Really, anything that releases Dopamaine in your briain is like drug so when Ronnie Wood, who knows quite a but about both dope and drugs (and rock and roll) says about kids playing in a rock band: ''Hopefully they'll get the same kick I got when I was a teenager. It's only music after all," he should be listened to..
''And it's only a good feeling. And if you can't get behind a good feeling then there's something wrong with you. You want to feel good and, if you don't take drugs, take music. And if you want to get high, go on stage! You don't need anything else.''
''They come back for more 'cos its like a fix. Their grandparents and their kids and their kids' kids and their kids' kids' kids, they all get the same fix, hopefully in different ways.''
For rock musicians it is even more powerful. The high of performing live on stage needs an immediate drug to level off (heroin) or maintian the high (coke) or both. The only way to get yourself down from the skyrocket of live performance is through finding something else to quickly influence the move back to reality.
People are insane because we have a piece of knowledge we don't need, actually two .
1. We are going to die
2. The world is going to end.
Faced with that truth we spend our lives modifying this horror., the transient nature of ourconsciousness. Within those parameters our lives are illed with huge failures and tiny successes. And as the Tao mentioned, don't expect much hppiness from your huge successes either.
Rockers, Ron Wood, go and stage and between the music and the audiences reaction, are transmitted on to another level, away from the lives of quiet desperation that inflicts most people. the problem, once he gets off the stage, he is Ron Wood again.