Moby on Fame, Fortune, Addiction & Animals

Moby’s first job as a DJ was spinning records at a dive bar next to a methadone clinic. A few years later, he was rich and famous, but “never felt more depressed.” Having grown up as “poor white trash” in the wealthy town of Darien, CT, Moby’s financial status made him feel like a “third-class citizen.”

Decades after selling over 20 million albums, winning all kinds of awards, and experiencing “baffling success,” he still feels disenfranchised. The massive, unpredictable success of his 1999 album, Play set an incredibly high bar against which the press and he himself measured his subsequent work.

His consumption of alcohol, cocaine, and related chemical goodies drove him to a dark place from which he finally rebounded in 2008. He has been sober ever since. Moby addresses all these issues in the upcoming documentary, MobyDoc.

In this episode of Crazy Money, we also discuss his relationship to finances, debt, why he’s never had a mortgage, and can’t even bring himself to borrow 50 cents to buy a pack of gum. He also shares the origins of his full-time commitment to animal rights and veganism.

See the film trailer for Moby Doc here and learn more about his orchestral greatest hits record, Reprise here.