you what happened to me. I'm going to tell you that it transformed my entire life. It transformed the way that I raised my kids. It transformed the way that I am with my wife.

It transformed the person that I am. And we're going to talk about that in detail. And if you even have a shimmer of hope, it's just saying the exact, I don't believe in AA. I don't believe AA works. What would you say to someone who says, I don't believe AA works? You're going to tell them, this has been my experience. It worked for me. I don't believe that there's a God.

That's fine. It worked for me. And this is how it works. It's no different. We've got to believe in something. And at the end of the day, what happens? That's the genius of Bill and Bob. I mean, for those you that are listening, don't know, like Bill and Bob are the founders,

co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, and they knew that thing. In a lot of ways, I feel like Bill Wilson knew and was more of a religious man than he led on. A hundred percent. And knew that he had to trick people into finding God. I don't even know if it, I've done a lot of research on the big book and studied it in depth and length. two things. One, God is on almost every single page in the book. Of course. I think if Bill wanted it to say something other than God, he would have said that. There's nowhere in the big book that it says anything about God being anything other than God with a capital G meaning singular, God. It doesn't mean whatever you want to believe. If he wanted to preface the big book was saying, by the way, God is whatever you believe, then he would have put that in there. That is not in there. That is manmade. That is manmade. That is what we created on the outside of that. That was not in the big book.

And so that is one of my issues with, I guess, trying to make a higher power be, like, I've heard people would be like, well, higher power is this cup. Yeah. Good orally direction, nature, great outdoors. If that's where you're at, fine, but I don't think that was the intent of it. The second piece is, I don't know if, so when Bill was on his deathbed, maybe not deathbed, He was in the hospital, extremely sick, almost ready to die. We learned this at a convention.

He felt like finding a higher power was the answer. He felt like that was it. If you could find a higher power, that's 90% of the game right there. He was even talking about the potential of acid helping people get to a point where they could find a higher LSD, finding a higher power. So obviously a higher power was so important that this guy who created Alcoholics Anonymous was saying, let's see if LSD can't help people get there. So that tells me that we're looking for something outside of a cup. We're looking out for something outside of just another human.

It's so interesting because when I asked you earlier, if you, I mean, the question is really, do you feel like you were chosen? Right. Like, that's really the question I want to ask and some people that freaks them out. Like, I could have actually asked you that question because you would have been open to hearing it. Because you've turned this into, like, you have a following, bro. you have a following in every sense of the word. I mean, we haven't even gotten into it,

but over 250 million views, nearly a million followers, and this all started 18 months ago, can you explain how your faith has guided that process? Because with that comes hate, if that becomes people that, oh, this alcohol thing Corey does is a schick, like he's just doing it for views or like,

whatever, so can you, like, you know what I mean? Like, like, yeah. But you're, I mean, I would imagine you're pretty comfortable with it, just getting to know you and talking to you here today. I don't mind it at all. I welcome it. I welcome all the feedback in the world. I think if you're going to take time out of your day to comment on my video about defending alcohol, like that would be a red flag. Like, you should look at that, period. You know what I mean? Like, you just took time out of your day. My wife would never do that. She would never be able to defend alcohol. You're defending a substance that is literally causing you nothing but pain.

What I would say is, to the best of my ability, I put God first and everything I do and I pray about everything that I'm going to do. God is closed doors. He's open doors. I feel it in this room today. Like, for what it's worth, I have to say that out loud at you because I didn't know what I was walking into. But your energy at the being, I was like, oh, this dude's like not what I thought he was going to be if I'm being really honest with you. Oh, what did you think? I just, I don't know, dude.

I mean, I didn't have a preconceived notion, but like I didn't know we were going here today. Yeah. Because the faith is it's an asterisk on a page that I'm reading notes off. Sure. Right? It's my whole life. It's beautiful. And I don't promote it.

I say that with all my heart. Yeah. You know. I have a goal that when my, when a singular platform of mine, Instagram, TikTok, so unfollow me now if you're listening, you don't want to have this happen. Instagram, TikTok, whatever. Each of them hit half a million followers. I'm going to start converting my page. and talking more about faith.

Right now, it's part of my funnel. It's part of who I am. I talk about it in the pods. I talk about it because I'm going to, going in blasting, like, it's just not my style. I'm not going to go out and start just talking to you about Jesus. What I want to do is prove by my walk, proved by my life, and you're like, well, what makes you like this?

And then I could talk to you about it because this is what me. I'm not, the guy that's going to be in your face throwing Bibles at you. That's not who I am. But I want to be able to spread that word more. I want to be able to let people know what he's done for me. And whether or not that takes you down the same track as me or not, that's not for me to judge or understand. I don't need to be so demanding and so in your face about it.

Like, I don't care. My mom's not a Christian. I talk to her about all the time. We talk in length about it. In a lot of ways, we've had a lot of good conversation. And she's talking about her faith. I'll talk to her about mine. I'm not going to sit here and be like, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong. It's just my choice. And I know what he's done in my life. I know who he's

created me to be. When you say chosen, I think we're all chosen. I think everybody has a different role for a perfect example. I'm so busy with work, with everything that I have going on, with trying to do my thing that if it weren't for my wife being the mother and the wife that she is, we would never be where we're at right now. She's got her role. And every time that she tries to get involved with one of these business endeavors, unfortunately, that door shuts in our life at some capacity. She tries to do a million different things.

And it's kind of like God continues to be like, you're a mom, go be a mom. You are the best person in the world for these kids. And I'm not. I can't even hardly get ready for school on my own some days. You know what I mean? That's her gig. She is so good at that. such a patient, loving person. I'm not always that. Maybe my chosen is different than hers,

but if it weren't for her chosen, my chosen wouldn't work. So everybody's chosen. You have a platform. You have a voice. I have a voice. We're able to influence and help people make different choices in their life. That's beautiful. But if it weren't for your production team, if it weren't for this assistant, if it weren't for this person, you would never get to do what you get to do. So there's got to be people who are chosen to do the other jobs. Unfortunately, they're just don't get as much credit all the time. And that sucks. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah, I feel that. When did you know the content was going to go? Like, when did you know you had something going? I didn't really. I mean, we did some stoop. I don't know if you go way back in my TikTok.

We do like some weird, like, there was like a spinoff of like a, it was like a Morgan Wall and spinoff. It was right after you threw that chair off the boy. So anyway, we did a couple like just stupid videos on my boat that, you know, kind of went half a million million. And I was like, wow, I think I might be able to actually influence people. So we just started doing different videos, different formats, playing with different things and kind of landed on a couple that have really worked. And I feel very passionate about what I'm doing. And I'm not afraid to get in somebody's face and talk about the dangers of alcoholism or alcohol.

I think that alcohol is there, it's just, it's so deceiving. It's so crazy to me how much of a hold it had on me and how much of a whole. I think it has on so many other people. Families. You know, it's, I just want to be a light. And if I got to be hated on by 100,000 people to get to one, I'll do it. Because we've seen, the DMs that come through, they're like, Corey, I've been sober for a year now. And it's because of your video.

Yeah. That's it. That's all I need. And I get one of those every now and again. that's it. I don't care about nothing else. I don't care about anything else. But I will tell you the people who are like, well, he's just doing it for views.

Go do your research on how much these platforms pay for short form views. Instagram don't even pay. Instagram don't give me a dollar. It's like 0.01 cents for every thousand views I get. So I'd have to be making like, I would need a whole lot more views than what I have to even make a dent in some sort of a check that I live on. It has nothing to do it. I don't do collaborations. I don't have some sort of brand deal with somebody.

I'm not getting paid to do social media like that. I have a job that I go to that pays me a salary. We have a tattoo shop at home that we operate that pays the salary. This stuff is not for money and it sure is not for clout because it has caused I have broke many times because of social media. It has caused us to get into fights that have been worse than any other issues. in our life. It's almost broke my family. It has broke me on multiple occasions. It is one of the hardest things I've ever done. Oh, it's a beast. Yeah, it's crazy. It takes a really, really strong individual to jump on and start doing that. That's why everybody doesn't do it. Well, and by the way,

I'm here to tell you, like, if the collabs or the brands or the money comes, you don't need to feel bad about taking that either. Like, you've worked really hard. And I'm not saying that's your path or what you want. Right. I also think that you need permission to not feel guilty about it, I felt guilty about that. You want to pay me $10 grand to eat a hot dog and go to a fucking Sixers game? Like, why, why me? You know, how did I get this opportunity? I'm just a fucking drug addict.

Yeah. And I've, like, I've worked through all that shit, dude. So, like, I'm rooting for you, man. Cheers. Like, you're doing meaningful work. We've got to wind down a little bit. But the sober tattoo shop ink therapy is that for sober people, buy sober people? Or is it just whatever?

I brought a guy in from. Florida to go through our program and he had a little metal suitcase with him and he was a tattoo artist and he's like all these dang tattoo shops all have drugs and alcohol all over him. And I was like, well, I got a vacant building. Why don't I just open a tattoo shop? You can work there. And so that was hanging shingle. That was it. Yeah. What else, man? How do people follow you? What, what like what like how to like I've loved this conversation. I have a feeling it won't be our last. This is the second kind of faith conversation I've been hit with in the last month. Um, there's this guy Jason Waller.

I don't know if you know him. He was kind of on the hills and like he's, he's having a powerful experience right now and he's been talking me a little bit about it. So it's probably something tapping me on the shoulder. So I appreciate you sharing about it. Um, and I don't turn away from that stuff, you know, like I've learned enough in my sobriety to not.

Um, and I love seeing you here with your wife. I love the community that you've built. I love your comeback story, dude. It's a good one. What else? I know, nothing, man. I mean, really, I just want to help people. Corey Warren on all platforms

is where you can find me. It's got a little bit of a country music feel to it. I think that's what I was expecting, like a country, like a country guy, but like you have a little underbelly of that, but so much more, I think is. Yeah, no, I definitely appreciate that. This was a big pod for us.

This is one that we really, I've been watching you for a while. I got dragged into your account some. I don't remember how, man, I went on a rabbit hole and there you were. And then we got to talking about The Bachelorette. And I was like, I got to go meet this guy. So I'm really happy to be.

Trust me, dude. New York is not my friend. We got it. We're going to be shipping out as soon as we can back home. But this was worth it. Well, I'm going to come pay you a visit and I'll support anything you do, dude. Yeah, I appreciate you, man. Thanks for having me.

Thanks for coming, Corey.