Five Finger Death Punch Frontman Believes He Died for 'Three and a Half Minutes' After Quitting Alcohol

Five Finger Death Punch's latest work was inspired by an actual brush with death.

The Las Vegas-based heavy metal band's lead singer Ivan Moody recently spoke to Metal Hammer for an interview about FFDP's recent single "The Tragic Truth," released in January and inspired by the vocalist's experience seemingly dying for "three and a half minutes" after quitting drinking cold turkey.

"I died!" Moody, 42, told the outlet. "I'd been on a bender for about two years, and I'd gone four days without drinking in an entire year! Which is ridiculous. So, for four days I locked myself inside the house, and the fourth day my daughter came over and I went to hand her a glass of water, and that's all I remember."

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After years of struggling with alcoholism, Moody said the incident followed his decision to stop drinking without medical guidance of any kind. "If you quit drinking without the right medications and whatever else, you will die," said the singer.

"That's what happened. I was dead for about three and a half minutes, and I became part of something while I was there," explained Moody. "I say 'there,' because I was not in this shell. And for the first time in my existence, I felt peace."

Per Ole Hagen/Redferns/Getty Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch

Recalling his experience, the FFDP frontman claimed he was "in a blue haze... it was very quiet and peaceful, and I remember not worrying about anything. I didn't have a unidirectional view. It was wide, and I could see and feel everything. There was no matter involved, I was pure energy, and I saw this incredibly blue light."

Moody continued, "It was the afterlife, and I was on the edge."

According to the vocalist, his daughter played a major role in bringing him back from the mysterious state. "The next thing I know, I was laying there with two paddles on my chest, and my daughter was crying in my face," he said. "My daughter was the one saying, 'Please, not now.' Her voice pulled me back, and that was the wake-up call for me."

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His daughter appears in FFDP's music video for "The Tragic Truth," in which Moody recreates the "horrific" incident. Once they wrapped filming, his daughter asked him how much of the clip's storyline was real.

"I said, 'My love, almost all of it,'" Moody told Metal Hammer. "And it was the most refreshing, fearful moment of my life, just telling my daughter, 'That was your father, and that's what I did to myself, much less the rest of the world.'"

Paul Archuleta/Getty Ivan Moody of Five Finger Death Punch

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Upon the release of "The Tragic Truth" in January, FFDP released a press statement about the band's years-long journey to release the song. "We wrote 'The Tragic Truth' in 2011 for the American Capitalist album, but it simply wasn't finished by the manufacturing deadline. Since the song was very important to us, we didn't want to wait and hold it until the following album, so it was added as a bonus track to the digital edition."

The band continued at the time, per TheRockPit, "It's been a conversation for years to somehow circle back to this song, and we felt right now, on Ivan's birthday, and two months from his fourth sober anniversary it is probably as good of an occasion as it can be to release this music video; as it is a visual journal of our story."

FFDP's upcoming album AfterLife is set for an Aug. 19 release.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.