The Strokes guitarist has come clean to rehabbing his way way out of a heavy junk addiction.I got this off the canadian website canoe who got it off NME: “”Around the second album (2003’s Room on Fire), I’d say, I was in a dark place, dude. I was in a very dark place. I’m just now being able to understand or speak about that time, and it’s been almost four years… It was, like, oxycontin and cocaine at 24, 25, 26. And then I became addicted to heroin around then. So from (the ages of) 26, 27, ’til 29…
“It’s not so much that I wasn’t in a happy place; I was just… God knows where I was. I was just very high. That’s where I was… I mean, do you want me to get specific? I don’t mind, but yeah, I used to shoot cocaine, heroin and ketamine. All together. Morning, night, 20 times a day.
“You know, I was a mess. I look back and I don’t even recognize myself. I did my own thing. I mean, you have moments when you’re fine. And if someone meets you, you seem fine. But I remember when I was showing someone some music and I was wearing a short shirt and… there were just purple needle track marks all the way down my arm. And then they would call someone – ‘Did you see Albert, he looks crazy?’. That’s where I learned to wear long sleeves. I’ve had these tattoos forever and I have people coming up ‘Oh, you’ve had new tattoos?’. I’m like, ‘No, you just haven’t seen me with a short shirt on…”
“I think drugs were a great way to get out of your head. You enjoy that for a while, it helps you to go to new places. But then it stops you from growing and puts you in a place where you’re just not as good as you could be – for me. I’m not judging. I did it hard and for a long time, so I’m in no place to judge, nor would I. Something clicked one day, and I got out of it.”
That is really smart stuff from a smart guy. Addiction is terrible and withdrawal is lousy. Ask Keith? he wrote about laying on a bed with Gram Parsons throwing up and shaking and sweating. Indeed, if you have ever detoxed from alcohol (aka had a killer hangover) you’ll have an idea of what is going here. But that’s drugs (and life) for you. Hammond (and I for that matter) jumped off the deep it and made it back, meanwhile a 19 year old girl gets slipped some bad Molly and is dead.
Drugs can kill you, they may kill, and the recovery is hell. The rehabbing (especially if you go it alone) is hell. But it takes a clear eyed assessment like Hammond Jr’s to put it in perspective.