 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
||||||||
 |
|||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
|
Sex, drugs and rock 'n rollSupport programs help artists make music without drugsIt would come down to six rye and Cokes. That's what Peter*, a Juno award-winning Canadian musician, would drink to calm down enough to play in front of a crowd. "By the time it came to play, I would just literally be wired," says Peter. "The rye and Cokes were the only way I could get down enough to play. Then after the show, away you go again drinking. It just went on and on. You get up in the morning and do uppers to get going, and then you go all day long, smoking grass or hash." Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll -- that's the stuff the music scene is made of. Understandably, that makes for a less than ideal environment for musicians recovering from a substance use problem or those who just need a bit of help tempering their substance use. And the music lifestyle makes treating musicians a real challenge for therapists and counsellors. But change is afoot in the music industry. The growth of programs to help musicians, such as travelling sober coaches and "safe" rooms, combined with the industry's better understanding about of how to treat musicians in recovery means musicians have a better chance than ever when it comes to battling a substance use problem. For Peter, an industry vet at 58, who was entangled with alcohol for almost 30 of those years, the challenges were numerous. "In the music world, a lot of times drinking or doing drugs starts out being just kind of a party thing," he says. "You have a couple of drinks to cool you out before you play. Then a couple more when you're done, and then you party all night." That rock 'n roll environment often gets its start in bars and clubs, both popular places for fledgling bands to launch their careers. Sometimes those environments are extremely comfortable places for musicians. Creative pressures are another challenge for musicians in recovery. Some musicians learn their craft in an altered state, which means that taking the altering substance away strikes fear in musicians' creative hearts that they might not be as inventive or productive sober as they are under the influence. "Your skill set is attached to the state of mind you learned under, and all learning is state-dependent," says Paul Hyman, a recreation and stress management therapist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, as well as an ex-musician who played trombone professionally for 15 years with the likes of Mel Torme and Liberace. The industry lives and breathes addiction. "The very nature of performance is addictive," says Hyman. "Adrenaline is a very addictive drug. Musicians want that live audience, and after a performance there's a drop. Sometimes that's good, but sometimes there's a need to get out there and recreate a similar type of feeling." But perhaps the biggest problem plaguing musicians, particularly the more successful and established artists, is boredom. "The more successful artists often have too much time on their hands because they have so many handholders," says Gene Bowen, co-founder of Road Recovery, a New York-based support and educational foundation that deals with musicians with substance use problems. "Often, drugs and alcohol fill idle time for them." Boredom can badger lesser-known musicians as well: for example, those playing for a musical or other theatre performance often have to contend with playing the same music night after night, sometimes for years. When it comes to treating these artists, many therapists and music industry professionals say it's a matter of appealing to them as artists. For one, that means recognizing the often-unstructured lifestyle that musicians tend to lead. "For therapists treating musicians, it's not a 'cookie cutter approach'," says Bowen. "What therapists need to do is dissect the artist, their lifestyle, their goals, their aspirations and build around that." Therapy requires understanding what type of musician a client is. Musicians are often known for being creative perfectionists; so appealing to that need for perfection might be a way to shine a light into the musician's head. "The paradox of music is that it's an imperfect medium -- there's no such thing as perfect art," says Hyman. "That awareness can be very useful to therapists because they can flip the striving for perfection and use the uniqueness of what it took for musicians to get to their level of musical excellence and draw that out in recovery. Once you start the kindling again, all you're doing is providing the fuel." It's also important to connect with band mates when treating musicians. "For many musicians who are in bands, the band is often their family and they're closer to band mates than to their families," says Harold Owens, director of addiction recovery for the MusiCares Foundation, a Grammy Award-affiliated organization that offers support to recovering musicians. "It's very important to educate band members and anyone else associated with the artists about things like potential stressors on the road and problems that could arise." Also making it easier these days to treat musicians are programs created to support them. MusiCares, for example, offers "safe" rooms stocked with coffee and other non-alcoholic beverages at major music events such as the Grammys, the Native American Music Awards and South by Southwest. While MusiCares tends to cater to high-profile musicians, it also offers a program called "A Sober Connection," where musicians going on tour can submit their itineraries to MusiCares, which sets the musicians up with personal supports and meetings, such as 12-step groups. This support taps into the structure and boredom issue. "I try to create some semblance of a structure that includes exercise, meditation and a meeting every day so you know that when musicians are going out, support is in place for them and there's not a lot of down time," says Owens. "Boredom is horrible for most people in recovery because it's a big trigger, so it's setting healthy boundaries," he adds. Another creative program is Road Recovery. Along with initiatives such as a databank of sober road crew available to staff shows, Road Recovery also hosts educational seminars and discussions about substance use. As well, it hosts live, sober music events in hopes of demystifying the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll image perpetuated throughout the industry. Collectively, such initiatives are helping musicians such as Peter, who completed a recovery program almost two years ago. Industry support might just crack a dent into the sex and drugs image. As Bowen says: "'I'm a musician and I've got nowhere to turn' is no longer an excuse." * not his real name Astrid van den Broek
A look back at musicians who've struggled with -- and died -- from alcohol and other drug use John Henry Bonham, Led Zeppelin Nicknamed "Heineken" because of his love for the beer, Bonham feel off a stool in 1980 during a show, showing how far his substance use problem had developed. Later that year, he died after downing numerous drinks along with a drug to keep him off heroin. The leader of the famed 1990s grunge movement died in 1994 after a reportedly self-inflicted gunshot, almost one week after almost dying of a heroin overdose in Rome. After his death, Cobain's mother Wendy O'Connor, referring to other musicians who had died because of drugs, told the Associated Press: "Now he's gone and joined that stupid club [of dead musicians]. I told him not to join that stupid club." In 1995, the lead singer of the Grammy Award- nominated band was found dead from a drug overdose on a tour bus before a gig in New Orleans. Throughout the 1960s, this powerhouse singer struggled with an addiction to amphetamines, returning to her home state of Texas in 1965 to recover. But by the late 1960s, Joplin relapsed and her live shows became increasingly erratic as her addiction to drugs and alcohol worsened. At the age of 27, the captivating Morrison had ingested a large amount of heroin, which he had believed to be cocaine. Morrison suffered a heart attack and died in the bathtub of his Paris apartment.
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
||||||
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
||
This page was last modified on Tuesday, August 5, 2003 3:46 PM
(416) 595-6714 
