Virtuoso guitarist Jonny Lang returns to the Golden State Theatre.

The sex, drugs, booze and other currencies of the rock and roll trade, often defined by excess and inhibition, were a little much for 15-year-old guitar prodigy Jonny Lang. He’d recently found international fame with Lie To Me, which topped Billboard’s New Artist chart in 1997, then found a trap that came with it: Lang thought he could handle it all.

“I was 14 years old when I started, and almost from the get-go, I started drinking,” Lang told Stop the Presses’ Jon Wiederhorn. “And then, when I was 17 or 18, I started getting into drugs. The thing is, I was having a great time and I didn’t have any intention of stopping.”

The North Dakota native’s 1998 follow-up, the acclaimed genre mash-up Wander This World, earned Lang a Grammy nod. His soulful riffs, wise beyond his years, had attracted a fan base that included the likes of B.B. King and Buddy Guy.

The period following Wander This World could be dubbed Lang’s lost years. Lang admitted to doing “pretty much every substance you can name, except heroin.”

He says he should have gone to the hospital – “that never happened” – but instead he got sober, found faith, fell in love, got married and started a family. (His wife’s currently pregnant with child number five.)

He has released a pair of solo albums over the past decade. The Grammy Award-winning Turn Around (2006) is the guitarist’s take on gospel, an R&B thank-you letter to God for guiding him away from a dangerous path unscathed. His follow-up seven years later, Fight for My Soul, is his most personal and poignant work, marked by intimate ballads including “I’ll Always Be.”

Lang’s last couple records veered away from the scruffy electric guitar blues that earned him street cred in the first place. Little is known about his forthcoming yet-to-be-titled record set for a spring 2017 release, except that it’s a return to his beginnings.

“[The record will be] a little bit more guitar-centered than the last couple of records, more guitar riff-oriented,” Lang told Guitar World. “The guitar is always in there with me, but it’s more central again on these [new] songs.”

The spirit of Jimi Hendrix may have something to do with it: Over the past few years, Lang has been a part of Experience Hendrix Tour that’s brought together a rotating roster of greats, including Guy, Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson and Billy Cox.

JONNY LANG 8pm Thursday, Dec. 15. Golden State Theatre, 417 Alvarado St., Monterey. $33-$63. 649-1070, www.goldenstatetheatre.com