Bowie used to sell Sly Stone cocaine. He was a hard-core user.
Stevie Nicks has been relatively open about how bad her cocaine addiction got.
Nikki Sixx
She was the first one who came to my mind. She was also addicted to Klonopin. I read one of Mick’s autobiographies (I don’t recommend it, blech) and he may not admit it outright, but he was addicted as well. The entire band indulged heavily and it fueled all their drama during the Rumours era.
Steven Tyler (and the rest of Aerosmith?)
Whoosh.
Nikki Sixx crossed over the abyss and came back.
Oh hell yes. I remember seeing his interview where he admitted to overdosing on heroin, waking up in the ER, signing himself out and going back home to do more heroin :eek:
You can probably put all of Motley Crue on the list, although Vince doesn’t seem to be done destructing yet.
I finally read the group autobiography “The Dirt”, which came out ca. 2000, a few years ago. It was one of the saddest books I have ever read, and it was really, really obvious to me that Vince and Nikki were horribly abused as children.
Just curious - who is she? You can PM me if you don’t want to post it here.
Paul McCartney, of all people, apparently came close to a nervous breakdown and was severely depressed/alcoholic shortly after the Beatles broke up (around the time the McCartney album was recorded). He himself has said that he almost became a “rock ‘n’ roll casualty”.
AFAIK, no member of R.E.M. has ever been to rehab, but Michael Stipe had a mental breakdown in the mid 1980s which was almost certainly catalyzed by drugs. He’s also admitted that around that time, he had an eating disorder, although I don’t think he’s ever revealed the exact nature to the public.
Courtney Love. She is doing well these days. Put out some new music this year, was in a musical, a few tv shows, and has a movie in the works.
Keef.
Pete Townshend was in a bad way in the early 80s. He said this about his habits in an interview in Penthouse:
…and that didn’t count his daily bottle (or more) of brandy.
Speaking of Courtney Love. Just watched a documentary on Netflix called “Soaked in Bleach”. It discusses the details around Kurt Cobain’s death. It’s hard for me not to see her as one guilty bitch now.
Does Brian Wilson count?
(Just saw Love & Mercy recently. Great movie.)
His book The Heroin Diaries details a lot of it too. I couldn’t put it down. Terrifying as well as fascinating what people put themselves through.
Phil Collen of Def Leppard could be added to such a list. He had quite the drinking problem in the 80s, similar to the one that took the life of his band mate Steve Clark. He instead quit drinking (has been sober now for probably 20+ years) became a vegetarian and is seriously into exercise and taking care of himself.
Ringo’s problems, mostly with alcohol, were (are?) a lot worse than was publicly known. He claims to have been sober for years. He and wife Barbara Bach went into rehab in 1988; not much information about the intervening years is available.
Dave Mustaine has been in and out of rehab dozens of times, mostly for heroin…last I heard he’s rehabbing with Jesus.