Drug Abuse In Music

Let me draw some background for you...
I live in the second biggest town in France, and I have been a pro musician for close to 3 years now... I haven't been gigging a lot in those 3 years, since I did all those studio sessions and teaching (private and in school).

But I missed gigging, so I decided to go back to one of the very few Pub in my town where there are jams, to maybe hook up with some guys and form a band...
And I had forgotten the kind of people you could find there. I met some guys who had had some kind of success but had split up because of the heroin addiction of their drummer and bassist... Pretty much everyone was smoking majijuana, and lots of people where too drunk to actually listen to the music (which by the way kind of sucked, because everyone was struggling only to stay on their feet)

Now this pub is in the part of the town where artists meet, and I guess pretty much everyone there had some income due to music, or painting, or dancing, or visual art... But seeing them actually destroying themselves from within just disgusted me, and I remembered it was the thing that made me stop gigging...

What do you think of all those substances? Do you think that you have to use them to be creative? Do you actually use them? Do you play better after a drink or a joint? Let's have this debate...

I feel a joint is ok--ONLY if you can still play> I feel pot can enhance music--mainly listening to it.
I feel drinking and playing DO NOT MIX. You cant do both and play well. Any other form of drugs is harmfull and will kill you eventually so I have no need be around anyone who dose that ****.

Good topic lal.

Well I don't there's any argument that herion and cocaine and incredibly destructive substances that will seriously mess you over in time. Look at James Taylor for one, but there have been countless others I'm sure.

Alchohal can be bad and can lead to very serious problems (footnote: see Dave Crosby). I guess that too much while playing can limit your playing ability. Take Slash for example: awesome player in my opinion, I love him. But he's notorious for going on stage drunk and as a result he plays really sloppy.

Marijuana... whatever. If you do it fine, if not fine. It depends on what you're doing with your music I think. If you're a serious musician who needs to practice seriously for four hours a day that stay away from anything that will alter your mind. But if you're more of a creative song writer then maybe you can get away with it. Look at Dylan, the Beatles (well, practically all those 60s artists- actually I'd hazard to say almost ALL artists regardless of time period).

Anything in excess is going to stifle you in the long run I think.

Well, if you're a little nervous before a gig some booze can't hurt... I'm not saying you have to drink a whole bottle of some cheap ass Wiskey, but a _few_ beers can't hurt imho.
On the contrairy drugs shouldn't be used. Yes, some artist had made some well know pieces of art/music, whatever. But, lets face it, I've never seen some one on influence making a rembrandt masterpiece or a mozart concerto suite.

It's pretty sad for you Lalimacefolle, but it can't be the place was full of that kind of people ? Maybe you're looking at the wrong place ?

It's just my opinion, but then again you don't have to listen to a drunk like me :)

My opinion if this:
If it interferes with your playing, then you're going too far.

Drunk, stoned stupid, or drooling on yourself because you injected Heroin into your arm; you're equally useless on stage. I also think that taking something to get over nerves is a bad thing - you're creating a dependance you don't need and ultemately crippling yourself in the long run. That isn't to say I won't have a drink or maybe two before I go on and nurse a drink per set (because I do), but it's not because of nerves.

I myself try and stay away from anything I don't think I could quit at any time I wanted.

Originally posted by Gulder
It's pretty sad for you Lalimacefolle, but it can't be the place was full of that kind of people ? Maybe you're looking at the wrong place ?

Well, I guess it's trendy in my town to be an addict and a musician :D

I think drugs are for losers. If you need it to be creative, it's even more sad.

Personally the 'high' I get from playing live is sufficient to enjoy it.

my old man was a drunk my freinds were junkies, and none of them were nice people when high, if you cant get high on life forget it, and i dont mean dont drink or smoke but every time i get together with the guitar playing fraternity, becouse of booze or drugs not one of them ever finishes or gets close to finishing a song, ten or so guys sitting around all playing different riffs, so for me drugs booze and music dont mix.

That's my point I.s., I think that taking drugs is a very selfish move, and since music is there to communicate, it seems to me they are totally in opposition...

It was long enough ago that I can talk rationally about it now. Over a period of a few years, I tried just about everything but heroin, and since then I've stopped using anything but alcohol. Even that is way down from my 20's. And I haven't had a cigarette in years.

I never could play worth a damn while I was stoned. All it was good for was parking myself on my butt and listening to someone else's music! Having artistic inclinations makes musicians particularly 'at risk' of addiction to drugs that seem to enhance the effects of music. That's sad, because it will definitely destroy your creativity, and trash out the rest of your life while its at it.

Contrary to an aquaintance's assumption, when I visit my old hometown, I don't hang out with the old friends I used to party with. Most of 'em pretty much stopped growing, in any sense of the term, about 30 years ago. Quite a few of them are dead.

I read David Crosby's autobiography a while ago. He nearly died from free-basing cocaine. That's why he had to have a liver transplant. The one comment he made that stuck with me went something like this...

"Our parents, and various authority figures, all lied to us about so many things, including the effects of marijuana. But they were right about one thing. It does lead to other, more dangerous drugs."

There used to be a saying among dealers... "The first one's free... The rest you pay for." 'Not true: you pay for all of them, one way or another!

Laying in that plastic bed thinking how things were so cool to me
My baby likes to shoot pool
I like laying naked in my bedroom
tieing off that dinosaur tonight
Used to be so cool

But now I've got that needle
and I can't change
But I can't breathe
Take it away and I want more and more

One day I'm going to lose the war...

Pool Shark - Bradley Noel

[Edited by Raskolnikov on 03-04-2002 at 09:51 PM]

yea shootin up is crazy

Drugs and Music, the undertakers best moneymaker, let's take a moment to reflect on all the positive things drugs have done for music, well that didn't take long did it. All the wasted lives over the years, but still the sex, drugs and rock&roll image is glamorized, will we ever learn?

Originally posted by pstring
...but still the sex, drugs and rock&roll image is glamorized, will we ever learn?

Rock'n'Roll has always been about sex (that's the original meaning of the phrase!), and about young people rebelling against their parents by doing things that piss 'em off. You just can't piss 'em off any worse than by turning into a druggie!

Yeah, I know, I've been down that dead end road too, to my own shame!

This is a really interesting debate..... From my own personal knowledge drugs are a waste of time. whoevers on them more and likely is just losing money , time and people they care about. The hard part with drugs isnt starting or being on them its when people quit using is when it gets hard. haveing to open your eyes for the first time and realize the only way to quit is to change everything in your life. That includes telling all of your friends they are no longer welcomed around. Eventhough your at a time were you could use a friend but there is no one around. Anyways thats my thoughts and experiences.

As for if it makes a person more creative or not Ill leave you with this. Nostradamus and Edger Alen Poe both took acid, Beatles and verious other groups of that time definite pot heads, Eric clapton Coke Monkey, and who can forget Jimmy Hendrix who knows what he was shooting into that mellon of his. All definetly talented but did the drugs induce a different form of creativity?? :confused:

That's the problem with drugs. I'm totally against them (all drugs, including booze and tobacco, which is definitely one of the most addicting and dangerous one, but it's another debate) but when I hear those guys talking about their trips, I wish I could try one but without the addiction and the side effects. Vai wrote a song about a bad trip he had (somebody slipped a pill in his drink, that's what he says, but I guess he was curious, just like me)and several Hendrix's effects were inspired by what he heard in those trips, and he tried to recreate them when he was clean...

The hardest drug I've ever done is nicotine(or alcohol,if alcohol is the harder one,I dunno).And I've been in enuff situations with my cousins and friends(none of them musically inclined)getting stoned,but I just get the joint and pass it on.My curiosity(and I got quite some)hasn't allowed me to do these things;I already know they're harmful,so why bother "testing"?It's already been tested,proven and documented for me.
I finished some end-of-semester exams the other day.Now,every time after exams,we really(and I mean really)get drunk.But this time I was feeling down;the exams didn't go well for me,plus lately I've been thinking a lot about this whole "higher" education thing(I finished high school b4 my eighteenth bday,two weeks ago I turned 23,and I dont feel like i have anything to show for these 5 years).So I was a bit down.I didn't drink at all.You see,I dont drink to get happy,I drink coz I'm already feeling happy.
I dont think getting high helps your music.You cant be true to your heart when the faculties that get you to what is in your heart are impaired.

This is a good debat, I like hearing sober musicians are out there, and the trend to be a walking corpse is coming to a close. "..it increases the desire, but ruins the performance..";some quote out of a shakespear play, the character was commenting on wine.
How about shamanism...they used drugs to learn about the spirit world- however they didn't use for pleasure or abuse the substances.

Was Hendrix a modern day shamin-altering his "reciever" with substances to "tune" into things out of ordinary bandwidth?

I am sober...now...after a long road of delusion.
The hardest thing...giving up cigarettes,...especially durring playing

sex, drugs and rock and roll? or is it the other way around rock and roll then sex then drugs =) unfortunately the rock and roll is what killed em first and thier weakness to abstane. In my experience I have noticed that in most cases where do you play? well bars, parties and such when you start, and there is always a PARTY and if you are happenin your invited. Alot of times these musicians where not junkies or alcoholics when they started but unfortunately for the music business it seems to be a givin that most will suffer some abuse of a substance etc. The point is there is a wave of fresh new musician who do abstane these days and get rest before big gigs and perform well. It is a PARTY carreer in many aspects. And drugs and booze and sex are senonimous (spelling ack) I am glad to hear more and more are finding thier creativity elswhere and not falling in the pits. Think I heard it in a 311 song "I'm high on life there are so many trips in it." or something like that. (sorry if I mis quoted but....)by the way the sex part is ok for the most part unless you break something and believe me it is handed out like candy if you ROCK =)