Carrie Fisher’s cause of death was officially confirmed as sleep apnea, with other factors, including heart disease and drug abuse. Drug abuse can intensify symptoms of sleep apnea and even prove to be fatal when the two are combined.
In the 1980s, when AIDS was first emerging, Sir Elton John was a wicked cocaine fiend. But he rose from addiction as a superstar performer and AIDS activist.
Robert Downey, Jr. is at the top of his game. He’s the highest-paid actor not just in Hollywood but the world — he made $80 million last year, according to Forbes. And he’s sober, having kicked alcohol, cocaine, and heroin.
There are songs that paint a vivid picture of drug and alcohol abuse and there are songs that glorify it. For this list, I focused on the former. These are songs that describe addiction to a T. Most of these artists know what it’s like to be stuck in the spider hole of addiction. They’ve lived to tell these cautionary tales.
In this excerpt from The Eccentrics – my book out in 2016 – we meet Jennifer, a coke-head musician who finds solace in punk rock and classical music.
“Every now and then I hear voices in my head, but not very clear,” Beach Boys frontman Brian Wilson told the New York Times Magazine in 2004. “I can’t understand what they are saying. It’s a mental illness. I have been diagnosed as a manic depressive.”
Kelly is a theatrical actress who got hooked on crystal meth and cocaine. In this excerpt from The Eccentrics, we see the irony of her addiction as it relates to her acting career.
Williams confided to Carrie Fisher about his moods. While he didn’t believe he was bipolar, he answered yes to the five “Are You Bipolar?” questions Fisher posed at her one-woman show.
