Junkie drummers, a list thread

per my recently learning that ZZ Top's Frank Beard was a junkie at one point. Always found this phenomenon mystifying, and yet there's plenty of examples:

Art Blakey
Elvin Jones
Topper Headon

Frankie "Dealer" Machine

Frankie Machine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eru1DFSyfz8

lol xp

Jimmy Chamberlin

Keith Moon

Jerry Nolan

Ginger Baker duh

Taylor Hawkins

I don't know why that guy bugs the fuck out of me but he does

Charlie Watts for a while

Grant Hart.

Steven Adler.

Jim Gordon.

Hunt Sales.

Patty Schemel

I'm less mystified by guitarists/singers/etc. being junkies and still being able to function as musicians tbh. Drumming requires a level of physical endurance and coordination that those other instruments generally don't ime.

Levon Helm

Dennis Wilson

Self-XP and Richard Manuel.

Scott Asheton

Bobby Gillespie

I reckon most of the best ones were probably not junkies tbh. Quite a lot of the best jazz drummers I can think of lived into septuagenarian or plus years, Murray and Roach being two good examples imo. I know Ginger Baker might be an exception (I don't rate him nor any of his bands anyway) but I can't imagine a heroin addict having the vigour, focus and drive to be a top drummer, no matter how talented. Apart from Boabby the glue sniffer of course!

https://www.jazzmessengers.com/en/69313/tina-brooks/the-complete-tina-brooks-quintet-master-takes

going ever so slightly off topic here, but I'm currently listening to a very talented junkie of the tenor sax Tina Brooks with fellow fucked traveller Sonny Clarke on piano. It's great stuff!

Danny Richmond
Frank Beard

Lars Ulrich and Phil Collins were famously heavy alcoholics.

Frank Beard

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 10 March 2020 11:18 (twenty minutes ago)

literally the first post in the thread

xpost I don't think Lars was a famously heavy alcoholic. I think the band itself was famous for its alcohol consumption, but James (and obviously Dave) are the only ones in and out of rehab, iirc. And Phil reportedly didn't have a drinking problem until after he was more or less retired!

I learned on his Trap Set episode that Rob Ellis had a pretty bad alcoholic spell that necessitated rehab later in his career, but this was after PJ Harvey as a trio had ceased to be.

Man, I love his drumming.

ain't it junkie now

Are alcoholics junkies now?

As someone once said alcohol isn't a drug its a drink

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/A9tdcGmBefM/hqdefault.jpg

don't know why that guy bugs the fuck out of me but he does

if you need an excuse, he’s an anti-vaxxer

Drummers are generally allowed to drink heavily. It's built in to the model, especially the model of touring rock bands. There are so many hours when you don't need to have your wits about you, and so few where you need to be present and functioning on all cylinders. I myself play drums from time to time. In my heyday I could (and did) drink most of the night and sleep most of the day. But as long as I could keep reasonably good time between 8 PM and midnight, everything was fine. The only drummers fired for alcohol abuse were the ones who couldn't keep that window of (relative) availability open.

Being a junkie has a different rhythm and different imperatives.

Paul Hammond (Atomic Rooster, Hard Stuff) - died age 40 from an accidental drug overdose (you would guess heroin).
I'm sure there's hundreds of these 70s/80s semi-known dudes who hit the hard stuff after drinking got boring.