bluesteyes
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2016
- Messages
- 126
As many people know, The Who's Pete Townshend is a recovering alcoholic and drug addict. Apart from smoking some weed and doing some LSD in the 1960's, he really wasn't much a drug user until the early 80's, although he had been a raging alcoholic throughout the 60's and 70's. The drug thing started in 1980 when got introduced to cocaine in New York by some friends. At the time he was estranged from his family, was having money problems, and just felt horribly guilty about the death of Keith Moon and the disastrous Cincinnati concert in 1979 that killed several Who fans. He then got into free basing, and his drinking got to the point where he was blacking out constantly. The song "Cache Cache" from the 1981 Who album "Face Dances" refers to a true story of him blacking out in a bear pit at a zoo. He wasn't discovered until the next day. He still doesn't know how he climbed the fence to get in.
At a certain point in 1981 he knew he had to stop drinking or he was going to die, but like so many addicts, he exchanged one habit for another one. His drug use escalated. A doctor prescribed him Ativan, which he became severely addicted to, and then he started using heroin. He just couldn't stand the sensation of not being drunk. In September 1981 Pete suffered a severe heroin OD in a London club that almost killed him. He bottomed out at around Christmas 1981, and he decided to fly to California and seek treatment from Meg Patterson, the Scottish physician who is known for pioneering the use of NeuroElectric Therapy (NET) for opiate and other addictions. What's interesting about the NET "black box" is that I believe Pete introduced Patterson's work to Eric Clapton and Keith Richards when they were trying to get off of dope several years before Pete developed his habit.
The interview goes into great detail about NET and how it was used during his rehab in California in January 1982. Pete also discusses how he got into dope and a number of things related to his addiction and the havoc it caused in his life. Fortunately, he had a happy ending. Although he had a brief relapse with booze in the early 1990's, Pete has been clean and sober for many years, and has donated countless money and volunteer hours to drug rehab centers and programs.
In a mid-1980's interview Pete once told a reporter that: "Heroin, when you first use it, gives you a really wonderful feeling. In fact the feeling is so dang good that everything else I say about it you will just completely ignore." This was around the time that Nancy Reagan was strutting around with her "just say no" campaign. He felt the "just say no" campaign was completely dishonest. Kids need to be told the truth about any new drug they are about to take. He feels that a lot of people's interest in harder drugs as they moved from the 60's into the 70's was fueled by all of the lies that authority figures had told people of his generation about weed, LSD, peyote and other "softer" popular drugs that were commonly ingested in the 60's.
Anyway, here is the interview. Thought some posters might be interested in reading it:
http://altered-states.net/barry/update160/petetownsend.htm
At a certain point in 1981 he knew he had to stop drinking or he was going to die, but like so many addicts, he exchanged one habit for another one. His drug use escalated. A doctor prescribed him Ativan, which he became severely addicted to, and then he started using heroin. He just couldn't stand the sensation of not being drunk. In September 1981 Pete suffered a severe heroin OD in a London club that almost killed him. He bottomed out at around Christmas 1981, and he decided to fly to California and seek treatment from Meg Patterson, the Scottish physician who is known for pioneering the use of NeuroElectric Therapy (NET) for opiate and other addictions. What's interesting about the NET "black box" is that I believe Pete introduced Patterson's work to Eric Clapton and Keith Richards when they were trying to get off of dope several years before Pete developed his habit.
The interview goes into great detail about NET and how it was used during his rehab in California in January 1982. Pete also discusses how he got into dope and a number of things related to his addiction and the havoc it caused in his life. Fortunately, he had a happy ending. Although he had a brief relapse with booze in the early 1990's, Pete has been clean and sober for many years, and has donated countless money and volunteer hours to drug rehab centers and programs.
In a mid-1980's interview Pete once told a reporter that: "Heroin, when you first use it, gives you a really wonderful feeling. In fact the feeling is so dang good that everything else I say about it you will just completely ignore." This was around the time that Nancy Reagan was strutting around with her "just say no" campaign. He felt the "just say no" campaign was completely dishonest. Kids need to be told the truth about any new drug they are about to take. He feels that a lot of people's interest in harder drugs as they moved from the 60's into the 70's was fueled by all of the lies that authority figures had told people of his generation about weed, LSD, peyote and other "softer" popular drugs that were commonly ingested in the 60's.
Anyway, here is the interview. Thought some posters might be interested in reading it:
http://altered-states.net/barry/update160/petetownsend.htm
Last edited:
