Slash: The Rolling Stone Interview

When did you first use heroin?
I started sometime during the very beginnings of the band. I got turned on to it, and that was the beginning of the end, I guess. The first time I did it, I smoked it, and then I snorted it once. But the first time I really got high, I shot. I was that kind of junkie — snorting it wasn’t enough and smoking it wasn’t enough. Anyway, it’s one of those drugs where it’s a great high and you love being on it, and it really fucks your life up. It’s unfortunate that something as fucking menial as a little pile of powder can do that, but it does happen.

What do you think was the lowest you ever sank? 
On heroin, the lowest was going to the Rainbow [an L.A. nightclub] to borrow money, so I could score — shit like that. But I wasn’t only a heroin junkie, I was a coke junkie, too, and I used to trip out really hard. The lowest I went was a little fucking episode in Phoenix, where I flipped out on coke, destroyed a hotel room and was all bloody, running around the hotel naked and shit. Some people tried to press charges, and the cops and paramedics came, but fortunately I lied my way out of it.

Have you ever overdosed?
I’ve OD’d so many times. I’ve woken up in the hospital so many fucking times. I don’t like to get into it, but I’ve been through some shit. I’ve been in jail over drugs. You’d think things like that would make you stop, but they don’t.

What finally caused you to quit?
Because the one thing I care about the most in my life — the band — was blowing apart. That was the major incentive. Otherwise, I was perfectly comfortable just relaxing on a high, hanging out with my snakes and stuff.

It’s been about a year or so since you’ve stopped shooting dope. Any temptations to use hard drugs again?
The closest I’ve had to anything like that is I’ve dreamed about it a couple of times. Nightmares. Some pretty bad ones. But that’s about it.

Were you ever in a detox clinic?
They tried to put me into rehab, but I left in three days. I was real pissed off and came back home, got loaded, then went to Hawaii and cleaned up. I’ve been clean ever since.

What was withdrawal like that last time?
I had a pretty bad habit, so kicking was always rough. The physical part of it is bad enough, but the anxiety part is the worst. But I don’t see why the subject of kicking dope is such a big deal. It’s personal, really. It’s like asking how I go to the bathroom or what do I wash first when I take a shower. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think it’s anybody’s business. I don’t want to be another Keith Richards. His whole history with drugs has been so heavily publicized, and he’s spoken so candidly about it when he was fucked up because he thought it was cool, I guess. What happens is those stories never go away…It’s a very sensitive subject. But it’s a subject that you don’t try and put across to how many millions of people who read this magazine who don’t do it or haven’t been through it. It’s like one of probably the most disastrous things that a human being can go through. It’s like sitting on your deathbed all the time.

You’ve also had severe alcohol problems. How bad did your drinking get?
I seriously used to go through one and two bottles of Jack Daniel’s a night. Easy. Sometimes a half gallon. I used to get up in the morning and I’d just be drunk all the time. I passed out on the floor of a guitar store in England — really stupid shit. It was all a growing experience. I think I’ve learned a lot, and I think I’ve grown up a lot since then. I don’t know if it’s made me any better or worse as a person, but I’m very hip to any drugs and alcohol now. I know what they’re all about.

How’s your drinking these days?
I haven’t been drinking that hard if I can help it. I still get overly drunk sometimes and have a good time, and it doesn’t bother me. It’s sort of a pain in the ass the next morning, though. But I still have my little quirks and insecurities where I go to a bottle rather than just being sober and dealing with it. I still have those little problems, which are part of a pattern, I guess. But then I haven’t been as depressed as I was. Usually if I’m drinking too much, it’s for a reason. Boredom is my worst enemy, and I get bored really easily. In the history of this band, as long as we were out playing, I never had a problem of any kind. When we’re rehearsing or recording or onstage, there’s not really that much drinking going on, nor am I concerned about it. I’ll have a cocktail when I’m home or whatever, but it’s as simple as that.