Über die finstere Allianz zwischen Drogen und Musikern ist schon viel gesagt, geschrieben, diskutiert worden. In den letzten Tagen drangen trotzdem wieder ein paar neue Anekdoten nach draußen:

Aerosmith-Sänger Steven Tyler ist momentan dank seiner Jury-Beteiligung von „American Idol“ momentan wieder in allen US-Zeitungen. In einem Interview erzählt er auch von seiner Drogensucht, mit der er 2009 massiv zu kämpfen hatte – und von den Kosten, die ihm durch die Sucht entstanden:

„I kept my medicine cabinet on stage, in a 14-inch drum head, the bottom of which contained… one Dixie cup (paper cup) with a straw and blow (cocaine) in it and the other with Coca-Cola and Jack Daniels in it. Left to my own devices I probably would have been dead several times over. […] I blew 20 million. I snorted my Porsche, I snorted my plane, I snorted my house in that din of drugs and booze and being lost.“

Slipknot-Bassist Paul Gray starb 2010 an den Folgen seiner Drogensucht. Seine Witwe Brenna Gray schildert seinen Gesundheitszustand während er in Hollywood lebte in düsteren Farben. Erst der Umzug nach Iowa habe es verbessert – leider zu spät:

„He wasn’t doing very well at all. And I really had no idea because I had never been in a situation like that. […] And he worked really hard on his sobriety, and he did really good. And I think it was just getting him out of the “toxic city,” as they say out there, and I know it’s such a cliché, but that’s exactly what it was. […] I felt like if he stayed out there, he would have perished way sooner. I felt like I had a matter of weeks. That’s how bad it was. It was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. I don’t regret for a second leaving Hollywood. Ever.“

Phil Anselmo (ex. Pantera, Down) bleibt hingegen weiterhin ein Legalisierungs-Verfechter beim Thema Cannabis. Allerdings nicht plump und für alle, sondern für Personen, die auch damit umgehen können. An Negativ-Beispiele erinnert er sich in einem aktuellen Interview noch gut genug:

„I’ll never forget a time when I was fifteen years old – my friend and I were both high and he was driving, cruising at about 50mph. There was a red light directly ahead with cars stopped four-deep. He was baked; his mind was drifting and there was no way in hell he was going to stop. I grabbed him and shook him, he slammed on the brakes, and it’s amazing we didn’t drive straight into the cars in front or fly through the windshield.“