50 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 

H

e hadn’t quite hit rock bottom. But 
it was imminent. 
On March 11, 2022, it all came 
to a head. Following an all-nighter in 
Chicago that included a concert, followed 
by eight-plus hours at a colleague’s music 
studio, whiskey, drugs and many fleeting 
memories, Jamie Wineman staggered out 
of his Uber and into his Winnetka, Illinois, 
home at 10 a.m. Once again, he saw his 
wife’s disappointment. 
“I looked at myself in the mirror — 
literally and figuratively — and decided I 
was done with this B.S.,
” said Wineman, 
38, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills. “I hit 
a breaking point for myself where I knew I 
had to change.
” 

After months of post-2 a.m. texts 
to friends that might have doubled as 
calls for help, and at the behest of his 
therapist, Doug Tesnow, Wineman finally 
took action. He signed up at Brightside 
Recovery, an intensive, online outpatient 
group therapy treatment center for 
substance abusers.
“I had to figure out why my relationship 
with alcohol, chased with cocaine, had 
turned so sour and how I could escape 
these patterns. In group, we discussed deep-
rooted issues along with coping skills based 
on the idea that substance use had made 
my life uncontrollable,
” said Wineman, a 
music producer for more than 20 years and 
a songwriter and touring keyboardist with 

his electro-funk band, Ghosthouse.
Known in the music industry as “Jimmy 
Con,
” Wineman’s songs can be heard in 
the Jersey Shore TV show, Magic Mike movie 
and commercials for Playboy, Chubbies, 
the University of Notre Dame and MTV 
programs, among many other notches in 
the belt of a successful career.
“During COVID, the music business 
became absolutely decimated. I was already 
one foot out simply due to the fact that I 
was experiencing a metamorphosis into a 
family man,
” said Wineman, whose wife of 
six years, Gillian, was pregnant with their 
son, Wolfgang, who turns 2 on Feb. 18. “My 
music industry lifestyle was not conducive 
to this new life, and I was having a rough 

Jamie Wineman’s artistic journey to sobriety.
FACING THE MUSIC

JULIE SMITH YOLLES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ARTS&LIFE
ON THE COVER

