This is all part of addiction. Fear, shame and guilt. Reason's to keep on drinking.
Drinking at feelings, situations and people we can not control. I would talk about these reasons we convince ourselves to drink with him.
It will just add to more wreckage in his life if he does engage in a physical confrontation while drunk. Please let him know how proud you are of him when he chooses recovery. How he overcame the situations he had to deal with that resulted while drinking , offending and insulting people. This is how I act drunk- something else takes over me! This may be a lesson that he can live through in active recovery and help another person.
I need to turn every situation that my addiction tells me is hopeless into hope.