Amy Winehouse. She's such a controversial figure today, people always going on about whether or not she actually has talent or whether she's just a media-hyped crackwhore who has the hair of a dozen or so Russian homeless girls on her head. Personally, I love her music, and I love her voice. And so what if she's on drugs? She still makes good music, and it's nobody's business but her own. I think the media has done enough already to prevent her from becoming a role model, so it's not the children we're worrying about. Considering that most great musicians had a downwards spiral at some point or another, Amy really shouldn't be "open-fire bitching" material. As my friend put it, "Amy Winehouse is a much better crackwhore than Lindsay Lohan."
Timothy Leary. Who could forget Timothy Leary? The most renowned LSD prophet, Leary first started out as being a professor at Harvard University before getting kicked out for preaching psychedelics to his students. He was essentially the cold to Ken Kesey's hot; whilst Kesey preached the good word of LSD using massive parties (known as the "acid tests") Leary preferred to give LSD to people in a more relaxed environment on his estate where the users could walk around the gardens, relax and meditate. Leary died in 1995 from prostate cancer.
Russell Brand. So he's off drugs now, and practicing the religion of Hare Krishna which has a strict no alcohol, no drugs rule but who could forget the old heroin-fueled Russell that came into work dressed as Osama Bin Laden the day after the September 11th attacks, and subsequently got fired? Not me, and not anyone else. But the sober Russell Brand is just as good, if not better than the drugged up one. A sober Brand is better than an over-dosed Brand, that's what I always say.
Pete Doherty. The infamous lead singer of Babyshambles, and formerly The Libertines, Pete Doherty is renowned for being a crack cocaine and heroin addict. He's been arrested multiple times for it, and has been in rehab a couple of times, but has still managed to relapse into his old ways. Not only that but he had an implant fitted to block the body's opiate receptors, an extreme resort to stop his heroin addiction. Still, as his manager Andy Boyd once implied in an interview with the Daily Mail, all this did was cause Doherty to replace heroin with another drug. What a mess, but good music he does make. And I typed that out strangely.
Nikki Sixx. You know, because he over-dosed on heroin, then got better and wrote a kickass song about it. Now that's class. And even before that, Sixx overdosed in London at a dealers house causing his dealer to apparentely try to "beat the life back into him" with a baseball bat then throw him in the dumpster. Sounds like the most fun you can have without taking your pants off. Sixx has been sober since 2004.
Keith Richards. You got to commend this guy for still being alive. That's some serious skill right there. This life thing, it's hard to do when you've spent the majority of your life snorting coke and shooting heroin, but ol' Keith Richards held his head up high and he said "Fuck it, I'm riding this train to the end" and his fathers ashes he did snort, and a tree he did fall out of, but it was all in good taste, and he's all better now anyway. Of snorting his fathers ashes (and having reported to have mixed it with cocaine) Richards said, "I said I'd chopped him up like cocaine, not with. I opened his box up and ... out comes a bit of dad on the dining room table. I'm going, 'I can't use a brush and dustpan for this." Did I mention he may be crazy? He may be crazy.
Johnny Thunders. Thunders was a member of the New York Dolls, a prominent band on the New York scene in the early seventies managed by Malcolm McLaren who was to later go on and manage the sex pistols. After the break up of the New York Dolls, Thunders formed the band The Heartbreakers, and later on started performing in a band called Gang War. He then went on to pursue a solo career. Thunders was most notably known for his excessive heroin use, and it is believed his addiction was the reason he was kicked out of the New York Dolls, which consequently caused it's break up. It was initially believed that Thunders death in 1991 was caused by a heroin over-dose, but it was later revealed that the levels of drugs found in his system was not fatal, and that he had mostly been on methadone at the time, in order to tame his heroin addiction. Not only that but the rigor mortis had his body in an unnatural 'U' shape and his house had been completely ransacked and robbed of passports and clothes and other possessions. What a mystery.
Janis Joplin. After arriving in California and becoming popular in clubs, Joplin's amphetamine use and alcohol abuse reached a whole new level. Later on in her career she started to turn to heroin and all other her other substances she abused became even more of a problem, too. In 1969, Joplin quit drugs and seemed altogether more happier yet in October 1970 Joplin was found dead, following an over-dose of heroin, combined with alcohol. The album Pearl was released after her death and became the biggest selling record of her career.
Iggy Pop. Known as the "grandfather of punk" Iggy was the lead singer of the Stooges during the late 60's and early 70's and became famous for his outrageous stage performances where Iggy would self-mutilate (including rolling around in broken glass), verbally abuse the audience (and occasionally throw up on them), and expose himself (penis!). Iggy's growing heroin addiction led to the break up of The Stooges in 1971 and later on Iggy checked himself into a mental institution to try and overcome his addiction, though it was believed that David Bowie, who was one of Iggy's regular visitors, would sometimes smuggle in cocaine for Iggy. His drug habit continued afterwards, but went in and out of varied intensities. In 1984 Iggy took a three year break from his career in which he took the time to overcome his heroin addiction. Iggy Pop still continues his career today as a recording and performing artist.
Hunter S. Thompson. It's no secret that Thompson liked his drugs, as is proven in the 1972 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where Thompson (under the alias "Raoul Duke") and his attourney go on a massive drug binge whilst covering a story for Rolling Stone in Las Vegas. In the book, Gonzo, an autobiography of Thompson's life, he was described as nearly always being on something or another-- either drugs or alcohol. Most of the people who knew him wondered how on earth he managed to live the way he did, which was basically everything in excess. It was reported that Thompson wrote the whole second half of Hells Angels in one night, on cocaine. And later on during Nixon's resignation he reportedly told Rolling Stone he couldn't write their story on Nixon because he didn't have any cocaine. Hunter S. Thompson died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot to the head, left with the suicide note: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt." Hunter S. Thompson was a legend.Other people that deserve a mention include; Aldous Huxley, Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, Syd Barrett, Jimi Hendrix, Slash, Jerry Garcia and William S. Burroughs.
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