LFO's Brad Fischetti shares how he found the light again after the deaths of bandmates

Sometimes, Brad Fischetti wakes up and it doesn't feel real that the group known as LFO is just... him.

"To imagine, these two extraordinary guys are gone," he reflected in a recent interview. "It doesn't make any sense to me."

Rich Cronin, who wrote LFO's infectiously catchy 1999 hit "Summer Girls," died in 2010 at the age of 36 after a long battle with leukemia. Devin Lima, who remained Fischetti's best friend, died in 2018, barely 13 months after being diagnosed with adrenal cancer.

Fischetti credits his family, therapy, his faith and a concerted effort to take care of himself, mentally ("downtime is important") and physically (not always easy, 7-11 is his kryptonite), with his eventual climb out of the darkness.

"I got through that," he said, "but I don't think I could have done it on my own. And if my story helps other folks to realize, 'Hey, you know what, sometimes I have to be vulnerable enough to say I need help,' then I guess what I'm doing is important. But it's really a crazy story. And almost every day I'm shaking my head, like, What's going on here? There's times where I'm on stage, like, What on earth is happening right now? But I'm so thankful to the fans for their support, it's been mind-blowing."

Both losses hit Fischetti hard, but Lima's passing admittedly put him in a dark place that took a lot of work to get out of.

"It was like somebody pulled a hood over my eyes," the 47-year-old recalled. "I have six kids now, but I had five kids at the time, and I just could not find joy anywhere. So my wife said, 'You've got to do something.' I think a lot of us are not really vulnerable enough to admit when we need help, especially men."