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Rock star manager weened him off heroin5/30/2023 The music industry, which drew charges of being an enabler in the 1994 suicide of brilliant junkie Kurt Cobain, is among those leading the way in this new awareness of heroin. Because we don’t know why people will destroy their lives in pursuit of a bait-and-switch euphoria, the hard, fast rules have been set aside, at least in this semester when hope and hype are only separated by the letters “o” and “y.” Oh, why do they keep doing it? We’re trying to understand. It’s not just a New York City thing anymore, as attested by the number of users right here in Austin. Heroin is no longer seen as the province of ghost-like guttersnipes, jaded rock stars and sax players in pork-pie hats. It still doesn’t add up, but at least society is finally confronting an issue that was once swiftly bypassed and flagrantly ignored like the insane jabbering of a horizontal wino. Complaining that the good side of heroin is never discussed, he says, “Take the best orgasm you’ve ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you’re still nowhere near it.” But then, the same thing could be said for a dive off the top of the Empire State Building. “Who needs reasons when you’ve got heroin?” the Renton character says in the opening voice-over of “Trainspotting,” which neither glorifies nor condemns the drug. On the firing of Chamberlin, Corgan said, “We faced the bogeyman and now we’re fine.”Īmid all this dialogue about “the needle and the damage done,” to quote the sad song Neil Young sang on the same MTV telecast, nobody can really answer “Why?” Instead, there are the “junkie chic” photo spreads and the flamboyant pull-quotes from “Trainspotting” to pierce the darkness, like twin penlights that illuminate only their own fine line of significance. After detailing Chamberlin’s flaky behavior and vicious mood swings, Corgan said, “We were tired of covering up our dark, dirty secret.” It was all out in the open when Chamberlin was arrested for possession of heroin on the morning he found keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin dead from an overdose. Then there was Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan on MTV two weeks ago describing the stress and tension created within the band by the heroin addiction of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. What’s more, a series of new tunes, including “Habit” by Pearl Jam, “Salvation” by the Cranberries and “Heroin Eyes” by Lush have bucked the hipster ban on anti-drug songs. Musicians, who’ve always been the most loyal and high-profile customers of the insidious drug, keep dying or rehabbing, so the issue remains fresh more than 40 years since the great Charlie Parker succumbed to the alluring poison. A spate of movies such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Basketball Diaries,” “Basquiat” and especially “Trainspotting” have explored the pleasures and pain of this substance with all those cool-sounding nicknames like smack, skag, chiba and Mr. In the past few months, national magazines have hoisted heroin on their covers, as if Pat Kingsley was the drug’s own publicist. Why would someone who seemingly had everything, with so much yet to give the world, mainline their mortality for a cheap, selfish thrill? It’s the eternal question regarding heroin addiction and the first chant from a confused society whenever the horrid thud of another fallen rock star is heard.
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