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WOODY GIESSMANN BEGAN HIS dissent through the toxic gauntlet of drugs, sex and rock ‘n’ roll when a two week bender culminated in him coming-to on an Amtrak train bound for Boston, with nothing on him but $300 dollars and a pair of drum sticks. In a serendipitous encounter, Giessmann was approached one night at the The Rathskeller, by Lilly, the manager of a band called The Del Fuegos. From there it was history.
Giessmann and The Del Fuegos toured the world with ZZ Top and Tom Petty, and played shows with seminal acts like The Kinks. Giessmann can testify that the livefast- die-young path is lined with broken bottles and paved with pitfalls, “Being on the road is a really hard thing. It’s a high risk area for entertainers,” Giessmann says via phone interview.
After ten hard years of addiction, Giessmann came to the realization— with the help of a prominent Los Angeles musician whom he refuses to name—that music had just become something to support his habit. “I left Kansas to play music, not become an addict,” he says. Giessmann knew he didn’t want to be the next Keith Moon, so he kicked his habit and returned to Boston where he did his undergrad at UMass, received a Masters in Human Services Management at Suffolk University, and became a licensed addiction specialist.
Giessmann worked in halfway houses, mental hospitals and for the Department of Mental Health, but in the wake of the 2001 budget cuts, many of the services for recovering addicts vanished. Giessmann would receive calls from people who needed his help and had nowhere to turn. A doctor who saw the therapy services Giessmann provided for people, made a donation from her family fund and he was able to get an office in Arlington, where people—many of whom were musicians and entertainers—could come and receive treatment. Later he obtained a space right down the street on Broadway, which is known today as Right Turn.
Right Turn is a mecca and safehaven for those who have a creative edge and look to rectify their lives. Giessmann, now CEO, has nine therapists and three doctors working for him. Right Turn offers the orthodox approaches to recovery, such as 12-Step groups and therapy, but Giessmann also seeks alternative means for help, “There’s no fucking cookie cutter method here. I’m appalled by people when they say, ‘Just go to an AA meeting.’” Giessmann sees creativity as a powerful catalyst for redemption, “Whatever you do in life, it will save you if you do it well,” he says. Right Turn offers writing workshops, art studio time, drum circles, and every Saturday it hosts a show, sometimes it’s a renowned musician and other times it’s a person performing for their first time.
Giessmann and Right Turn are proof that hard drugs and creativity are not synonymous with one another, and every day he sets out to set the record straight, “You don’t have to be a heroin addict to be the next great song writer.”