Pills ‘n’ Deals and Biker Gangs

The pills took hold some time in the evening, 12 hours after he had
swallowed the first. They were Suboxones—powerful semisynthetic
opiates prescribed to help combat a dangerous OxyContin addiction, and
indeed that is what they would eventually do. But at that moment, after
12 hours, 32 milligrams, and a three-year addiction that had left his
body resistant to change, Shane Bunting was in the most excruciating
pain of his life.

“I started flailing like a dolphin,” said Bunting, known better as
Mad Child from Vancouver, Canada–based hiphop group Swollen
Members. “It was so crazy. I couldn’t control my limbs. It was so
painful and so frustrating that I was literally ready to jump off the
balcony of my girlfriend’s apartment. I wanted it to stop really,
really badly.”

The episode, which took place during the spring in Vancouver, was
one of several low points of a crippling addiction that began in 2006
with the odd Percocet and bottomed out with the rapper taking upward of
20 OxyContins a day.

Fellow Swollen Member Prevail said he was oblivious to the addiction
for the first year.

“When we did find out about it, it took me and [Rob the Viking] by a
bit of a surprise,” he says. “I think about groups like AC/DC and
Rolling Stones and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Some of those guys have lost
members of their groups to similar addictions. Those groups stick
together and find the strength within their circle to lift each other
up when times are tough, and we’re thankful to have Mad Child back in
full form.”

Over three years, Mad Child says he spent C$500,000 on pills and
lost around C$2 million on business investments due to his addiction.
He says it all began shortly after the lukewarm reception for their
album Black Magic and worsened after Nettwerk Management
dropped the group because of his affiliation with the Hells Angels.
(Several Angels had appeared in Swollen Members’ music videos, and
photos of Mad Child partying with the Angels ran in local
newspapers.)

“I was a little bummed out with that because I felt… like we’re
supposed to be living in a free country,” he says. “I should be able to
hang out with who I want to. It’s not like I was bringing anybody to
the office or to any functions of theirs.”

He maintains there was never a business relationship with the Hells
Angels.

“I think one of the biggest misconceptions of Swollen Members, for
one time period, was that we were funded by friends of mine in the
motorcycle club, which was totally false,” he says. “I grinded hard to
make the money to make Swollen Members and Battle Axe Records happen,
and I did it myself.”

(Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, confirmed Nettwerk cut
ties because of the Hells Angels affiliation but declined to comment
further.)

Now, four months clean, Mad Child is on the road with the rest of
the Members, on a North American tour to promote their new album,
Armed to the Teeth. It is their first tour together since
2006.

With them is Tre Nyce, the newest Battle Axe warrior, a 20-year-old
Vancouverite whom Mad Child and Prevail credit for reinvigorating the
group and giving the new album a more “street-oriented” sound as
opposed to the “abstract expressionism” of earlier records.

“He definitely brought youth back into the group, and freshness, and
helped to make Swollen Members continue to make current music,” says
Mad Child. “He’s got a great work ethic. He can make three, four songs
in a day, no problem. Thanks to him, we definitely have a better work
ethic again. That young hunger is back with the whole crew.”

“The kid is so talented,” adds Prevail. “It’s unbelievable,
actually, his skill for songwriting and ear for music.”

While Mad Child says battling his addiction is no longer a daily
struggle, he concedes it’s something he still has to work at.

“When you come back from doing three years of damage to your life
emotionally and financially and physically, it’s going to take more
than three months to resolve all the problems you’ve created for
yourself,” he says. “I’ve really got to grind to get back on my feet,
but I find when I keep myself busy and keep working toward goals, that
really helps.”