Drugs are as always rampant in the world of rock and roll, this being made clear with the arrest of Coheed And Cambria bassist Michael Todd who -in the definition of desperation, held up a Walgreen's for six bottles of prescription painkillers Oxytontrin, then grabbed a cab on his way to the Comcast Center to open for Soundgarden. The cops copped him before he made and he is currently out on bail.
There is something so sad and so human about this story. It is like mirror of itself, where the objects on stage become smaller and smaller the closer you get to them.
If you have never been addicted, it sounds like madness. But if you have, it makes perfect sense. This is not the desperation of the scumbag who shout four people dead trying to get drugs last month. Todd wrote on his cell that he had a bomb, took the drugs and scarpered. Which is not to excuse Todd's behavior, but rather, to express empathy but not compassion for him. If you can't keep hold of your supply don't do it.
And having said that, is a Sunday in Boston the right place to run out of drugs when you’re an addict. I think the saddest thing about this is the lack of organization: why didn't Todd take care of business before he arrived there? How do you go through the States without a supply and a counter supply?
If you have never had a problem with drugs, more power to you. But if, like me, you have had a problem with drugs, there is nothing I can say that would accurately express the physical anguish of withdrawal.
Drugs are like anything in life, someday you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you. But being bassist in a major rock band is not the time for amateur's night out.