You know actually, in the past year, it seems like LP may not need Chester to be doing much at this point in time in regards to making the new album.
It seems like Mike writes/produces/does a lot of the dirty work, scats the vocal melodies, and then Chester comes in and replaces the scatting with singing when it's time.
From the work aspect, it seems all LP may be missing right now is Chester's input, which in the end only sucks for Chester. Though from a good buddy stand-point, they won't release the new LP until DBS has done its fair share of touring and such.
And as far as the other members of LP being clean, yeah they are. And I like that, though we don't know for sure what they're into. I mean some of it is probably good natured stuff, like Mike drinking. It's legal and he's a grown man. I just want these guys to be around for a long time, I'm real glad Chester has sobered up.