It’s hard to imagine but back in the day those adorable old fogies dancing around in the Coles ads, Status Quo, were absolutely out of control. In a recent interview, frontman Francis Rossi has recalled a period of his life where he was racking so much coke that part of his nose fell out. Be warned, kiddies.
During the bands heyday (don’t worry, I wasn’t alive for it either), Rossi found himself blowing $2,000 a week to service his demons, finding himself the victim of too much spare cash:
“I really wish I hadn’t become a coke addict or a drinker. I don’t like either. By about 1972, cheques for 40 grand and 80 grand were coming in all over the place.”
In the years that followed, Rossi went hard, but a worrying side effect of the drug soon took hold:
“From about 1979 to 1987, I did loads of coke. I used to wash my nose out in the shower. One day, a bit of septum fell out – I heard it go down the shower – dunk.”
The deviated septum had left a void in his nose structure, which he once pushed a cotton ball through during a TV interview to demonstrate to “younger people” just how un-groovy a drug addiction really is:
“This is what will happen in the end. You lose your friends, your personality changes and it costs you too much frigging money.”
He wasn’t the only one in the band who had a problem with Charlie. Rhythm guitarist Rick Parfitt also raised hell back in the day, budgeting “at least a million on drugs”. In an interview with the Daily Mail last year, he revealed that he also soon discovered the negative side effects of the drug:
“My kids were frightened of me. I was a maniac. I was mad. I don’t ever remember changing a nappy. And my poor wife at the time, Marietta, divorced me – rightly so.”
Now it seems the band are on the other side of the fence – selling coke. Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Vanilla Coke, as well as other soft drinks at low, low prices. You can chalk another one up on the list of musicians with drug problems bigger than Joel Madden’s.
Gallery: 14 Musicians With Drug Problems Worse Than Joel Madden’s
(Via News.com.au)
15 Musicians With Drug Problems Worse Than Joel Madden
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David Bowie
David Bowie – He did so much coke in the ’70s that he told magazines like Playboy and Rolling Stone that he thought witches were stealing his semen and that the Rolling Stones were sending him secret messages. -
Doc McGhee
Doc McGhee – Bon Jovi’s manager was convicted of smuggling 40,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States from South America in 1988 but got off with just a suspended sentence. -
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple – spent a night in the slammer this year after the cops found hash on her tour bus in Texas and accused the cops of acting in an “inappropriate and probably illegal” manner. -
Izzy Stradlin
Izzy Stradlin – The Guns N’ Roses guitarist was ordered to get rid of all the drugs in his possession by his manager upon entering Japan to tour...so he took ‘em all at once and wound up in a 96 hour coma. -
Lil Wayne1
Lil’ Wayne – His tour bus was stopped by US Border Patrol in Texas and 105 grams of weed, almost 29 grams of coke and 41 grams ecstasy were found. The rapper was sentenced to 3 years probation. -
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong – The original muso drug bust. Armstrong was arrested in November 1930 while smoking marijuana and got a 6 month suspended sentence. -
Pete Doherty
Pete Doherty – In 2005, a documentary maker sold pictures of Pete smoking heroin to the tabloids, which led to his arrest. -
SCott Weiland
Scott Weiland – In 1995, the Stone Temple Pilots singer was convicted of buying crack. In 1998, he was busted buying heroin (reportedly dressed like a pimp) and went to jail for his efforts. -
Sly Stone
Sly Stone – Cocaine’s a helluva drug. Sly has multiple arrests for cocaine possession over the years and by 2011 he was reportedly homeless and living out of his van. -
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson – The country singer is old hat at weed possession, being done in 1974, 1994, 2006 and 2010. The last occasion, in which he was done with 6oz, saw him pay a $1,024 fine and receive 6 months probation. -
David Crosby
David Crosby – Went to jail for coke and heroin possession in ’82, then drove his car into a fence in ’85 with a gun and coke in his car. -
George Harrison Beard Banner
George Harrison – The Beatle was arrested for hash possession on the day of Paul and Linda McCartney’s wedding, forcing him and wife Pattie Boyd to miss his friends' big day -
Jonny Craig20
Jonny Craig – After numerous reported problems involving heroin, the Dance Gavin Dance frontman was charged with 2 counts of illegal drug use, 2 counts of possession of narcotics and sent to a court-ordered rehab facility. -
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Lion – Amongst a plethora of drug arrests, he’s currently banned from entering Norway after trying to enter the country in possession of 8 grams of reefer. Norway! Who doesn't want to go there?!
