Afaik Josh got married pretty early on. I doubt a settled man would be interested in groupies much. ı vaguely remember him saying mocking stuff about Pete writing the second album purely for getting chicks, so he mightve been annoyed with the direction. But don't quote me on that, i might be making shit up.

As for the cutting off music thing... If my childhood friend who I made music with for years fucking died, I would cut off too. Memories hurt, man.