Jake Owen, the country singer, marks five years without a drink

Jake Owen has marked five years of sobriety, in a video he filed as a quick life update rather than a statement. "I decided five years ago I was not going to drink any more alcohol, and here we are five years later," he said, adding that he is proud of himself and that he feels great.

He framed the milestone as part of getting older rather than as a triumph, saying that recognising the flaws in yourself and then working on them is most of what the process actually involves. By his own count he has avoided making too many bad decisions in the five years since.

The harder part of the message was about what came before it. He said he had made plenty of poor decisions and had treated people in ways he wishes he could take back, and that moving forward means recognising those mistakes rather than filing them away. Five years on, he says he has no regrets.

He also said he had not understood at the time how much quitting would matter to anyone other than himself and the people closest to him, and that it turned out to give others a guiding light. He encouraged anyone thinking about it to take the step, while being clear he did not want to stand on a soapbox about it, and closed by telling followers he was proud of them too.

Owen recorded the video on his way to Canada, after a few days at Pebble Beach in California with his father and some friends. He put out his most recent album, Dreams to Dream, in 2025, and is working on opening a restaurant and bar called Pearl's in downtown Kingston Springs, Tennessee, named after his eldest daughter. Neither is attached to the sobriety post.

The Barefoot Blue Jean Night singer joins a run of country artists who have put the same decision on the record this year. Brantley Gilbert credited a health scare with fourteen years of sobriety, and Charles Kelley of Lady A marked his own milestone with a before-and-after photograph.