Fact #74174
When:
Short story:
Face Dances by The Who is certified as a platinum album by the R.I.A.A. in the USA, but the band's leader, Pete Townshend, is at an all-time low.
Full article:
Pete Townshend : Everything got increasingly worse until about June or July of 1981, when I was making my second solo album. I had to stop making it, because I literally couldn't work. I was becoming exhausted through being in a recording studio.
This really got to me, because rock 'n' roll should be all fun, all pleasure. There's quite a lot of guff talked about the pressures and the rigors of the road, but if people don't like it they shouldn't do it. It's not happiness that you're seeking. It's pleasure. Pleasure through music, highs, euphoric feelings - all these extremes. I couldn't stand this fucking feeling of being wrecked all the time, and feeling that I was going to be sick.
I went to this doctor and he prescribed some sleeping tablets, some high-power vitamins, and an anti-depressant, or tranquilizer of sorts, called Ativan. [chemically similar to Valium or Librium.] Now these Ativans were really the business. They made me feel incredibly good. I felt as if I could cope with everything.
Pete Townshend: In the (Club For Heroes) nightclub (during September), a so-called friend of mine in the music business said to me, "You look really smashed." I said, "Yeah, I am." He said, "I've got something for you." And he took me in a toilet and gave me an injection of heroin. Apparently, I had used heroin in front of a few gossips one night, and word had gotten around that I was a heroin addict. So this guy thought I was suffering from withdrawal and that he was doing me a favour, when in fact I'd simply had too much to drink. Anyway, the shot of heroin temporarily killed me - my heart stopped. When they carried me into the hospital, I was dark blue. The nurse actually had to rip off my shirt outside the hospital and beat me back to life.
(Source : not known)
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This really got to me, because rock 'n' roll should be all fun, all pleasure. There's quite a lot of guff talked about the pressures and the rigors of the road, but if people don't like it they shouldn't do it. It's not happiness that you're seeking. It's pleasure. Pleasure through music, highs, euphoric feelings - all these extremes. I couldn't stand this fucking feeling of being wrecked all the time, and feeling that I was going to be sick.
I went to this doctor and he prescribed some sleeping tablets, some high-power vitamins, and an anti-depressant, or tranquilizer of sorts, called Ativan. [chemically similar to Valium or Librium.] Now these Ativans were really the business. They made me feel incredibly good. I felt as if I could cope with everything.
Pete Townshend: In the (Club For Heroes) nightclub (during September), a so-called friend of mine in the music business said to me, "You look really smashed." I said, "Yeah, I am." He said, "I've got something for you." And he took me in a toilet and gave me an injection of heroin. Apparently, I had used heroin in front of a few gossips one night, and word had gotten around that I was a heroin addict. So this guy thought I was suffering from withdrawal and that he was doing me a favour, when in fact I'd simply had too much to drink. Anyway, the shot of heroin temporarily killed me - my heart stopped. When they carried me into the hospital, I was dark blue. The nurse actually had to rip off my shirt outside the hospital and beat me back to life.
(Source : not known)