Art and Drugs, Were all great artists druggies?

[Mihoshi Marie]

I was on another message board, reading about Natalie Cole criticizing Amy Winehouse for her drug use, and one moron mentioned that we wouldn't have great music, literature, art, etc if it weren't for drugs.

This also reminds me of a quote by some lame rocker guy from the '70s or whatever saying that all great music was made by people high on drugs, and that if you are so opposed to drug use, then you have to throw out all your music because it was made with drugs, blah blah blah.

Is this really true? Is there a significant number of artists that have not used illegal drugs at all, and gone on to create great works of art anyway? I absolutely HATE drugs and refuse to believe that one has to be stoned on pot or high on heroin to make a significant contribution to the arts.

[knightmuzic]

Sarah Brightman and Celine Dion do not use drugs. Neither do the folks in Nightwish and Within Temptation (although I'm sure they enjoy a few beers every once in a while). That's just off the top of my head, but there's plenty of artists who never touched an illegal substance during the creative process. So whoever said that is a f***ing moron.

Use/abuse of drugs is a sign of weakness, not strength. People use drugs because they want to escape reality, not because they want to create. And as for the artists from the 60s and 70s using drugs, well... just about everybody was on something back then, because it was the "in" thing. But the people who got hooked to the stuff were suffering personal problems, or had some undiagnosed mental illness or something. Basically, the people who get hooked on drugs are "self-medicating" and need intervention to get off the drugs and actually face/solve their issues.

True talent doesn't require getting drunk or high to make good music. And those who use drugs were/are just as capable of making good music without them.

[flea dip]

Knight Muzic basically said most of what I was planning to say in my reply

There may have been quite a number of 1960s/1970s rock bands who used drugs, but I don't think drugs were as prevalent with rock bands in the 1950s (unless it was under-reported).

~But then, in the '50s, doctors weren't as aware of the problems associated with drugs, so taking drugs wasn't considered a stigma at that time.

Sometimes, it's about perception.... I think actual cocaine used to be put into bottles of Coke soda pop, back in the late 19th century, but people back then didn't consider cocaine a 'bad' drug.

If I remember right, I think cocaine was actually touted as being a health benefit!

Back in the 1950s, cigarettes used to be advertised as being okay.

Timothy Leary became very influential around the 1960s, and I think he played a part in college students and rock stars abusing drugs. He popularized it or made it seem okay.

I don't think country music is known much for wide spread drug abuse.

The few cases I've heard were of singers (I think Johnny Cash was one) who had a legitimate problem (a physical injury), were prescribed pain killers by doctors, and then became hooked on the pain killers.

~This is opposed to druggie rock stars from the '60s onwards who took drugs to "get high," to feel buzzed.

It seems to me that most country singers have experienced problems with alcohol (e.g. George Jones, Hank Williams Sr), not cocaine, heroin, pot, etc.

As for artists who paint on canvas and who sculpt...

I believe Vincent Van Gogh abused some kind of drug (I don't remember which one).

Opium was apparently the drug of choice in the 19th century, but I'm not sure how many of the artists (or writers) used it.

Edgar Allen Poe had an alcohol problem, but I'm not sure if that contributed or took away from his writings.

I seriously doubt that most of the artists from the Renaissance (Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, etc) abused drugs - which to me is proof enough one doesn't have to use narcotics or medications to get good creative results.

I would guess that Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Bach, Chopin, etc. didn't abuse drugs.

I don't think it's the drugs/alcohol that brings about creativity.

To me, it's more like people have inborn, God-given talent, and then they happen to become drug or alcohol addicts.

Maybe creative types are more prone to use drugs than other sorts of people. Maybe they are more sensitive than average people, and they use the drugs to cope.

There seems to be a high percentage of homosexuals in the art community, and of left-handed people, too. I wouldn't argue that one has to be homosexual or left-handed to be talented or be creative.

It would be interesting to find out how many artists suffered from mental health issues, such as depression*.

I'd have to research the topic to find out how wide sperad drug abuse was among artists to give you a better answer.

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*I just found this about Beethoven:

Beethoven's personal life was troubled. His encroaching deafness led him to contemplate suicide (documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament). Beethoven was often irascible, and may have suffered from bipolar disorder,[15] and irritability brought on by chronic abdominal pain beginning in his 20s which has been attributed to his lead poisoning.

I also recall hearing somewhere that Handel contemplated suicide.

Obviously Vincent Van Gogh had some mental issues going on, too.

[knightmuzic]

To put it in as few words as possible: correlation does not equal causation.

[Mihoshi Marie]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking of the artists that I listen to, and they don't use drugs either. It made me think of the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab, and I feel so sorry for some of the celebs on it, because they've gone through some really horrible stuff, and drugs seemed to be the only thing to get them through it. I hope that those who want to get rid of the drugs can do so.

[flea dip]

The following content was XP to the Lady Gaga thread.

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There are a million news outlets carrying the same stories as what you see below. I'm too lazy to link to every last one.

Apparently, Gaga believed that in order to be an "artist" like the ones she admired that she had to emulate them, even if that meant abusing drugs.

She also said in one interview that she snorted cocaine as inspiration to come up with song material.

Part of me has the feeling that none of this stuff she's saying is true - it smacks of a gimmick, to further enhance her wacko, odd ball public persona.

The strongest drug Gaga has ever taken is probably either Tylenol or Pepto Bismol (both of which are lame, tame, over- the- counter and legal medications, for our Non-American readers).

Lady Gaga said her dead auntie Joanne's ghost saved her from cocaine addction

* Gaga would do "bags and bags" of cocaine
* Admits she got "dangerously high" on LSD
* Strove to emulate her pop heroes

OUTRAGEOUS and controversial pop star Lady Gaga has revealed that she was so addicted to cocaine she believed it would kill her.

The singer told how she would lock herself in her room snorting "bags and bags" of the drug to get inspiration for her music.

She also confessed that she got dangerously high on LSD as she strove to emulate her pop heroes, the News of the World newspaper in the UK reports.

But Gaga, 23 - real name Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta - claims she was eventually saved by a dead auntie whose ghost lives inside her.

"I thought I was gonna die," she says in an explosive new biography. "I wanted to be the artists I loved, like Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol - and I thought the only way to do it was to live the lifestyle.

"But then I realised my father's sister Joanne, who'd died at 19, had instilled her spirit in me. She was a painter and a poet - and I had a spiritual vision I had to finish her business."

Bisexual Gaga also reveals how she stripped on stage during a song as an unknown to get a bored audience to notice her and how the reaction created her Lady Gaga image.

One night, while striving for her big break, she caused a stir in a New York's club with what would become her trademark - an impromptu strip on stage.

Gaga got so fed up at everyone talking through a song she ripped off her skirt and shirt and sat at the piano in only a bra, pants, fishnet stockings and white shoes. Everybody stared.

"That's when I made a real decision about the kind of pop artist I wanted to be," she says.

Soon Stefani found her stage name when record producer Rob Fusari told her she reminded him of Freddie Mercury. A mis-typed text from Rob said Lady Gaga instead of Radio GaGa - and a star was born.

But the oddball star - who won two Grammys last week and is nominated for three Brit Awards this month - nearly became a drugs statistic as she tried to make it as a singer.

The teenage musical prodigy dropped out of her New York performing arts school at 20 and descended into a nightmare world.

"My cocaine soundtrack was always the Cure. I would lock myself in my room and listen to Never Enough on repeat while I did bags and bags of cocaine," she said.

"It was about being an artist. I wasn't a lazy addict. I would make demo tapes and send them around. At the time I didn't think there was anything wrong with me, until my friends said, 'Are you doing this alone?' Um, yes. Me and my mirror."

"I'm a disaster with men," says the beauty who was teased for being a lesbian at the strict Manhattan convent where she was educated. "But I still believe I'm super-sexy."

Her closest companion remains her dead aunt - and she dedicated last year's Fame Ball tour to her. "I never met her - but she's been one of the most important figures in my life."

Lady Gaga takes LSD, imagines meeting Thom Yorke

[Quote by Gaga:]
I thought I was gonna die. I wanted to BE the artists I loved, like Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol - and I thought the only way to do it was to live the lifestyle.”

— Among the many revelations made by Lady Gaga in her new autobiography is that she almost died taking “bags and bags” of cocaine and LSD at the start of her music career (via Gigwise). The Grammy Award winner also noted that her most “terrifying” trip had her imagining she met Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Yes, “terrifying.”

The forthcoming autobiography does not yet have a title or release date.