Stupid questioin by me: Why are drugs so prevelant in the music industry?

Watching the "Unsung" documentaries, nearly each show has the group's downfall occur because at least one member [[usually more than one) gets addicted to drugs and ruins everything. Saw it on The Sylvers, Ohio Players, and Rose Royce episodes.

Which begs the question: Why? Why use when you have this great job? You don't have to work construction, hang drywall [[done that, won't do it again hopefully), pick weeds in a pea field [[done that, won't ever do it again), work on a belt line at a cannery [[yes, did that ... awful work), and so on. You get to do what you love and that's make music, and many people cheer you on for doing just that!

But if you use, you usually lose, though yeah there are some survivors like The Rolling Stones, and so forth. Those are exceptions to the rule.

I guess I can understand it a little: One, group is poor and struggling. Two, group gets a hit single and starts making lots of dough. Three, group has spare time on their hands. Four, no one told the group what to do with their money instead of blowing it.

It's a deadly formula, but c'mon, not using and being successful in music is 100 million times better than not only those jobs I mentioned, but also better than working behind a desk all day, isn't it?

Sure it is......but there are many schools of thought about this particular subject and I don't know if there is any one answer, but what I do know is that its not culture or entertainment specific, I like to think of it as the human condition. Man has been using some type of sensory enhancement since the beginning, always has, always will. I'm gonna go Dick Clark here....I guess its easy to acquire and it feels good. But I think that anytime you have the wherewithal to acquire too much of a good thing sadly it leads to disastrous results. Tsull there is a lot to talk about here, and I realize that you are talking primarily about illegal drugs, but the legal ones are abused too, and I'll be dammed if modern medicine hasn't benefited from this "condition", in fact experimentation with different substances has saved many a life. Your question isn't stupid , its just another fact of life.

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As you state, people making a lot of money, who don't have nine to five jobs from which they can be fired, and no family they need to support find it easy to obtain drugs. But I think that another factor is involved-creativity. To be creative one has to go inside one's self.

I was in the music business and met a lot of singers and musicians. A lot of them got what they needed to be succesful from within for a while. But then the well ran dry. They looked outside for a way to tap their untapped creativity by seeing things [[The World) in a different way. They had seen this "more intense awareness/sight" while taking certain drugs. So, they turn to those drugs more and more when their creativity is stuck. They also turn to drugs when they are tired and need to be more energetic to get work projects done, or when they are down mentally-to become "inspired".

I am also an artist [[cartoonist and story writer). Many of the fine artists and writers I've met used drugs for the same reasons as the music artists and musicians and songwriters.

I tried some drugs when I was at university in the mid '60s. But, I didn't like losing my faculties, for feeling no better, no more aware than I had been when not under the influence of the drugs. So, I've basically stayed away from them virtually all my life. I think that relaxing, eating healthy food, meditating, observing nature, and observing and appreciating people and animals can all be done without being under the influence of drugs, and the creative person can still create very nice art and music. And not being addicted makes for an easier life.

There is alot of "down" time in entertainment, alot of waiting around, backstage time esp in the 60's & 70's when accomadations wern't so great their was not alot or any amenities backstage...thats why alot of the young artists of the 60's smoked ciggaretes...I know my spelling is terrible, LOL.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned that our stars are leading hard lives. This involves hectic travel schedules, no family life, stressing over how accepted and loved their art is in performances, the people hanging on who are not there for support but for what they can get, etc. How does one dull the senses to all this? The drugs are a buffer from all the stress of circumstances and situations like those above.

Performers have to be UP for every show. Sometimes they have had a hard day [[plenty of spare time to spend drinking / womanising or whatever) OR they are under the weather health wise. BUT when their show starts they instantly have to perform at full throttle ...... hence some turn to substances that help them be UP straight away.
THEN after the show, everyone else goes home to sleep. They are fully charged up with adrenalin but there are few places to go to work it off. Hence downers may be resorted to then they can chill out a lot easier.
..... Lots of top black acts got swish hotel gigs on Miami Beach in the 60's ... but they weren't allowed to party after the show in those establishments. They would be on top dollar for their 4* / 5* hotel performances but then would need somewhere to go to assist their comedown. Most would simply head off to the Sir John Hotel [[a black owned establishment) which had its own show room. There they would jam together long after the booked acts had finished performing, keeping going till dawn broke. Thus having chilled out naturally, they could head off to bed & get some sleep without the assistance of artificial chemical aides.
Of course it never helps when flush drug dealers are out & about in clubs and want to be seen hob-nobbing with the star singers / musicians. They have the ability to offer 'freebies' to quickly get in with the stars.
So such temptations are always on offer.

It's also the case that artists can start to get dispersed by all the attention. They start to get obsessed with being looked at and watched by so many people. Even some of the biggest names in the business get terrible stage fright. Drugs never enhance anything. They always make you stupid. But when you're on that kind of frantic thing where you get paralysed on stage, stuipdity and insensitivity can seem a good thing.

Makes them an easy mark for both illegal and legal drug pushers.

All the reasons stated as to why musicians fall prey to drugs are reasonable. But to keep this in context, I'm sure that there are many more bankers, factory workers, etc. that have fallen to drugs and drinking. The only difference is "entertainers" are in the public eye and all their business is out there. Drugs affect everyone, in every walk of life.

Good point, skool and I'm sure most folks already know this. I think tsull's question is coming from a hope that the artists
he enjoys have led and/or will always lead happy healthy lives and in a perfect world I'd feel the same way. That said,
in this one I've learned a long time ago that many of the people who have been able to bring so much beauty and joy
to a multitude of others have a lot of agony and pain in their own personal lives. Drugs provide their escape however
temporary. Knowing better doesn't neccessarily promise doing better...That's the paradox of life...

Excellent answers by everyone, thanks. I think the availability is certainly there, more so than other professions where the dealers aren't as accessible. I can actually understand why people numb pain, and don't blame those for doing so. Not advocating drug use, but I understand it. I guess in my initial post I'm coming from the job point of view: I can play music or I can do some soul-sucking work. I'll take music. But I understand the black-white decision there isn't so easy.

Also as noted above, many professions are into substance abuse, legal and illegal. Wall Street is one of the worst offenders with cocaine the drug of choice and used very frequently, we just don't hear about it.

It is sad to me that some of these legendary groups had at least a decade or more left of churning out great music and it was flushed away due to substance abuse.

Drugs exist in the music industry for one reason: It's made up of humans. People in the industry do drugs for the same reasons anyone in society, as a whole, does. It's just that some are more able to afford the drugs. Stress, pressure, unhappy life, to "fit in", boredom...

Drugs are bad but Cigarettes are worse

Drugs. A catch all word for substances ranging from nicotine to LSD. Drugs and music have always co-existed from day one to some extent. Bach and Verdi etc ,surely wrote with wine on the side. Jazz and Big Band music are products that exist from social gatherings that involved alcohol use ,[[ballroom to juke joints), the Blues and a little corn liquor , Herbs go way back as well as opiates. Shii ,even the chants of Monks are fueled by wines and beers the brew. Ever had a beer or ale brewed by Monks in the mountains of Belgium? Yeah Boyeee!!!! Upwards of 6 to 10% alcohol content? Drugs are used as creative agents as well as negotiating tools on the same level as cash even today. Drugs were prevelent but not recognized as much in the past as they are today because of the increased social attitudes and knowledge of drugs in modern day society ,from the late 60's up to the present day. The commonality of drugs in society and culture today is a result of the actions of the Culture revolution of the late 60's thru the 70's and the 80's. For example ,the word "Munchies". The generic meaning now means snack ,or something to eat. Originally ,to have "the" MUNCHIES in the 60''s 70's , was a result of smoking a joint ,which if the herb was not doo-doo ,gave you a hell of an appitite. :D

Every era of music has some sort of drug referrence attached to it. With 50's thru mid 60's Bop Jazz ,etc it was Herb and Heroin. Like it or not ,ALL the Jazz Greats , ALL----,shot Dope. I won't even list no names.


60's Soul ,STAX ,CHICAGO ,DETROIT etc , stayed clean until the late ,late 60's ,at least up front.


Some New Funk groups such as the Ohio Players and Funkadelic and Sly were not flagrant about drug use ,but if you were in tune to that issue ,you could tell. That is opposed to the spiritual based EWF , pop/R&B of Kool and the Gang , The Isleys etc ,that didn't have the "drug element attached" in ones perception.

The "Disco" and unfair inclusion of excellent Soul/R&B/Dance tracks era, ,,,,well what can you say. Anything labeled "DISCO" , and that picture the word gives you includes many images ..but one that comes up all the time is ..Drugs .


Rap?/Hip-Hop. Key's, Pounds etc.


Media and those that are "in charge" make drugs prevelent in the industry. Drugs themselves ,are part of the Human Expierence and as such will take a long time to be erradicated from the industry , but first it must be wiped from society ,and that ain't happening no time soon.

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Originally Posted by daddyacey

Drugs themselves ,are part of the Human Expierence and as such will take a long time to be erradicated from the industry , but first it must be wiped from society ,and that ain't happening no time soon. [/B]

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You said it all, Daddy !

Personnally I'm a little embarrassed when preople are talking about "drugs" and put them all in the same bag.

How can you associate weed and heroin ? Here on SDF I think [[I hope so !) that everybody knows that they're different but it's not the case "outside".

Though, we all know...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jy2_zwvMFa4

Dead right, Daddy. And since the medical monopoly started to take over in the thirties it has gotten more people hooked on drugs than any amount of street-corner pushers. They put up fences around schoolyards to keep the ungodly out and hook the kids on psycho drugs via scripts and doctors. The 'authorities' aren't fighting drug abuse, they're just winning the turf war.

If you legalized drugs, it would actually cut crime, the addiction rate would go down, and we would save lots of money that we now spend on arresting, prosecuting, and locking these people up.

Stupid question 2.....are there actually more drug deaths in the music industry nowadays, or are they just reported more often? Drugs have been an issue for a long time, but "back in the day" it was less likely to report [[or mis-state) a cause of death than it is now.


The theory is based on the decling TB death rate, which corresponded with the increase in lung cancer deaths.