Damian Albarn Took Heroin At Height Of Britpop

The baseball diaries

The thing about heroin is, as James Chance told me a coupla months ago, it is really good and it helps you calm down and create. <Much the same thing as Keith Richards claimed in his autobiography.

Telling people heroin is the devil and sucks won’t really cut it at all. Personally, I tried it a coupla times and didn’t like it (it made me puke my guts out) but any drug with so many people, so many artists, playing dice with their life must feel awesome.

Still, the thing about drugs is it starts by getting high and ends by getting normal and quitting… wow, all I can tell you is DTing from alcohol was a complete nightmare that stopped me dead in my tracks unable to do anything but drink or shake or, eventually, both.

So, yeah, heroin a good drug that’ll kill you and very painfully.

Which leads us to big mouth Damon Albarn admitting he took heroin at the height of Britpop. Since he was living with renowned heroin taker Justine Frischmann of Elastica so it isn’t a SHOCK shock and yet a surprise. On his upcoming solo album he claims he was on it for five days off for two days.

Damon told Q Magazine: “Heroin freed me up. I hate talking about this because of my daughter, my family. But, for me, it was incredibly creative … A combination of heroin and playing really simple, beautiful, repetitive shit in Africa changed me completely as a musician. I found a sense of rhythm. I somehow managed to break out of something with my voice. I just thought, ‘Why not?’ I never imagined it would become a problem. I can move forward now without all the nudge nudge, wink wink innuendo I’ve had in the background for years.”