Music and Drugs Can Tragically Intermingle

  By Rick McVicar     

   Viewer discretion is advised: This story tells of musicians who have died either from suicide or drug overdose. If anyone reading this story feels in distress, then please call 911 and ask for help.    

   I was a student at Johnny Appleseed Junior High when Janice Joplin died of a heroin overdose.        

   Her death left me devastated, as her distinctive voice and lyrics soothed my early teenaged angst. Her blues ballads have been my personal anthems.  

  Fans of Kurt Cobain, Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson may have felt similar feelings of grief after their beloved artist died from either suicide or drug overdose.  

  Cobain is featured in a YouTube video talking about the dangers of drugs and what it takes to stop an addiction. Viewers need to be advised that “Musicians Warning Fans About Drugs,” produced by Loudwire, June 7, 2021, includes profanity.   

   “Drugs are bad for you. They will – you up,” Cobain states.  

   He notes that at one point he was spending $400 a day on drugs. His drug use began as a way to relieve pain.  

  Several other musicians are included in the video, such as Ozzy Osbourne and Keith Richards. Osbourne said he stopped using drugs because they made him a freak. 

   “I am not a freak. I’ve got a God-given talent to give to people,” Osbourne said.  

   Richards notes that starting drugs is easy while ending them is hard.  

   “Drugs seep into your life” when abuse begins, he said.   

  Several websites hosted by drug treatment centers can be found describing the connection between popular music and drugs.   

  For instance, the Better Help Addiction Care website talks about marijuana being associated with jazz in the 1920s. The drug culture has often merged ever since with youth culture, as described in “Can Music Influence Drug Addiction?”   

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