He had played in several local bands but he felt the only constants in his life were music and drink.
Speaking 18 years on, Ross says: “My therapist asked me what I wanted to do, and I said maybe something with guitars.”
He went on to set up Guitar Shack, originally in Walkley in 2007 before five relocations, and credits the business with saving his life.
“I would be dead if it wasn’t for Guitar Shack.”
Alcohol had had a huge impact on his health and family life. A doctor told him he was at risk of liver failure and he even found himself “smacked” by his son Tom one night when he returned from the pub “gobbing off”.
“I was losing my family. It made me change. I deserved it.”
Tom, now 32 and a former tearaway himself, helps his father run the guitar shop and Ross hasn’t drunk alcohol since that night.
