Still Addicted? K's Choice Singer Reimagines '90s Alt-Rock Anthem 30 Years Later to Reflect a Life Lived

For Sam Bettens, 2026 is a year of coming full circle while also taking that next step forward and it all culminates today (June 12) with the video release for "Not an Addict (Sam's Version)."

This reimagining of his K's Choice '90s alt-rock anthem serves up a more intimate reflection on a life lived, a perspective gained, a maturity earned and a new vision that feels like a jumping off point as an artist for that rare second act.

Ahead of the video release, we had a chance to catch up with Bettens to discuss the journey that not only has "Not an Addict" taken over the last 30 years, but also Sam's own personal journey that colors this new version and has led him toward a fresh start with one of 2025's most promising Americana albums, Coming Home.

First, check out the new version — Sam's Version — of "Not an Addict" for 2026 and then find out more about Sam's journey in the chat below.

Sam Bettens, "Not an Addict (Sam's Version)"

Sam, take me through the experience of being a young band and getting that first taste of success. The album arrives in 1995, "Not an Addict" takes off in Europe first, then the U.S. in 1996 and 1997, so you get this in stages.

The whole thing just went so fast in a way. A couple years before that, we never thought that a Belgian band could even sign a record deal and we would actually make enough money to make this our living. That seemed unrealistic. And so when "Not an Addict" started getting some traction, at that point we'd already quit school and things were kind of moving. "Not an Addict" had some traction in Europe, but then we got super lucky.

We were playing at a festival in Germany somewhere and Alanis Morissette saw us from the side of the stage and literally asked me through my management to come over and see her after. And on the spot, she invited us to come on a North American tour with her. It's just like one of those moments where, "What just happened?" That's the kind of stuff at the end of a movie or something of how careers start. I cannot overemphasize the opportunity that that was for us.

We did have a record deal already in the States. "Not an Addict" was out, but nothing had really moved yet at that point. And just the fact that we were able to open for her, no one knew we were there. We had no interviews. We just showed up at eight o'clock, played our 40-minute set in front of 20,000 people and then got to enjoy her set and just were happy to be on the tour bus.

But then from the shows, people started calling radio stations. People still did that at that time, as you know. And they were like, "Hey, who was the band opening for Alanis? Because we liked it. We wanna know more. What's that song?" And that's when it all started. By the end of the year, it was a Top 5 alternative song on radio in the U.S.

So just by getting these little moments or big opportunities where you don't expect it, that's been kind of our story. Those things don't happen unless you're working and unless you have the stuff that you need to have. But there's still a lot of luck involved.

And having her, just on the spot, take this Belgian band out on the road with her because she's Alanis Morissette. She's gonna sell out her shows anyway. She doesn't care who's opening for her. So it was just awesome. And then for a Belgian band to have that U.S. adventure seemed unreal. We could now actually have a career here and started doing our own tours after that.

We're going to these big sheds where the radio shows and festivals are and to have people singing along to the song everywhere we went. It was amazing. It was a dream come true.

K's Choice, "Not an Addict"

As a Belgian band, coming over to the U.S., I know it made an impression and obviously you decided to move here and make it your home. What was your first impression?

I'm not necessarily someone who believes in previous life stuff, but for some reason I was always so interested in America and fascinated as a young person. I remember we'd have English class, I was 14, and my teacher kept telling me to use a British accent and I'm like, "No, I would rather use an American accent."

I don't know why. It's just the fascination that I had. And so it was always a dream for me to come here, not necessarily move here. I didn't know much about it other than what I saw in movies. But it had this mystery for me.

I remember very well landing in San Francisco for the first time. At that time I would've still said, I'm always gonna live in Belgium. I love Belgium. I love Antwerp. This is where my friends are. This is where my family is. But I remember on the first drive from San Francisco to Santa Cruz, I thought that maybe I could live here too. It just felt really comfortable from the beginning and really like a place that I could call home. It's so gorgeously beautiful.

I wouldn't say made it my mission, but I'm really grateful that I I ended up here and I have zero desire to move back.

And now, all these years later, with K's Choice, we had our run. Obviously for a Belgian band, it's very hard to sustain a career in a country where you don't live. So to not have the whole band here made it really hard for us to kinda keep that longevity going. Luckily we were able to keep that in Europe.

But I feel so at home here, an American citizen as well. And with this new record that I made, I wanna be able to throw my guitar in the back of the truck and go play here ... I'm not a bucket list person, but if there's a bucket list thing it's definitely having the career that I have in Europe and to be able to have that here again as well and be able to just show up somewhere, go play a show and have people buy tickets to come see me.

"Not An Addict," you've gone on record as saying it's not necessarily a pro-drug song but it's also not an anti-drug song. It's more just your experience of what you were experimenting with at the time. What was your personal experience and can you kinda share a little bit of where that song came from?

I would definitely label it more as an anti-drug song in a way that drugs have always scared me. I think it's fascinating but I've had no interest really. I don't drink really either. I like to know exactly what I'm doing at all times and if something doesn't feel right or I'm stressed or whatever I like to take my dog for a walk or find other ways to get out of a funk.

So it's never appealed to me but it was so prevalent in a lot of places in the early '90s rock world where it got offered and it was just around and I never felt at home in that world.

But what prompted me to write the song — and because it made me so sad — was a journalist actually in Paris who was interviewing me and asked about it, on how we deal with that and whether it's been an issue in our band and whether we see it around and what role drugs had played for K's Choice. The reason he asked is because he was HIV positive because of a contaminated needle and so that was something obviously very real in his world. So we ended up talking about it a little bit. It prompted me to write the song.

At the time I didn't realize it was actually gonna be a song that people who dealt with these issues and who had to face these issues actually found comfort in. Like comfort in the helplessness and the misguidedness and the stories that you tell yourself. And even though I didn't have experience with drugs, I think everyone has experiences with telling yourself what you wanna believe or maybe not seeing yourself for who you are or not seeing your problems for what they really are.

So that's what I wanted to write about, is how it really just messes with people. It messes with your life, messes with who you think you are and it ended up being a song that people were able to hold onto which obviously was amazing. You never think that something that you write is gonna mean something to someone to that extent, so I'm super grateful that it has lived the life that it has.

In the midst of the whirlwind that was your life at that time you were also coming to terms with who you are as a person. This being the '90s, there was no social media and most of what we knew of musicians was the magazine interview here and there. But in your late 20s was when you initially came out as lesbian. Later in life would come another life changing moment identifying as a trans male. What was your initial experience and how did it impact your music career and personal relationships?

Both coming out stories are a little different in a way that in both times I knew for myself that once I realized who I was, I knew I wasn't gonna lead a secretive life. That's not in me. I'm not that kind of person.

I think the hardest part of both events, or just the whole journey, is figuring out who you are and really trying to separate the stories you've told yourself from what you're actually feeling and who you actually are and trying not to see it through this filtered lens of what other people have told you about yourself. I thought that was by far the toughest part.

The coming out part was really not that hard because it feels so good. It feels so liberating once you know who you are. I saw it as a positive. Sure, it's a little scary, but it just feels like you're taking this weight off your shoulders that you didn't know you were carrying around all this time.

The first time, it was actually a magazine that outed me 'cause I was kind of getting ready to. But I don't know how I'm gonna present this to the world. We'll see what happens. And then all of a sudden it just happened without my consent and everybody knew.

I struggled with it a little bit because then all of a sudden it's everything everyone wanted to talk about and I didn't really have the language yet to talk about it. I was still confused myself and it's new so I didn't really feel like I could help people or have really interesting things to say about it. That soon changed though.

Me coming out as transgender was very different because it was already in the era of social media and really being able to tell your story exactly the way you wanna tell it. It was scary in a way that I didn't know how it was gonna affect my singing voice and that part was scary. But I didn't really have [any issue there]... And I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm very aware of that.

I didn't think I was gonna lose anyone that was important to me. I didn't think I was gonna lose my family or my friends. Everyone was very supportive. So again, super lucky for the world I live in and also being an artist living in an industry that's generally open-minded.

READ MORE: 32 LGBTQIA+ Icons in Rock + Metal

But what was different with my coming out as a transgender man is that I really wanted to talk about it because I felt like right off the bat, like I need to talk about this as the journey is going because watching other guys talk about this and other transgender people talk about about this is what really helped me. It's the only way I discovered who I was is by hearing other people's stories and relating and connecting and so I felt a responsibility almost from the get-go.

I'm not gonna tell this story when it's finished. I need to tell story as it's going so that it's gonna help someone. Someone's gonna see this and be like, "Oh, I'm glad this is out there because that's how I'm feeling and I still have so many doubts and I'm still in the middle of this and confused or whatever, I have so many questions."

So I felt very strongly that I wanted to be just someone that people could look at and say, "Look at him. He's got kids, got a wife. He kept his job. You know, he looks like a happy dude and it all looks pretty normal."

I don't like to use that word "normal" that much, but it is kinda what it feels like that people see us sometimes as just this world of freaks and they don't know what to do with it. And so I wanna be one of the hopefully many people who can normalize this subject and normalize the fact that we're just there and it's really not that weird.

That's been kind of like a big [thing]... I didn't write a whole record about it or anything. It's not my whole identity but I do strongly feel like if a parent of a trans kid or a trans kid wants to talk to me, it's such a welcome opportunity to me to give back because so many people have given it to me. I'll have a conversation with you and show you that maybe it's not as scary as you thought it was.

We do have the LGBTQ community that often gets lumped under one umbrella, but in some ways it feels like probably gay and lesbian have now become more accepted in culture. But as we've seen in the current political climate, trans has become more of a political talking point...

Yes.

It feels like some of it is based out of just fear or lack of knowledge. I wanted to give you the floor. Is there a misconception you see from some of the discussion or things you wish people better understood about trans life?

Yeah. I appreciate the question. It's true that it somehow — and I honestly did not see that coming — that transgender would all of a sudden be the "villain of all evil" that's in the world here in America. But like I was saying earlier, I think there are people who don't know a trans person and I guess whatever social media is feeding them is the stories that they get.

My hope is that someone listens to my record and says, "Wow, that's a great record. I love these these songs. I checked out this guy. He looks like a nice dude," and then finds out I'm trans after enjoying my music, after enjoying the lyrics, after just seeing some things that I post and feeling like, "Oh, that guy has got a good personality. That's someone that I feel like I would like to get to know or go to a show." And then realize, "Oh, it's a trans dude."

It's gonna be the case with most people, most trans people that you meet, you know? Like, they're just people like everybody else trying to do their thing. The only difference is that we felt like we were not born in the body that we were supposed to be born in. And so it feels wrong from the get-go. Something feels off. And once we get the opportunity to live as the person that we really think we are, things just fall into place. It's really kind of that simple.

There are times when I was going through my transition and I had many questions. There are times when you feel like the weirdest person on Earth and like, "This is really weird what I'm about to do, as I am, I am a total freak." And then there are other days, most days, where it's like, "Wow, this is really not a big deal at all. This is kind of the most normal thing in the world." And it feels almost like just, just regular, you know?

There's really not a big story here. I feel like I'm a guy and now things feel right. My voice feels right. I walk around in the world and it feels right. And that's really all I can do. There's really nothing else.

There's no big agenda beyond it. That's really all there is. And I think people are scared because some trans people ... I think I'm lucky in a way and I wanna be really careful how I phrase it, but I think I'm lucky in a way that I pass easily. I am not someone who walks down the street and people are like, "Oh, look, it's a trans dude."

For example, if a trans woman transitions at my age later in life, post-puberty, it's hard to pass in the world. And so when she walks into a Starbucks, a lot of people can tell that's a transgender woman.

I don't know what people are scared of, you know? I don't understand the fear that people have for how it's gonna affect their personal lives or what's so scary about someone who still has some features of a man but is wearing feminine clothes. I think it just looks different and people are scared of different [things] and then it's somehow threatening.

But that transgender woman who walks into Starbucks and maybe still looks like a man is the same person as me. I just got lucky that I went female to male and I transitioned and when I walk around the street with my wife, we just look like a regular cisgender couple.

But I'm no different than the trans woman walking into a Starbucks. We're the same people who discovered something about ourselves and just wanna live our best happy lives. That's where it ends. We we have no agenda. We're not trying to get people to come on board and become trans as well.

It's just like, "Wow, I woke up this morning and I'm putting the clothes on that I wanna wear. I walk around the streets with my wife and and it just feels nice." There's really nothing else to it.

Within your career, there's been a transition as well. First came Rex Rebel, which was a bit more on the poppier side from K's Choice. But now we have this excellent Coming Home album which sees you going in the more Americana and country direction. By the way, I'm loving this record. This feels like such a personal album. There's so much of you in here and it feels like a very lived in album.

Yeah. Thank you. That's a really nice thing to say. My best friend told me and it was so nice to hear, that, "This is the best thing you've ever done." He knows me very well and he's known me for a long time and I think part of it, of why he said that, is because what you just mentioned. It felt to him like this is really who you are. This really feels like who you are right now. It just feels so normal and natural and it just makes sense. That's how it feels to me. So when that comes across, it's really nice to hear.

It's my first record, obviously, as Sam and that feels different and great. [And it's fun] how [my life] creeps into the music and how it creeps into the songs. It's hard to kind of pinpoint exactly what happened with those lyrics, but of course, when you all of a sudden are who you are or you get to be who you've been all this time, again, this weight disappears and there's just a freedom.

It's really hard to explain, but there is a freedom to write that I feel like I could record another record tomorrow. I've written so much stuff. And I can't wait to do it again, you know? It's almost like someone just gave you ... like, here you get to do it all again.

Of course, physically, it doesn't feel like that at 53, getting to do it all over again. The bones hurt a little bit. But it does feel it really does feel like a second start almost. So it's freeing and it's liberating and it's inspiring, which makes it easier to be creative.

And especially 30 years into a career that, where things kind of repeat themselves a little bit and it's not always easy to kinda keep things fresh, this really feels like it was all new to me, even though I've been doing this for 30 years. Recording in Nashville with those guys, writing this record as Sam, dabbling in this genre that feels very, very natural and as a genre that I've been listening to for years, it really feels like, "Oh, you get to do this all over again, you know?" It makes me feel young. And it feels fresh, which is a nice feeling when you're this far into your career.

So bringing this around full circle, 2026 is giving us a new version, Sam's version of "Not an Addict." It's representative of where you are with your music today and aside from the more acoustic arrangement there are a few subtle lyric changes. I now don't feel like it's a drug song, but perhaps maybe something a little different. Can you talk about your relationship to the song now and what you put into that?

At the get-go, I was like, "Wait, no. I shouldn't touch this." I know that's how a lot of people feel about songs that mean something to them, like, "Don't, just don't touch it ... Just sing it exactly the way it is." But then I started kind of more looking at it as a challenge of this is who I am now.

Can I do something with this in the genre that I've that I made this record that makes it new again and that makes it represents me where I am in my life, that gives it a little bit of a maturity and a new vision?

So the challenge was kind of fun. I started working with that. I just really feel that it's obviously recognizable and the parts are still there. But like you said, it's deviated a little bit from the drugs and it's more just a life lived and how you look at yourself when you're little older.

Obviously, 30 years later, you look at things very differently and you look at yourself very differently and it's not all about the next step anymore, but it's a lot of gratitude for where you are. These days, I think a lot more about that I can't wait to go do this show and be in the moment and play for people.

I don't think about, like, "Oh, where am I gonna be 10 years from now?" Well, I'm gonna be 10 years older, that much I know. But I'm not always just looking ahead at the career's gotta grow. When you're in your 20s, it's all still ahead of you. Not that I wasn't grateful in my 20s, but there's definitely a gratitude that comes with having lived a life already that is so so much more profound.

I wanted to have some of that life experience to creep into this song I wrote in my 20s and how I look at things now after all this time has passed and put it a little bit in an Americana/country world where it covers maybe a little broader spectrum than just drugs.

Thank you for your time today. Before we go, what's on the horizon for you?

Lots of touring. It's a little bit of quiet before the storm here. K's Choice is actually touring all summer because we're celebrating our 30 years. And so we're playing the entire Paradise in Me record in Europe which has been super fun.

I'll also be focusing on the Coming Home album with more touring.

Our thanks to Sam Bettens for the interview. You can keep up with Sam through his website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube platforms. The Coming Home album is currently available through his U.S. and global webstores. And for all K's Choice activity, stay tuned to their website.

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