# Musicians on Heroin **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2008, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878 "2008-02-23T20:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/61 "2008-02-25T20:23:47Z")
[QUOTE=dmatsch] I’ve never been on H, but I would imagine it’s like being drunk X 100. And I know that when I’m that drunk, I can barely function let alone sing coherently and jump around on stage. [/QUOTE] I had a big dose of morphine at hospital, which is essentially the same high. It was just pure pleasure, and a feeling of incredible contentedness and well-being, but I could function fairly well, hold a conversation (albeit slowly), and would have been able to play guitar if there had been one there - and if I hadn’t been in agony from a twisted intestine. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/62 "2008-02-25T20:35:09Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] Hugh Cornwell of the Stranglers (there’s another name for the list) wrote a book, _Inside Information_, about his experience in prison after being convicted for heroin possession. In the book he describes the heroin high as one that makes you feel great, but still lets you focus on your work. [/QUOTE] I have tasted smack via skin popping a couple of times, and that pretty much describes my experience. I can’t say it was anything like alchohol, and definately not like pot. It was so good that I felt the pull and ran away from it. I could concentrate on what I was doing, but everything else would kinda fade away. It was extremely pleasant. If you/ve seen _Pulp Fiction_, Travolta’s depiction was, for me, pretty much what it was like. I do believe that some artists, sometimes, were more creative when stoned. At first, at least. Graduating to junkie status is a different story. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/63 "2008-02-25T20:36:47Z")
[QUOTE=jjimm] I had a big dose of morphine at hospital, which is essentially the same high. It was just pure pleasure, and a feeling of incredible contentedness and well-being, but I could function fairly well, hold a conversation (albeit slowly), and would have been able to play guitar if there had been one there - and if I hadn’t been in agony from a twisted intestine. [/QUOTE] Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![El\_DeLuxo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_deluxo/32/9043_2.png) [@El\_DeLuxo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_DeLuxo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/64 "2008-02-25T20:43:13Z")
[QUOTE=dmatsch] What I would like to know is how they did their jobs so well. I’ve never been on H, but I would imagine it’s like being drunk X 100. And I know that when I’m that drunk, I can barely function let alone sing coherently and jump around on stage. I’m not saying that some of the individuals listed above were known to flounder onstage due to various stages of inibriation, I’m just wondering how they did it all fucked up? [/QUOTE] The effects of heroin or other major narcotics aren’t similar to those of alcohol much at all, really, except either one can cause the user to fall deeply asleep. Opiate habitues are quite often capable of maintaining and scraping by in a way that few real serious drunks can manage, FWIW, and for example,there’s this old friend of mine, let’s call him Mad-Dawg Jim, who’s a pretty ace poet, songwriter and player of blues and hard-rock guitar, of long standing and fierce talent, (though not much wealth nor fame). For the first dozen years I knew Mad-Dawg, he was also a drunk of some note. Later on his health started going downhill fast and so he detoxed, got away from the sauce…and promptly became a junkie, a change most of his friends didn’t disapprove of, because it is a lot less damaging to one’s health, and if Jim had kept on poundin’ the lush, he’d have been dead within a year. To get to what you were asking about, **Dmatsch** : Anyone who’s heard this man Jim’s guitar playing much over the years would notice how much his whole way of axe-handling changed once he set down the bottle – he used to have sort of a crazed, reckless uninhibited style; now he plays with a lot more precision and nuance, and nowhere near as sloppy around the edges. Whether this is due more to laying down the bottle, his learning a new habit with its accompanying headspace, or a combination of the two, nobody can say, not even the man himself. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/65 "2008-02-26T01:03:21Z")
“Clean” heroin, that is with trash cut (mixed) in and used with some moderation, isn’t all that detrimental to one’s health. Not good, but not all that bad either. A friend, the guy who give me the taste referred to above, was a long-time casual user. He was a non-drinker. Didn’t like the payback from alchohol. I might sound loke I’m advocating the use of heroin. Not true, I’m just saying. I believe in being truthful is all. From my experience (not personal) alchohol is one of the worse drugs, right up there with meth. But slower. I feel that pot is beneficial to a lot of people, and does aid many artists. Look at Willie Nelson! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/66 "2008-02-26T01:35:16Z")
[QUOTE=WordMan] If that is the case - and creating art is all about trusting your ego enough to allow it to shape your artistic expression - then I can easily see how seductive it would be to an artist who is normally wracked by insecurity and fear of rejection and mediocrity. Take the heroin, believe your ego is supreme and your artistic statements are worthy and off you go. For a mediocre artist, it may not work, but for a true artist who is caged by their own self-doubt, it might open a door. [/QUOTE] You’re right. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/67 "2008-02-26T02:14:20Z")
A couple more to add: Brian Wilson Dennis Wilson See “Heroes And Villains” by Steven Gaines for particularly nasty details. ---
**Author:** ![8675309](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/8/ea5d25/32.png) [@8675309](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/8675309)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/68 "2008-02-26T02:59:36Z")
Billie Holiday Charlie “Bird” Parker ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/69 "2008-02-26T14:49:17Z")
[QUOTE=fishbicycle] A couple more to add: Brian Wilson Dennis Wilson See “Heroes And Villains” by Steven Gaines for particularly nasty details. [/QUOTE] You know, Brian Wilson did every drug known to exist, but Dennis Wilson was more of an alcoholic and Carl Wilson smoked like a chimney. So who is the only one still alive? ---
**Author:** ![dmatsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@dmatsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmatsch)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/70 "2008-02-26T16:37:52Z")
[QUOTE=DLuxN8R-13] The effects of heroin or other major narcotics aren’t similar to those of alcohol much at all, really, except either one can cause the user to fall deeply asleep. Opiate habitues are quite often capable of maintaining and scraping by in a way that few real serious drunks can manage… [/QUOTE] That’s very interesting. No wonder it’s such a dangerous drug. Thanks all for the info. That’s a question that’s been eating me for some time now. I feel the ignorance leaving my being. ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/71 "2008-02-26T17:23:24Z")
[QUOTE=Talon Karrde] Elliot Smith- the song [Needle in the Hay](http://www.sweetadeline.net/lhay.html) is about using heroin, although I guess it might not be based on personal experience, like what I said about Lou Reed above. I’m thinking it probably was though. [/QUOTE] Elliott Smith was most definitely using heroin during the latter part of his career, as well as a variety of other hard drugs. You just have to look at recordings of live performances from the last couple of years of his life to see it… he was often so far gone that he’d forget his own lyrics. He also more or less admitted to it in at least one other song besides “Needle” (“True Love”), and it’s not a secret that he spent some time in rehab shortly before his death (not that the two events are related). Another name I haven’t seen listed so far is Trent Reznor. He’s been fairly open about his addiction to heroin and subsequent recovery, not that anyone listening to NIN would’ve had much doubt about what most of “Downward Spiral” was about. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2008, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878/72 "2008-02-26T19:47:47Z")
Wow, nobody has mentioned the Ramones yet? Or Al Jourgensen from Ministry? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/musicians-on-heroin/438878.md?page=3)