Rock Star Per Persson's Journey from Chaos to Calm

The drinking nearly destroyed everything important for rock artist Per Persson. In 'Sommar i P1', the singer from 'Perssons Pack' shares how he hit rock bottom, losing his driver's license and being hospitalized with fainting spells and seizures.

He has celebrated Christmas with Olle Ljungström, been saved from methanol poisoning by the singer of Docenterna, quarreled with a clingy Plura, and partied at Café Opera with a 'major Swedish artist' who spiked girls' champagne with sleeping pills.

Add to that, he received prescriptions from a notorious horse doctor—sedatives to sleep on the tour bus, stimulants to perform.

Persson talks about how the life he loved almost took his life.

But he speaks as someone who has now found peace instead of restlessness. Spending time at home on his farm in Hälsingland, cooking slow meals, and visiting the recycling center, that's life now. And he plays better sober.

It's a rather sparse narrative, mostly anecdotes from a life at the heart of Swedish music history.

He is proudly working-class, but not in the way urban cultural workers play the red class card. A skilled car body repairman impresses Per Persson more than any cultural celebrity.