Rock 'n' roll drug survivors
http://www.standard.net.au/blogs/musicology/rock-n-roll-drug-survivors/1881188.aspx
By: MATT NEAL
9/07/2010
THE rock 'n' roll highway is littered with the fatalities of rock 'n'
roll excess - from Hendrix and Morrison to Bon Scott and Layne
Staley, the rock star mythos has long included an unhealthy dose of
booze and/or drugs.
Mind you, it's not just rock music. Folk, country, pop, metal, punk,
jazz, hip-hop and blues all have their casualities.
It seems the list of survivors - those who have lived through the
excess and made it out the other side alive - is a pretty small one.
That's probably why scientists have announced they are going to map
Ozzy Osbourne's DNA to try to find out how someone imbibed as much as
he did and survived.
So here's a list of Ozzy's exploits, plus a few other musicians who
travelled the rock 'n' roll highway in hedonistic fashion and are
still around to tell the tale.
Ozzy Osbourne
AS the frontman for Black Sabbath, Ozzy helped create the template
for heavy metal. Not that he would have noticed - at the time he was
constantly high or drunk, which just made it easier for managers to
rip off him and the band. Osbourne was kicked out of Sabbath in 1979
due to his drug and alcohol use, which continued almost unabated in
the decades that followed and led to some crazed and deranged antics,
including (but not limited to) biting the head off a dove at the
signing of his record deal, shooting all 17 of his cats, biting the
head off a bat while live on stage, urinating on the Alamo, regularly
drinking animal's blood, and snorting a line of ants and licking up
urine (not his) to prove he was tougher than Motley Crue (he was).
Aside from booze, which fuelled his occasionally violent behaviour,
Ozzy has been addicted to numerous drugs including cocaine and
prescription medication. And then there was the two-year period where
he dropped LSD every day. He also admitted to being stoned the whole
time his reality series The Osbournes was being filmed. Ozzy has
reportedly been sober for a few years now and is something of a
fitness freak, although the long-term substance abuse has left his
brain so fried that his speech is barely comprehendable. Still, it
hasn't stopped him from recently releasing his 10th studio album.
Keith Richards
IT'S been said that when they drop the bomb, only two things will
survive - cockroaches and Keith Richards. The Rolling Stones
guitarist's drug use has certainly been mythologised and exaggerated
(often by Richards himself), but it's given him a reputation as an
unkillable drug-taking machine. His band's early fame was boosted by
a then-unheard of 'bad boy' image in order to pit them as alternative
to The Beatles. Ironically, both bands were taking drugs during the
mid-'60s, but it was The Stones that came under the stern glare of
the police and the press who disapproved of their use of uppers, LSD,
cannabis, amphetamines and hashish (the same drugs The Beatles were
taking). Brian Jones was kicked out of the band for his drug use in
1969, yet strangely Richards never was. Richards was using heroin,
marijuana and cocaine heavily during the recording of their classic
Exile On Main Street in 1970 and his heroin addiction continued
throughout the '70s and '80s, even after he was given a suspended
sentence in Canada in '77 for possession of the drug. It's unknown
when Richards cleaned up (if ever), but it did spawn the lie that he
would regularly get his blood changed at clinic in Switzerland in
order to kick the habit occasionally. He even claimed to have snorted
his dad's ashes mixed with cocaine.
Iggy Pop
THE man born James Osterberg Jr helped redefine what it meant to be a
rock 'n' roll frontman, setting the bar so high few would be able to
top it. But during The Stooges brief but influential existence as the
forebears of punk, Iggy would be so high on heroin that he couldn't
stand up on stage. When he could stand and perform, he was known to
cut himself with glass, smear himself in meat, expose himself on
stage, vomit on the audience, and is also believed to have invented
the stage dive. His heroin addiction became so bad The Stooges broke
up twice because of it and Iggy eventually checked himself into a
mental institution to dry out (although it's rumoured David Bowie
would visit regularly and supply him with cocaine). Pop's addictions
are partially detailed in former Doors manager Danny Sugermen's
autobiography Wonderland Avenue, which documents the excessive and
decadent times when Sugermen was Iggy's manager, housemate and minder
in the post-Stooges '70s. Even at the start of the '80s, Pop still
appeared to be out of his gourd, as demonstrated in a now-famous
appearance on Countdown. It wasn't until the mid-'80s, after more
than a decade of heavy consistent drug abuse of heroin, cocaine and
LSD, that Iggy finally cleaned up. Nowadays his stage performance is
far more sedate but still impressive, while backstage his indulgences
involve fresh ginger-honey-and-lemon tea, yoga, and the occasional
glass of wine.
Red Hot Chili Peppers
HEROIN has long been associated with Californian band Red Hot Chili
Peppers thanks to singer Anthony Kiedis and former guitarists John
Frusciante and Hillel Slovak. The latter died after injecting a
mixture of heroin and cocaine in 1988, which also scared Kiedis into
going into rehab for his own heroin abuse. As detailed in his
fascinatingly hedonistic autobiography Scar Tissue, Kiedis first
tried pot aged 11, cocaine at 13 and heroin at 14 and spent about 15
years on drugs until Slovak's death. Frusciante, Slovak's
replacement, also became a heroin addict, quitting the band in 1992
and effectively becoming a hermit junkie for the next five years. He
lived in squalor, almost died three times (overdose, house fire,
drug-related infection) recorded a couple of solo albums (mostly to
fund his drug use) and finally cleaned up his act enough to return to
the band in time for Californication. Unfortunately, by the time
Frusciante returned, Kiedis had relapsed and was using heroin again.
He eventually cleaned up in 2000 after five years in and out of
rehab, and claims to have been sober ever since. Bass player Flea has
also dabbled with drugs over the years and was apparently stoned on
stage for every gig in the Chili Peppers' early days.
Motley Crue
FEW books capture the high life of rock 'n' roll like Motley Crue's
The Dirt, which details the hair-metal band's discretions, addictions
and predilections in gory detail. From jail time to drug use, the
novel serves as "how not to" guide to being rock stars, with the
band's excess out-stripping their success. Lowlights include Nikki
Sixx's near-fatal heroin overdose, which inspired the song Kickstart
My Heart, Vince Neil's drunk-and-drugged driving which caused the
death of a member of Hanoi Rocks, and the band's managers performing
a group intervention to get all the members off drugs before they all
died. For a band who played songs constantly about sex, drugs and
rock 'n' roll, Motley Crue certainly made sure they knew what they
were talking about. The book is apparently being turned into a movie,
which should be pretty cool, because it's a damned good read.
.
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