A Trusted Voice

Thirty years in the music industry. Sixteen years specialising in addiction, crisis, and recovery. A body of published work, broadcast consultancy credits, and media features that reflect a genuine and lasting contribution to these conversations.

As featured in

VogueThe GuardianMusic WeekEvening StandardBBC Radio 4ITVChannel 4Festival InsightsPRS for MusicComplete Music Update

Media features

Interviews and features

Quoted and featured across national press, specialist industry publications, and international media.

The Guardian

February 2022

'Hard-partying bands are the outliers now': how rock and roll broke up with booze and drugs

"The idea that someone who is in recovery is a liability is probably the biggest misconception. Someone in a healthy recovery will be the most reliable employee of the lot."

Read article

Vogue

October 2024

"Ultimately we're talking about children."

"Just as young artists receive singing lessons, dancing lessons, and various training to develop their craft, mental health and preventive measures should be given equal importance."

Read article

Evening Standard (ES Magazine)2022

London's post-pandemic addiction to prescription medication

Festival InsightsJune 2026

Music Support on the importance of festival safe spaces

"People working in the industry think they don't have a right to be unhappy because of the position they're in. This is across the board."

Addiction / Recovery eBulletinJune 2025

Person of the Week: Matt Thomas

"I believe addiction is a bio-psycho-social-spiritual-cultural-circumstantial condition, that starts off as the best coping mechanism ever, but soon turns into another part of the problem. The greatest risk I have ever taken? Asking for help."

PRS for MusicJanuary 2018

New Events Tackle Mental Health and Addiction in Music

"Creating a platform not only to discuss the issues amongst ourselves as an industry and share our experiences, but also to bring in experienced professionals to deliver practical hands-on skills, is a major step forward."

Written by Matt Thomas

Published writing

Articles and essays authored by Matt Thomas, published across industry and charity platforms including Music Business Worldwide and the British Phonographic Industry.

Music Business WorldwideFebruary 2025Op-Ed

I Wrote This Because People Are Still Dying

"I write this piece from both personal and professional experience. As a major record label executive suffering from a combination of mental health issues and addiction, I was spiralling toward a point of no return, until an artist manager took some compassionate action that really spoke to me."

Taking Action on AddictionAugust 2024Personal Essay

People, Places and Things

"I used to drink and use AT people, places, and things."

Taking Action on Addiction / BPI2022Essay

The Opposite of Loneliness Is Connection

"Addiction is about isolation, recovery is about connection. You may be one connection away from recovery."

Music SupportMental Health Awareness Week 2022Essay

Loneliness: the Gift That Keeps on Giving

"In my experience loneliness has come in many guises, shapes and sizes. It has been pervasive, insipid, deceptive and destructive. It has also been the catalyst for change when confronted with kindness and human connection."

Taking Action on AddictionJanuary 2024Article

Don't Get Blue-Washed!

Taking Action on AddictionChristmas 2022Article

Seasonal Support: Lonely This Christmas?

"The isolation inherent in active addiction, accompanied by the loss of family and friends, the terror, anxiety, despair, depression, the overwhelming burden of shame, and the fear of being caught or, even worse, being seen, conspire together to create a deeply lonely state of existence."

Broadcast consultancy

Addiction storyline consultant

Matt has been engaged as an addiction and recovery consultant on major broadcast productions across BBC, ITV and Channel 4, advising on the accurate and sensitive portrayal of addiction storylines.

BBC Radio 4

The Archers

ITV

Emmerdale

BBC One

Casualty

Channel 4

Will Young: Losing My Twin Rupert

Trade press

Quoted in Music Week, Complete Music Update, Access All Areas, Record of the Day and more over more than a decade of industry commentary.

Music WeekMarch 2026

Music Support Appoints Claire Haffenden to Board of Trustees

"If we are serious about duty-of-care in music, it must be embedded into leadership and strategy."

Music WeekSeptember 2025

Music Support Scales Up Life-Saving Services

"This elevated level of clinical-grade service provision is something we could only have dreamed of when it was just a few of us answering our mobiles at night."

Access All AreasOctober 2024

Mental Health Charity Music Support Experiencing Unprecedented Demand

"'Without You, There Is No Music' tells the story of how the music industry would not exist without all of the individuals who work tirelessly both on stage and behind the scenes, and so we must look after them."

Complete Music UpdateJuly 2024

Empathy for the Devil podcast launch

"The issues we discuss remain all too present, and some have even gotten worse due to things like social media and the ability to travel further, quicker, and faster."

Music WeekJune 2018

Music Support receives donation from BRIT Trust

"It's OK to talk about these issues."

Music WeekJuly 2017

Robbie Williams Becomes First Patron of Music Support

Podcast

Empathy for the Devil

Co-hosted with Sam Parker and Chula Goonewardene, Empathy for the Devil explores mental health and recovery in the lives of iconic artists. Three specialists in addiction and recovery in the music industry, examining the deeply human and relatable stories that shaped a generation.

"We aim to foster greater connection, understanding and empathy for the current generation through these deeply human and relatable stories from past generations."

Listen to the podcast

Personal narrative

The experience behind the work

Matt's public story, shared through Music Support and in his own words across a decade of writing, is one of recovery from addiction during a career at the highest levels of the music industry. It is the foundation of everything he does professionally, and the reason the people he works with trust him.

Read Matt's story on Music Support

Work with someone people trust to speak on this publicly

If you are looking for private support, the same expertise that informs this public work is available to you, handled with complete discretion.

Book a Confidential Consultation

Confidential Consultation

A first conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

No obligation. No judgment. No pressure. All enquiries are treated with total discretion. Matt aims to respond within 24 hours. If your situation requires immediate emergency services, please call 999.

Book a Confidential Consultation +44 7968 626 987