John Stamos, 60, reveals what made him give up alcohol eight years ago in excerpt from new memoir If You Would Have Told Me

John Stamos says it was his DUI arrest in 2015 that got him on the road to sobriety. 

The 60-year-old actor, who revealed he was abused by his babysitter as a child,  talks about his recovery in his new memoir, If You Would Have Told Me.

‘I had that DUI and I was like, “I can’t do this. I’ve got to straighten up,”‘ he told People ahead of the book’s publication. 

‘That’s when I was confusing the universe, because I’m not a bad person, but I was doing crappy things.’

‘Sobriety, I’m telling you, is a huge thing,’ he told The New York Times, recounting how his drinking may have affected the trajectory of his career.

‘I would go into a party or a meeting, and I’d have to get a little drunk. “Hey, that makes me charming, that makes me funny — that makes me fuzzy.” And people saw that,’ he recalled.

‘There was a fuzz around me, women, the business. If I would’ve straightened out 10, 15 years sooner, I think I’d have been closer to a George Clooney career than I am now,’ he said. 

In the book, the Emmy nominee writes his Full House co-star and longtime friend Bob Saget was in his hospital room when he woke up. 

‘No judgment, just concern and love,’ he penned.  

The singer and musician entered rehab shortly after his headline making arrest, which he says was a challenge at first.

He described the progression as being it as ‘dark for a little bit,’ before ‘it started to get better’ and that he actually ‘made a lot of really good friends,’ while in the facility. 

When he got out, the California native had family to support him and a new job.

‘Luckily, I had my sisters, but I also had Fuller House,’ he explained.

‘I got home and I think like a week later, we started Fuller House.’

‘I had a lot waiting for me, and I feel bad because a lot of people don’t, because they burned their lives down,’ he said. 

The actor married actress and model Caitlin McHugh 37, in February 2018 and they welcomed their son Billy in April of that year. 

‘They have kept me on this path because going down the road of being sober and taking care of yourself, everybody tries. Everybody does it,’ he contends.

‘You could get going for a little while. Then, it’s like, “I can drink again,” so it’s staying on the path is what they mostly do for me.’

The Scream Queens star said the memory of his arrest is still clear in his mind. 

‘It’s still so fresh in my mind that all I have to do is look at that picture of me in handcuffs on that street,’ he said of the moment that changed his life. 

‘I was sitting on a curb or whatever. It just makes me throw up right now just thinking [about it],” he said, adding, ‘Never again.’

If You Would Have Told Me is set for release October 24. 

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