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• You know it's strange..................
• I grew up in the 50's & 60's and started playing in bands w/ regular gigs around 68. I wasn't into drugs or drinking. Strange eh. I mean there I was in the hey day of Rock & Roll w/o wanting drugs and drink................ I was not alone but I was rare. I went through many fazes of my approach too. At first, when I was young and my friends and band matte were just getting into drugs and drinks I was mostly made fun of. Mamma's boy, woos etc etc. Then as I branched out and guys didn't know me It was easier to hide the fact I wasn't into it. Believe me it was everywhere AND I went to Art School where drugs were openly sold in the parking lot from the trunk of a 69 Riviera to being consumed in the school in the open. Art School in 1969 was a treat to behold.
• After college they dropped the drinking age. That didn't matter. I'd been playing in clubs since I was 17 and not drinking so now all the 15 & 16 year olds were in the clubs getting wrecked. I still wasn't into it. People would question me and I'd say no thanks. Some folks assumed I was recovering from one of them because, God forbid I was making my own decision on the subject.
• Then I was in a band that trvaeled and played alot. All up and down the NE coast and even into Canada. These guys knew drugs. Pot, Hash Oil, LSD, Speed etc. They were great guys though and the drugs never really got in th way of the music except when they ran out of money and they'd take my food. But all in all nice guys and a great band.
• As I grew older I thought I might try .......... oh I don't know? Wine? I never got around to it I guess my pattern was formed.
• As the years wound on I have friends with bad livers, DUI's , broken marriages, etc. All caused, in one way or another by drugs & drinking.
• I was out with one of them the other night and we were talking about my "stand" as he called it.He complimented me by saying, You never tried to preach. All though I know my not doing them made other uncomfortable. You never stopped anybody from doing them. As a result spent many a night driving the band home. Yadda Yadda Yadda.
• But in the end I said to my friend you have to make a chioce..... you have to. Mine was easy because I was already there.However, when it comes time and you have to make a black or white, yes or no decision on drugs and drinking and you weigh the the good, the bad, the lost time, lost money, people hurt, health risks, on so many levels (I have one friend with Hepatitis C and he doesn't know how he got it) then it's an easy choice. The reward is a longer life in which you can continue to play drums behind a great band of friends and continue to express yourself. Have a family and a child that you watch grow. Tell great stories etc etc etc.
• It must be hard. I have never been there myself.
• Best of luck
• Gary

Hey Craig,

I walk that fine line between preaching and live and let live. I never really made anything close to the big time. I played a bunch and had a grand time. Learned and lost. In the end I was thrown out of the band I loved because they were going disco and I wasn't signed up for that. When that happened I, true to form, took another road. I wish now I stayed in music but I am glad I got come back.

If you come through what you did, and you have, and you are introspective, ditto there then I'd say that is the most powerful thing you have to cure and beat what you need to beat.You have a perspective I don't have. Perspective is a powerful thing too. I was lucky the guys I played with ( who partied big time with drugs) were just as excepting of me as I was of them. In fact they liked the fact that I was "straight" They grew to count on it. We got to be interdependent on each other.

Now a days I don't have the luxury of being involved with people who are too involved in drugs or drink. I see it around me with some guys I play with.... casually but not like the "good old days"

I heard an interesting show the other night driving home late. The author / doctor was talking about how the drink / drug crowd were a narcissist crew. They don't care about what you or anybody else wants they only care about what they want. Then, once drunk / high they don't care what their actions do or don't do to you or anyone else. They only care about themselves. They are the center of their world . Narcissists

That doctor / author put this phenomenon in a way I never thought about it before.

So as you get back into the scene and some of those same old "friends" come around have a little paradigm shift and look at them that way and suddenly they look pretty darn scummy. That shift will really help you stay focused I think.

Good luck,

Gary