Comedian Russell Brand claimed during a recent interview that addiction is a futile attempt to fill a spiritual hunger through material means, but that God used his addiction and subsequent demonic attacks to draw him to Himself.
“Addiction is an attempt to sanctify and make spiritual the material; that our thirst for God and our hunger for the holy is so strong that you have to have God,” Brand said in an interview clip he posted to X on Sunday. He added that chemical escape is often the inevitable end of “[finding], one by one, that the false idols can never give it to you.”
Addiction is the soul’s attempt to make the material feel holy—to fill a God-shaped void with pleasure, fame, or chemicals.
After fighting ended, I spiraled. The devil attacked me, but God allowed it, because rock bottom wasn’t the end.; it was the path back to Him. pic.twitter.com/7bEJt3l0W4
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— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) July 13, 2025
“Sex can’t give it to you. Fame can’t give it to you. Money can’t give it to you. So in the end, you have to introduce chemicals which can at least alter your state.”
Brand claimed his addiction nevertheless played a pivotal role in his own spiritual growth.
“Addiction is the soul’s attempt to make the material feel holy — to fill a God-shaped void with pleasure, fame, or chemicals,” Brand posted along with the clip.
Brand suggested he faced demonic attacks after he gave up trying to flee from God through addiction, but that God allowed it for His purposes.
“After [the] fighting ended, I spiraled. The devil attacked me, but God allowed it, because rock bottom wasn’t the end; it was the path back to Him,” he added.
Brand, who made international headlines last year when he converted to Christianity and was baptized in the River Thames along with Bear Grylls, has since been an outspoken witness for his newfound faith. He has repeatedly been open about the spiritual emptiness of fame, wealth and worldly glory.
Brand’s conversion came less than a year after a joint investigation by The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches reported on allegations from four women who accused Brand of rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse.
In April, British police charged him on five counts of rape and assault, to which he pleaded not guilty while clutching a Puritan prayer book during a pre-trial hearing at London’s Southwark Crown Court. His trial is scheduled for June 2026.
During an interview with Tucker Carlson in 2023 in the months leading up to his conversion, Brand said, “Like many desperate people, I need spirituality. I need God, or I cannot cope in this world. I need to believe in the best in people.”
He acknowledged that he “didn’t have enough self-discipline to resist the allure of stardom” and “fell face-first into the glitter, and I’m only just pulling myself out now.”
In an Instagram post last summer, Brand read from Isaiah 43:1, which reads: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
“There are times that I’ve told you when I felt far from Christ,” Brand said at the time. “This is the verse that brought me back into connection with our Lord.”
He also said he had found freedom in surrendering to Christ in faith and relinquishing his impulse to control his own life, which he said is not a concept he understood before becoming a Christian.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
