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A Forgotten Time: Tales of Rock ‘n’ Roll Excess

A Forgotten Time: Tales of Rock ‘n’ Roll Excess

Ozzy Osbourne

There’s always intrigue, even a fascination if you like when it comes to tales of rock ‘n’ roll excess and the stars with their debauched lifestyles, at the centre of these legends.

Of course, while many are more than likely just elements of the truth or stories that have been embellished over time, like a global version of Chinese whispers, there remains a tantalising mythology surrounding these tales of excess, that if even are close to true, make it a miracle nearly all of these guys made it through.

Many unfortunate souls did not, a quick scan of the members of the infamous 27 club will bear sorry testament to that, and while jumping behind the wheel of a car after a three-day drink and drug binge is just plain moronic, we can’t help but be in awe of the constitutions of some of rock’s wildest characters.

Nine Lives, these guys used them all, and it’s a bloody miracle most of them are still going strong. The following stories come from the musician’s official autobiographies, so in all cases straight from the horse’s mouth.

Lemmy

Legendary Motorhead founder and all-round rock legend Lemmy took rock ‘n’ roll excess to whole new levels during his action-packed life. The man who was once a roadie for Jimi Hendrix and according to his own recollections slept with over 1,000 women, took alcohol consumption and drug taking to epic new heights.

Such was his predisposition for hard liquor, legend has it, he was refused a blood transfusion back in the early eighties after his Doctor determined that his juice was so toxic his body would reject a clean dose and ultimately leave him dead.

And that’s what a bottle of Jack Daniels a day will do you for, yes, Lemmy drank a bottle a day from the age of 30, chained smoked for every waking hour and took copious amounts of drugs. In his later years having finally succumbed to ill health he switched to vodka and orange – for obvious reasons. It’s a miracle in itself he made it to 70.

Ozzy Osbourne

Ah good old Ozzy, he’s taken the mantle of debauched wildman and well and truly run with it, so much so, he probably would’ve eaten everyone else on this list alive, literally. The man who once took acid every day for a year, just to see what would happen, remarkably still walks God’s green earth, how, is a question even science can’t answer.

The fact that he still has a head of long luscious thick locks is even more baffling. Many of Ozzy’s indiscretions led to him being arrested and a disproportionate number of occasions involved his own urinating habits.

The most messed up example of which came when touring with Motley Crue (we’ll get to that bunch of crazy bastards shortly) with whom Ozzy set a bizarre challenge, to lick up one’s own urine. Ozzy led the way before randomly snorting live ants through a straw. Yeah, it doesn’t make any sense, but you try being Ozzy Osbourne.

We personally would’ve shelled out good money to have been present at the White House Dinner when an obliterated Ozzy started screaming incoherently at the 1,800 freaked out guests.

Dave Gahan

Arguably one of the greatest frontmen of all time Dave Gahan’s tales of debauchery are a match for any on this list. During the heady heyday of Depeche Mode’s greatest success, Dave was on a one-man mission to consume all the drugs that were available in the world. And after one particular binge found himself hovering above his lifeless body, as hospital staff and paramedics rushed around to save him.

Gahan claims he watched the whole tragic episode unfold as he screamed out in vain. He was actually dead for a whole two minutes, his heart had completely ceased to carry on beating until miraculously he was revived.

To add a twist to this most legendary tale of excessive living, Gahan awoke to find himself handcuffed to the hospital bed as police read him his rights for possession of heroin and cocaine.

Nikki Sixx

To say Sixx is lucky to be alive would be a gross understatement, in fact, the whole of Motley Crüe must have made some deal with the devil, so inconceivable are some of the debauched tales of excess surrounding their spotlight years.

Car crashes, motorbike accidents, bad trips and shotguns, heroin overdoses are all a day in the life of this raucous mob, and none more so than crazed bassist Nikki Sixx.

Having once claimed to have been hungover for fifteen years, Nikki Sixx lived his life like a walking, talking cliche of the hard living rockstar maniac.

He’s overdosed numerous times before, and on one outrageous occasion was revived in an ambulance with two shots of adrenaline to the heart, Sixx leapt from the vehicle before proceeding to his mates house to take more heroin and pass out, it would take Nikki Sixx to be declared dead, yes officially, before he cleaned up his act.

Steven Adler

Steven Adler

Former Guns N’ Roses drummer Adler certainly knew how to get the party started. Their album Appetite for Destruction could have been titled after Adler’s antics alone with him often leaving a trail of devastation in his wake.

He was always up to some mischief whether breaking his hand in a street fight when swinging and missing and clocking a lamppost, or breaking famous rock and roller’s faces like the night in December 1987 when he, Slash, and Nikki Sixx (yes him again) had spent the night consuming a mountain of cocaine.

Sixx overdosed that night (he had form) and when Adler couldn’t revive him with a cold shower he decided to repeatedly smash the Motley Crüe member in the face with the cast from his broken arm.

You have to be pretty bad to be fired from a band who lived on the edge like Guns, but in May 1990 that’s what happened with Stevie’s persistent heroin and cocaine habit proving too much for his bandmates.

Adler later sued G N’ R for $26 million claiming that they fired him for being a junkie despite introducing him to drugs in the first place.

Al Jourgensen

Chicago based industrial metal pioneers Ministry and their drug-fueled leader Al Jorgensen once spent the $750,000 Warner Brothers gave the band to record what would become their seminal work, Psalm 69, on enough drugs to tranquilize the inhabitants of Jurassic World, they spent the lot, to the point that infuriated record execs had no choice but to double up and give the band the same advance again to get the record made.

The big problem for Ministry was that Jourgensen and the now late guitarist Mikey Scaccia were the creative forces and neither could stand up let alone walk straight, so making music became a challenge.

Despite pulling it off and releasing the album Jourgensen would spend 20 years as a heroin addict, during which time he had his toe amputated after standing on a dirty needle, became lifelong friends with William Burroughs, lived with psychologist Timothy Leary and sold pretty much everything he owned to fund his $500 plus dollar a day habit. Off the charts.

Marc Almond

Soft Cell star Marc Almond might not be the first name you think of when it comes to serious drug use and debauchery but think again. Massive fame in the 80s from hits like Tainted Love brought Almond stacks of cash which he proceeded to spend on drugs, at least £500,000.

He certainly wasn’t shy in the narcotics department admitting to taking crack, ecstasy, cocaine ethyl chloride, MDA, halcion, opium, heroin, LSD, mescaline, purple haze, valium, ketamine, speed and sleeping pills.

The Southport born singer said he spent most of 1982 on acid, that same year Soft Cell hosted a launch party for their album Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. Here there were strippers, dominatrices, prostitutes, pimps and go-go boys. Almond said in his autobiography that everyone was on cocaine, ecstasy, and acid and the record company executives were the only ones with their clothes on.

During his big speech to the crowd that night a worse for wear Marc proceeded to fall off the stage. Almond marks one of his greatest achievements as still being alive, with all the substances he’s ingested over the years we’d have to agree with him.

Slash

Slash onstage

No story of rock ‘n’ roll excess would be complete without Guns ‘N’ Roses guitarist Slash who took so many drugs and drank so much booze in his twenties that at the age of 35 he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and give only weeks to live, however thanks to a defibrillator he’s still with us to this day.

According to author Steven Davis when preparing for the gig to impress and get signed with Geffen Records along with the other band members (bar Axl) Slash got drunk, did heroin and snorted coke, they still got signed and Slash blew his advance on drugs.

Legend has it he had a serious penchant for throwing bottles of Jack Daniels at hotel TVs before getting his bodyguard to break into another room and swap it for another one.

After their 1989 world tour, Guns took a break from performing and as Slash recalls in his autobiography his drug use got out of hand culminating in a bloody, naked run through an Arizona golf resort. After a heroin/cocaine bender, Slash though he was being chased by harpoon carrying “Predators”.

Slash punched through a glass door to try and fight them, then later jumped through it to escape his room. A naked Slash went on to use a hotel maid as a “human shield,” then proceeded to run through the hotel lobby before hiding behind a nearby lawnmower.

Another time saw him smuggle his pet mountain lion Curtis into the Marina Del Rey Four Seasons after his home was left damaged by an earthquake. Slash did hire a bodyguard to stop him taking drugs – hint, it didn’t work.

Steven Tyler

Tales of wild antics and excess surrounding Steven Tyler and his toxic twin bandmate Joe Perry are ten to the dozen. Long before taking his sobering seat on American Idol, this was the man who’s admitted to having spent near enough $6 million on cocaine and has been in and out of rehab more times than he’s had female company, well maybe not.

It’s a bold claim, but Tyler might be the biggest over consumer on the list, such was his appetite for drugs of any and every kind.

Tyler in a drug and alcohol infused daze once suggested to his Aerosmith bandmates they should cover this great song that was playing at a party, it did, of course, turn out to be one of their own,”You See Me Crying”.

Memory loss perils aside, you might want to take a long hard look in the mirror when the Grateful Dead’s very own Jerry Garcia voices his concerns about how much drugs you’re consuming!

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