Warren Savage: From Anchorman to Drug Addict

Transcript from CNN Interview by Whitefield:

"For 10 years, his was the face and voice waking up Atlanta ( Good morning. I'm Warren Savage.) Then one morning, Warren Savage was the lead story. His mug shot plastered everywhere. Savage in his early 40s, busted for drug possession. Watching his fall from grace from a jail cell."
SAVAGE: it was humiliating. I mean, total embarrassment.
WHITFIELD: A dream job.
SAVAGE: Ten years had risen to this level. I mean, I'm very proud of.
WHITFIELD: A bachelor. Six-figure salary, cars, two houses.
SAVAGE: You were the number one local morning news show in the country, and I was very proud of that.
WHITFIELD: A dream life.
SAVAGE: It just got to the point where you know things just didn't matter to me.
WHITFIELD: All of it concealing a nightmare.
SAVAGE: They didn't know that Warren was depressed. That Warren was unhappy. They didn't know that Warren was very dissatisfied.
WHITFIELD: Depression had taken over.
SAVAGE: I went from depression to denial to detention.
WHITFIELD: But not but all at once. First -
SAVAGE: Dissatisfied with the news business. Dissatisfied with office politics.
WHITFIELD: So he abruptly quit his job minutes before he was to go on the air.
SAVAGE: I regret the way I left. I don't know that I regret leaving but I regret the way that I left.
WHITFIELD: Moved to Vegas.
SAVAGE: I thought that I'd be happier playing music. Las Vegas is a land of excesses.
WHITFIELD: Excesses that in his case translated into a lot of drugs and an overdose of bad judgment. He thought returning to the less glittery and slower paced Atlanta might be a quick fix.
SAVAGE: I had the presence of mind that you know the environment that I was in was not healthy. But you know addiction is merely a symptom of all the stuff that's screwed up in us. I mean, that's what I had to realize that my addiction was a symptom of everything that was wrong with me. And the things that I needed to fix with me. The character defects that I had to identify, to address and things, I mean, that I was struggling with for years. I mean, things that I didn't even know why I was unhappy.
WHITFIELD: Things like?
SAVAGE: Striving to be perfect. I was always a perfectionist. I put - I was always hard on myself. I put a lot of pressure on myself. Undue pressure on myself. And I think I put a lot of undue pressure on a lot of people.
WHITFIELD: The fast lane in Vegas now behind him. But a blurry $100,000 a year cocaine habit was still driving Savage. A traffic stop in rural Forsythe county outside Atlanta put the brakes on everything.
SAVAGE: From Warren Savage sitting in, you know, suits and ties, dwindled down to an orange jumpsuit in the Forsythe county jail asking myself, how did I get here?
WHITFIELD: And how to get back on track. And there's more. This is just the beginning. Warren Savage said he had to lose everything to get what he needed. Find out what he needed in the second part of my interview.

SAVAGE: I was heading down a destructive path, headed for a cliff. And not for my arrest, I would have gone over that cliff.

WHITFIELD: From seemingly on top of the world Atlanta morning anchorman to rolling the dice in Vegas as a musician in search of true happiness to Warren Savage, hooked on cocaine, busted for drug possession. The fall was hard.
SAVAGE: I had to lose everything that I had to get what I needed. And that was humility and a real sense of who I am. I had to lose all of that stuff.
WHITFIELD: A big salary, cars, two houses, local celebrity.
SAVAGE: Good morning. I'm Warren Savage, and you're not. You know, that type of attitude had to be knocked down.
WHITFIELD: But you were comfortable with that for awhile. You admitted that to me.
SAVAGE: I was. I was comfortable with that for awhile. But after awhile, it became so vain. It wasn't me. I mean, it wasn't me. I -- I began to feel unlike me. And trying to be someone that I'm not. A lot of character defects. I was a very egotistical, very arrogant argumentative. I was hard on other people. I didn't realize until after I got arrested.
WHITFIELD: With this image on the air, instead of reporting the news, he was now the lead story. Savage painfully realized this was no longer about just him.
SAVAGE: I got so many letters, so many letters from so many people. I mean, I well up even today when I read them. They are just so heartwarming and encouraging.
WHITFIELD: Tired of dismissing his depression, running away reality, Savage pleaded guilty to drug possession in exchange for 18 months of enforced rehabilitation. Rehab now complete, he lives modestly in rural Georgia. His bike, his most valued possession, getting him to work stocking shelves overnight at a retailer.
SAVAGE: I was heading down a destructive path, heading for a cliff. And if not for my arrest, I would have gone over that cliff. I try to do the best I can one day at a time. And I know -- I know if I had to speak -- if I could speak to children now, I could speak to children. There are only two roads that lead, that drug addiction, that drug use. Any drug that lead, jail or the graveyard. There's only two roads. I mean, that's it. That's it.
WHITFIELD: Hopeful, anyone else fighting this same kind of inner demons on the road to almost certain self-destruction, or worse, can learn from his wild ride.
SAVAGE: We all have demons. We all have things we're dealing with. Sometimes you think you know your neighbor. Sometimes you think you know your co-worker who you work side by side, next to every day. You never know what they are masking.
WHITFIELD: If that was Warren Savage then. Who have you discovered Warren Savage is now?
SAVAGE: I have a purpose. I think I know what my purpose is. And I think it is to help other people. I think it is to help other people who may feel like they are hopeless and that they are helpless. And that they can turn their lives around.
WHITFIELD: He hasn't mapped out what's next or whether he'll get back into television. But admits it's impossible to plan ahead without reflecting often on exactly where he has been.
SAVAGE: I had to learn that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but the road back is paved with humility. And I needed to be on that road.
WHITFIELD: And nearly four months now after rehabilitation, Warren Savage admits it is still one day at a time, just like it is for anyone who is trying to kick an addiction.