The Dark Side Of The Music Industry: Musicians Who Struggled With Hard Drug Use (This Is So Sad)
For many musicians, drugs seem to go hand-in-hand with the industry, especially rock and roll. We have lost so many talented musicians due to drug addiction and overdoses throughout the years that it's hard to keep count. But there are a number of musicians who've fallen deeply into the clutches of addiction and still have managed to survive, despite their rampant drug use and hardcore partying. Some continued to make music, some left the industry behind. Some have changed their lives and cleaned up their act, while others still battle their addiction daily. Here are musicians who have managed to still be alive after consuming an insane amount of drugs throughout their careers.
The Prince Of Darkness' Drug-Fueled Antics
Ozzy Osbourne was fired from his legendary metal band Black Sabbath due to his insane drug use. His career didn't seem to suffer, though, and he went on to become a mega solo star. His crazy drug-fueled antics, like snorting a line of ants when there was no more cocaine, kept him in the headlines. While, for the most part, Ozzy got clean, he showed the world how permanently he was affected by his drug use during the filming of The Osbournes. Ozzy became a caricature of himself, constantly confused, easily startled and always garbling his words.
Red Hot Addiction
Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis was raised in Hollywood by his father, who was a struggling actor and drug dealer. Keidis started smoking weed and snorting cocaine regularly by the age of 12, and when he was 14, he tried heroin for the first time. Despite his continued excessive drug use, he managed to excel in school, until he reached college and his heroin addiction became too strong for him to continue. When he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he and all of his bandmates would use drugs together — their fame further fueling his addiction. But when his guitarist and best friend Hillel Slovak died from an overdose, Keidis had a wake-up call. He's been clean since 2000.
Is Keith Richards Immortal? Maybe
There is a running joke about how it is impossible that Rolling Stone's guitarist Keith Richards is still alive. There were many occasions, usually related to his excessive drug use, in which the legendary rocker should've died. One time someone put strychnine — a highly toxic, colorless, bitter, crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide — in his heroine. He was totally comatose but completely awake, and everyone assumed he was dead. In another event, he recorded the song "Before They Make Me Run" during a five-day studio drug binge with no sleep. In an attempt to rid his body of drugs, Richards underwent a treatment called hemodialysis, which filters the blood, and was left unconscious for days. The man even snorted his dead father's ashes.
Country Crack Head
During one epic binge, country crooner Keith Urban claims he snorted $320,000 worth of cocaine. Once introduced to crack cocaine by a roommate, his addiction got even worse, and he often would not even make it out of his dealer's house before taking a hit. He'd go through binges in which he himself didn't even think he'd make it out alive. He continued to battle addiction for years, until 2006, when his wife, actress Nicole Kidman, staged an intervention. He's supposedly been clean ever since but has stated that it has not been an easy road to sobriety.
Neil Young's 40-Year Relationship
Neil Young spent 40 years of his life drinking and doing drugs before going the sober route in 2011. During his band's farewell tour in 1976, he performed with a giant rock of cocaine stuck in his nostril. Unfortunately the whole performance was documented in a Martin Scorsese film, The Last Waltz, and a special effects team developed what they calleda “traveling booger matte” to hide the rock. Although he has epilepsy and suffered a brain aneurysm in 2005, Young used to smoke marijuana "the way others smoke cigarettes," He eventually decided to see what it was like to live life without drugs, and since hasn't looked back.
The Rocket Man's Rocky Road
Looking back, Sir Elton John states, "I was consumed by cocaine, booze, and who knows what else." He watched friends die from overdoses all around him, yet refused to stop, even overdosing once himself. He'd stayed high for days at a time. He's admitted that if it weren't for continuously touring, he'd just have stayed home and constantly snorted cocaine. Along with his addiction, he battled bulimia and would go on binges of alcohol and coke, starve himself, eat a ton of food, then throw up. Sixteen years into his addiction, he finally got help and has been sober ever since.
Izzy Stradlin Had To Leave Guns N' Roses To Get Clean
While Guns N' Roses original guitarist Izzy Stradlin had said he "was addicted to everything," it was heroin that had the most power over him. When the band took a break from touring, he holed himself up in his apartment and remained high nearly 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He'd stay up for days and hallucinate, once confusing a drawer full of screws and bolts for maggots. On one bender, he was arrested on a flight from Los Angeles to Phoenix for urinating in the aisle. He was put on probation and subjected to random urine tests. This inspired his eventual desire to get clean, which in turn led to his departure of the band.
Aaron Carter Was A Pop Star Gone Bad
It's pretty hard to believe that this was the same Aaron Carter who was a teenage hearthrob in the '90s. The former pop singer, who was the younger brother of Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter, gained a lot of attention for his teenage flings with Lindsey Lohan and Hillary Duff. He then enjoyed a brief music career before disappearing off the map.
Then, in 2017, this photo emerged from an arrest for a DUI and marijuana possession. His gaunt appearance was shocking and led to methamphetamine accusations from the public. Carter denied using meth and even went as far to take a drug test on The Doctors, which he tested positive for marijuana, Benzodiazepines, and hydrocodone. He was in and out of rehab centers and passed away in 2022 at 34-years-old.
Brian Wilson Warms Others About Abusing Psychedelic Drugs
Now in his seventies, Beach Boys' founder Brian Wilson has suffered from mental health issues for years — which he says are the result of all the psychedelic drugs he consumed decades prior. He'd combine heroin, LSD, cocaine, and marijuana on an ongoing basis. At one point, he was hearing voices “saying derogatory things,” telling him he was “over” and that soon he would die. He went on to tell Roling Stone in a 2016 interview that he has "told a lot of people don't take psychedelic drugs. It's mentally dangerous to take. I regret having taken LSD. It's a bad drug." He's been sober now for about four years and has a whole new perspective on life. He even wrote a memoir, and part of its message is to encourage others to stay away from drugs.
Flava Flav Was Spending $2,600 A Day On Drugs
According to rapper Flava Flav, at one point he was spending $2,600 a day, for six years, on cocaine, which comes to a staggering $5,696,600 annually. In 1993 he was arrested for cocaine and marijuana possession, as well as for domestic violence, and went to rehab. After his release, he returned to rehab four years later. He claims he decided to change his life and moved to Hollywood in 2003 to pursue a career in acting. His new desire for fame helped him get clean. But after years of sobriety, Flav relapsed. He was arrested in Las Vegas in 2015, at the age of 56, for driving under the influence of cocaine.
Steven Tyler Snorted Half Of Peru
Steven Tyler began taking drugs at 16. He'd take acid, smoke pot, and go to school... on a regular basis. When he discovered cocaine, that became his drug of choice and claims to have spent around $5 million or $6 million on it in the '70s and '80s. "You could also say I snorted half of Peru," he said in an interview on Australia's 60 Minutes. At one point, the drug ate through the cartilage of his nose, creating a giant hole. It ruined his marriages, and he lost his children. He got sober in the mid-'80s but relapsed multiple times. He later became addicted to pain pills while being treated for Hepatitis C, but then got clean for good in 2006.
Nikki Sixx Was Pronounced Dead
In December 1987, Mötley Crüe guitarist Nikki Sixx was pronounced clinically dead from a heroin overdose. He was revived with a shot of adrenaline injected into his heart. While touring the world, Sixx would shoot up between snorts of cocaine and shots of booze. During Christmas of 1986, Sixx shot up a great deal of cocaine and spent the day naked under the Christmas tree, gripping a shotgun because he thought people were out to go get him. He's been sober for 16 years, and has released a book called The Heroin Diaries which is composed of diary entries during his drug days.
Joe Perry Was One Toxic Twin
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry and Steven Tyler were known as the "Toxic Twins." Together, they'd get so high during a show, that they wouldn't even realize that they played the same song twice. For five or six years, Perry was addicted to heroin, and his life became a string of drug-induced seizures. He was so high during his wedding, he barely recalls parts of it, and the drugs eventually destroyed that marriage. The drugs started to affect the band, and they temporarily called it quits. He got sober in 1983 and has never looked back.
I Don't Like The Drugs But The Drugs Like Me
Marilyn Manson has admitted to experimenting with a variety drugs, including cocaine, acid, morphine, Percocets, and Lorcets. He's even smoked human bones, though whether that qualifies as a drug is still unclear. He claims to have never tried crystal meth or heroin because he's seen too many of his friends die from those drugs. During the recording of Anti-Christ Superstar, Manson had a near mental breakdown, heavily incited by excessive drug use. His drug use also played a factor in both his ex-girlfriend, actress Rose McGowen, and ex-wife, burlesque star Dita Von Teese, leaving him. He doesn't seem to plan to slow down anytime soon.
Shane MacGowan Was A Punk Rock Mess
The late Shane MacGowan, singer for the '80s punk band the Pogues, was a legendary mess. He had his first stint in rehab at 17 for a Valium addiction. He became such a disaster while the band was touring, that they gave him have his own van. Irish singer Sinead O'Connor once called the cops on him when she saw him sniff a line of heroin. In 1991, after he showed up to a show in Japan bloody and barely awake, he was fired from the band, though played a reunion show with them in 2014.
Years of drug and alcohol abuse left MacGown will almost no teeth. He struggled with his addiction and passed away in 2023 at the age of 65.
Steven Adler Stars In Sober House
Guns N' Roses former guitarist Steven Adler has been battling addiction for decades. He was thrown out of his childhood home because of his addictions. After being kicked out of Guns N' Roses, mainly due to his uncontrollable addiction to heroin, he faced a number of legal battles, financial ruin, two heart attacks, multiple suicide attempts, a debilitating stroke, followed by numerous stints in rehab. He went on to star in MTV's Celebrity Rehab and laterSober House, and was arrested during the filming of the latter for a "confrontation." He now claims to have been sober for two years.
Stevie Nick's Psychiatrist Got Her Hooked On Klonopin
Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks was addicted to cocaine, alcohol and Quaaludes, and blacked out and nearly overdosed numerous times. She used to wear a special jewel-encrusted bottle necklace to carry her coke. She'd constantly have nosebleeds, and burned a dime-sized hole in her nose. After going to rehab and kicking her coke habit, Nicks' business managers and friends urged her to go to a specific psychiatrist, who got her hooked on Klonopin. Gaining over 40 pounds at five feet two, she spent eight years addicted to the drug. She's now clean and sober.
From Addict To Legend
At one point, Eric Clapton was spending about $16,000 a week on heroin. During the three years he was addicted to the drug, he stayed home a lot and barely performed. He kicked heroin, only to become addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and once was so messed up during a show, that he performed lying down. Another time he completely passed out on stage. When he finally quit, he had a difficult time making music without the drugs and alcohol, but eventually found his way. He's now been sober for over 30 years.
Almost Too Far Gone
At age 18, John Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, replacing guitarist Hillel Slovak, who had died from a heroin overdose. Frusciante himself then got addicted to heroin and cocaine. He left the band in 1992, lived as a recluse, often squatting in empty buildings. According to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's bassist, Flea, “I didn't think his brain and body could stand up to the amount of drugs he was doing.” When he finally got sober, most of his teeth had rotted away, and he required skin grafts to remove the abscess scars from his skin, which resulted from incorrect heroin and cocaine injections.
Mick Fleetwood's Seven-Mile Long Line
One night while stoned in the studio, Fleetwood Mac tried to calculate how much cocaine drummer Mick Fleetwood had put up his nose. Considering that he'd snorted an eighth of an ounce every day for 20 years, they calculated that it was equivalent to a seven-mile-long line. According to Mick, cocaine was always readily available at their disposal. While on tour, the rationing out of drugs was even listed in the band's tour schedule, and he'd often bully people to give him some of their rations. Mick went bankrupt in 1984, and numerous times after. He eventually got sober and has been for over a decade.
