Moby spins life around from DJ drug addict to serene vegan

Moby says he’s transformed from a “lunatic” and dance floor drug addict to a serene living vegan.

The Porcelain hitmaker is returning with an impressive 22nd studio album called Resound NYC and can pinpoint the moment he needed to leave behind his hedonistic life in New York.

Unveiling his diametrically opposite life in LA, the American star, 57, tells Today: “What happened was, about 13 years ago I got sober and about a minute after getting sober I realised that New York was a delightful paradise when I was a drunk and a drug addict but a very challenging place to be sober.”

Nowadays he says he finds himself and other vegans mocked mercilessly but Moby, real name Richard Hall, is having the last laugh.

“When you say the word ‘vegan’ or ‘meditate’ or even ‘yoga’, immediately they seem like old hippy cliches but I think there’s another way to simply look at it which is incredibly rational,” he says.

“You have to figure out what to eat, how to live, how to not be too victimised by our thoughts and from my perspective, being a vegan just makes sense. It’s compassionate and self-sustaining and good for the planet.”

As for meditation, he’s the first to admit the consequences are not good if he doesn’t get into the zone.

“Meditating … if left to my own devices I’m a lunatic so anything I can do to pull me away from that … and mediation is a part of it,” he says.

Explaining why he spreads the vegan gospel from the rooftops through his massive vegan tattoos, the star says, “Well, it’s not subtle. I just thought, ‘Well, I don’t have a real job so it’s not like I’m going to get fired’ and it’s a great way to start conversations. You go out with a giant vegan tattoo on your neck and Animal Rights on your arms and people ask you about it.”

In the studio, Moby has mixed it with some of history’s most seasoned partying pros that make his efforts look amateur.

“At this point, I’ve worked with hundreds of singers: everyone from Ozzy Osbourne and Britney Spears to David Bowie and posthumously Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson,” he says.

“But it was never the intention because the original intention was to be a great singer. But the universe had other plans.”

Of them all, holiday buddy David Bowie left the greatest impression.

“He was my favourite musician of all time,” he says. “We were neighbours, we went on tour together, we had holidays together, we spent so much time together but when we were collaborating I tried to keep it together.”

The one that got away though was Prince. Sharing his near miss with the purple one, Moby recalls, “Selfishly, narcissistically, it was on the verge of happening and tragically he died. Luckily, I got to collaborate with David Bowie.”