Danny Malone Has Seen ‘Better Things’
Psychedelic-folk singer-songwriter, Danny Malone, has released “Better Things,” an anthem of rebirth and determination to fight every day for the life he wants to live. While Malone has been making music for most of his life, the forthcoming album, Flowers pt. 1 is, in some ways, the Texas-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter’s debut album – a remarkable fresh start following a near-decade-long hiatus that saw him disappear into a life of addiction and then emerge better than ever with his most indisputably cathartic collection thus far. Fraught with impossible sadness and transcendent beauty, the album sees Malone reckoning with grief and self-recrimination, moving past the trauma and bitter regret towards renewal and resurrection as someone altogether new.
Like the rest of Flowers pt. 1, the new single, “Better Things,” was written while Malone was in a rehab facility, going through treatment using the psychedelic ibogaine. “In a vision, my ex-girlfriend, Madi, who died by suicide, came to me and did exactly as I mention in the second verse–she came to me from the afterlife and entered my body through my mouth (for she was in spirit form and so made of smoke or an amorphous cloud of herself, essentially), as I gasped in amazement,” Malone shares. “She went into my heart space, and then a feeling exploded through my body that, in a single moment, cleared the energy of addiction from my life. I promise on my life that this happened… Her spirit could tell that’s what I desperately wanted, and she granted me that wish from the afterlife. I knew in that moment I was never going to use drugs again. And that my life had an incredible purpose. It’s something I will never forget, and my gratitude for that gift is the fuel that my life runs on.”
In the early 2010s, Malone’s career was on an upward trajectory, releasing a string of increasingly acclaimed albums and touring North America and Europe to a growing fanbase. But his worsening drug problem eventually spun out of control as amphetamines, opiates, and benzos turned to more hazardous substances like heroin and fentanyl. As the addiction grew, he became embarrassed to be seen in public, and resorted to selling his instruments to fund the habit. Malone spent much of the next half-decade blocked off from the outside world, living deep in his addiction. Despite his desire to quit, traditional methods to treat opioid abuse disorder proved unsuccessful. Desperate, he connected with treatment facilitators and began the process of the intense two-day psychedelic experience that would ideally reset his perception and help heal his troubled soul.
The road to recovery wasn’t always smooth. The stress of caring for his mother as she declined due to Parkinson’s Disease and increasing dementia led to an eventual relapse. Determined to liberate himself once and for all, Malone traveled south of the border to IbogaQuest, a highly rated treatment center in Tepoztlán, near Mexico City. It was during this second treatment that he had the mystical experience depicted in “Better Things,” and almost immediately began writing songs at a feverish pace, as if a dam had burst inside him and opened the floodgates on 10 years of pent-up creativity. He soon started playing shows again, and began traveling to Nashville to record with longtime friend, singer-songwriter Anthony da Costa. After years of turmoil, things were finally looking up until tragedy struck Malone’s life once again. Sadly, his beloved brother, best friend, drummer, and occasional co-writer Teddy died by suicide in Malone’s Austin home while he was playing a festival in Northern Arkansas – an event for which Teddy had only just helped him pack the van the day before.
“The new me was able to survive,” Malone says. “I don’t know if the old me would have been able to. The fact that this album dealt with a suicide in the past of someone really close to me, it’s almost like it prepared me for my brother’s suicide. Almost like a premonition. I was playing a show that day, and even though I had just heard he died, I continued to play the show. The songs that I was singing fit the situation perfectly. Like it prepared me spiritually for how to handle such a devastating loss.”
Heartbroken but not brought down, Malone immediately moved lock, stock, and barrel to Nashville, where he could continue to put the pieces of a new life together in earnest. Malone was putting finishing touches on Flowers pt. 1 when another old friend, singer/guitarist Justin Furstenfeld of Houston, TX rock band Blue October, reached out to ask if he’d join them as support on their 20th anniversary world tour, a powerful show of faith from a fellow artist that only served to strengthen his commitment to sobriety.
Having reached the proverbial crossroads and made the right choice, Danny Malone is eager to walk that path on his own terms, healthy, engaged, and ready for what’s next.
“I want this music to convey the deep, psychedelic transformation that occurred in me that saved my life, saved me from addiction, and will hopefully guide my life out of the darkness and into beauty,” says Danny Malone. “ And I hope it can be a guidepost for others to catch a glimpse of the direction that helped me, once I saw where I needed to go. I feel so proud to stand in front of people and tell my story. I feel like I’m doing something good.”
Flowers pt. 1 will be released on February 19, 2027, and can be pre-saved HERE.