# Famous junkies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 6, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796 "2005-11-06T16:01:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/1 "2005-11-06T16:01:46Z")
Lenny Bruce, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Belushi, Keith Richards. ---
**Author:** ![Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meaty_Beaty_Big_and_Bouncy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/2 "2005-11-06T16:05:19Z")
Jimmy Page ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/3 "2005-11-06T17:09:46Z")
Sid Vicious ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/4 "2005-11-06T17:18:11Z")
And Nancy Spungeon, although famous only because of her association with Sid. Billie Holiday, Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, William S. Burroughs. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/5 "2005-11-06T17:42:06Z")
Bill Maher had a line about getting down on your knees and thanking drugs every time you look at your record collection. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/6 "2005-11-06T17:45:08Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > Bill Maher had a line about getting down on your knees and thanking drugs every time you look at your record collection. That was Bill _Hicks_, sir – may god rest his bitter, freakin’ hilarious soul. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/7 "2005-11-06T17:46:35Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > That was Bill _Hicks_, sir – may god rest his bitter, freakin’ hilarious soul. Then Maher stole it from him, because I definitely first heard it from Maher. But credit where credit’s due! ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/8 "2005-11-06T17:50:50Z")
Ray Charles ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/9 "2005-11-06T17:59:01Z")
and River Phoenix and Charlie Parker Jerry Garcia Boy George Bela Lugosi Edgar Allen Poe Tom Sizemore James Taylor ---
**Author:** ![Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Meaty\_Beaty\_Big\_and\_Bouncy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meaty_Beaty_Big_and_Bouncy)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/10 "2005-11-06T18:43:03Z")
If I remember correctly, back in the 70s, Eric Clapton got clean and made an album (in that order.) The National Lampoon had a letter from the editor along the lines of (paraphrasing) Dear Sir’s, My last album proves drugs do make you play better. Yours, Eric Clapton Disclaimer: it might not have been Eric Clapton, though that’s what I remember. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/11 "2005-11-06T18:44:14Z")
Rush Limbaugh was strung out on OxyContin, and that’s probably what made him deaf. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/12 "2005-11-06T18:57:42Z")
Louis Armstrong, bigtime (pot, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![feppytweed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/feppytweed/32/4280_2.png) [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/13 "2005-11-06T19:11:23Z")
Hendrix, Chris Farley ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/14 "2005-11-06T19:34:57Z")
Alma Rubens, Wallace Reid, Juanita Hansen . . . ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/15 "2005-11-06T19:42:07Z")
Art Pepper, Bud Powell, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and pretty much every other jazz great of the 1950s. And Aleister Crowley! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/16 "2005-11-06T20:14:26Z")
Sigmund Freud & Sarah Bernhardt (and, if fictional characters count, Sherlock Holmes) were cocaine addicts. Billie Holliday used IV drugs. Hermann Göring was addicted to morphine, heroin, codeine and other narcotics over the years (not all at once). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/17 "2005-11-06T20:18:39Z")
[Evelyn Nesbit](http://evelynnesbit.com/pictures.html), in addition to being considered the world’s first supermodel, was also one of the first celebrity heroin addicts (after kicking morphine and cocaine). Jean Cocteau and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were opium addicts. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/18 "2005-11-06T20:31:49Z")
Stevie Ray Vaughn ---
**Author:** ![DfrntBreign](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@DfrntBreign](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DfrntBreign)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/19 "2005-11-06T20:45:20Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > Lenny Bruce, John Lennon, Eric Clapton, John Belushi, Keith Richards. John Lennon? Are we defining “junkie” as anyone who ever used recreational drugs of any kind? I don’t remember ever hearing of Lennon being an addict. ---
**Author:** ![Talon\_Karrde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Talon\_Karrde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Talon_Karrde)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796/20 "2005-11-06T20:47:30Z")
Johnny Thunders [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-junkies/329796.md?page=2)