Jon Jones says there's a silver lining to his March drunk driving arrest -- "it set me free in so many ways" -- and now he's focused on staying clean.
"It embarrassed me, it reality-checked me," Jones said on Steve-O's "Wild Ride" podcast ... "I've never been on camera drunk for the public to see like that."
"It was humiliating, and somewhat of a bottom for me -- and I'm ready to snap it into high gear."
As we previously reported, Jones was arrested around 1 AM on March 26 after cops responded to reports of gunfire in the Albuquerque area.