Rock Stars Scoring Drugs On The Road

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matt72582's Avatar
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First off, I wonder if there were any bands or artists who refused to tour certain places because they had no drug contacts, or being so addicted to something they refused to tour for a certain period of time or a certain place – maybe a city too far.

Paul McCartney seemed to carry pot and not even try to hide a ton of it.. I thought that's what roadies were for! I never understood stars carrying stuff.

Do some guys go out on their own? Going into a street or club knowing they'll find it, or find someone who'll find it for them? Certain guys knowing they wouldn't even have to ask before they were offered some?

I'm guessing some bands/artists organized this before touring certain cities, making sure the stuff was available when they got there. But to go back to awful addictions, what if there was a delay, airplane problems.. The press agents can say someone is "sick"

Or if you know any interesting stories, please list what you can if you have the time.. The Eagles had a close call but I guess Irving Azoff talked to Customs and got them off, because they would have gotten in big trouble. I don't want to screw up the details, since I only know about it when "The History of the Eagles" was first released.



Paul McCartney seemed to carry pot and not even try to hide a ton of it.. I thought that's what roadies were for! I never understood stars carrying stuff.
He was famously busted in Japan in 1980 for pot. I think he's had several arrests between '72 and '82, now that I think about it.


One of my favororite Beatle drug stories is when they sent camera equipment to the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, knowing that the rights to the footage had already been secured by DA Pennebaker and ABC for the Montery Pop doc, and instead had Owsley seal liquid LSD into the lenses to be shipped back to England.



In the '60s/early '70s drugs were everywhere and easy to acquire on the road. Fans were always ready to turn musicians on. In MOI we had several guys who loved pot (and occasionally other drugs), but they were severely admonished by management NEVER to carry any on them or in their luggage. Actually pills were easy to hide.

Some bands, like Canned Heat, were always wasted, and did long meandering shows because of it. Several touring bands were busted in Europe, which made everyone paranoid. It was not unheard of to put certain drugs to be supplied by the local promoter as part of the contract rider, along with beer, liquor and food!

99% of bands did not perform under the influence of anything. But after the gig? Katie bar the door...



I would imagine that just about everyone at Woodstock69 was stoned.
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