I was thinking Jimmy Buffet also…but NEVER did drugs? I don’t think so…
Still, I think we can say he is living a very good life at this point in three quarter time
According to the recent biography of Keith Moon, Roger Daltrey never did drugs and has been married over 30 years. Something of an achievement in that milieu, if true.
Now if they’d just knock it off with the reunions…
Catrandom
Re: the guitarist from Blondie - the disease was an auto-immune skin disease with a very small patient base. He prefers not to talk about it, but the other patients wouldn’t mind if he did. See: www.pemphigus.org
John Denver had at least two DWIs in the 80s. I knew a guy once who claimed that he once worked for a towing company and one on occasion, winched Denver’s car out of a ditch, and it wasn’t because of ice on the road. There’s speculation that Denver had been drinking when he crashed his plane, but I never heard the last word on that.
You know who else is (was?) a big lush, although not a musician? Tom Wilson, who draws Ziggy. For about a month in 1991, my parents, and by extension, me, were living in a ritzy apartment building in Cleveland. Then my dad’s project ended and we were back to obscurity. Anyway, there was a bar downstairs, and having just turned 21 and being gainfully employed, I spent most of my off-hours there. The bartender told me that Wilson used to live there, and would come in regularly and drink till he fell off his chair.
Warren Zevon, my idol and guru, is also one of those musicians who overcame addiction and yadda yadda, but his case is just a bit different. First, I don’t see him being a subject of BTM because he’s neither popular enough nor cheesy enough, and secondly, he was one of the first artists to be open about addiction and detox. It wasn’t fashionable when he did it, and back then, we hadn’t seen people relapse over and over, so when someone said, “I will drink no more forever,” you believed them. Of course, if you want to blame Warren for the “Behind the Music Syndrome”, go right ahead.
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Frank Zappa is proof that for some people mind-altering drugs would just be redundant.
Of course, I’m not sure your comments aren’t ironic. When Zappa hosted SNL, there was a skit where Dan Aykroyd and Lorraine Newman played stoned hippies who kept asking Zappa the same kind of things you did. (“So dude, you did Uncle Meat when you were straight?”)
Of course if you want some really different music, check out Captain Beefheart aka Don Van Vliet. The Captain worked briefly with Zappa but they broke up. Beefheart said that Zappa was holding him back because Zappa’s ideas on music were too conventional.
Canthearya–I shit you not. Frank just liked interesting names.
Here’s a bit of info on the activities of the Zappa siblings:
Dweezil–singer, songwriter, actor. Appeared in “Pretty in Pink”, and was the voice of Ajax on “Duckman”. Was co-hosting with brother Ahmet a show called “Happy Hour” on USA.
Ahmet–also acts. Made appearances on “Roseanne”, and hosts a seriously demented gameshow on MTV.
Moon Unit–parlayed her appearance on Poppa Frank’s single “Valley Girl” into a career. Some acting, including appearances on “Roseanne” and “Party of Five.”
Diva–the youngest and least-know Zappa. Some acting, including a recent appearance on “Felicity.”
>>I was thinking Jimmy Buffet also…but NEVER did drugs? I don’t think so…>>
May I quote a couple of lyrics, please?
“I’ve done bit of smuggling, I’ve done my share of grass. I’ve made enough money to buy Miami but I pissed it away so fast.” From “A Pirate Looks at Forty”
“…tow the last ton, one step ahead of the jailer.” From “Son of a Sailor”
He also calls his band The Coral REEFERS, for Pete’s sake!
Yeah, I’d say Mr. Buffett has had a few puffs of the weed in his day, but I don’t think he’s ever gotten into harder drugs.
Because, of course, all song lyrics are completely authentic biographical facts about the life of the singer.
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“We are here! You are saved!” --R. & F.