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| Road to Nowhere / Substance Abuse |
| by Gord Sran |
| This seminar concentrated on
drug abuse in the music industry and how to deal
with it. There were five panelists which
included; Dallas Taylor, Steve Stuart, Chris
Jones, Jason Westfall and Kathleen Austin.
Follows are some of their encounters with
artists, drugs and the music industry. "Sorry man I cant do this any more, youre too fucked up!", Keith Moon said to Dallas Taylor. Dallas Taylor managed Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young from 1968. He feels that his own career has died because of drug abuse. Dallas had used in the company of Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Keith Moon and many others. "If I had known I would lived past 30 I would have taken better care of myself", says Dallas Taylor who tells of the many suicide attempts and untimely deaths of his friends. In 1984 Dallas sobered up, it was a new start for him. He now helps musicians in "the industry" with abuse problems. Steve Stuart, Chris Jones, and Jason Westfall have all had similar experiences as managers of bands that had drug abuse among some of their members. Steve Stuart, the manager of The Stone Temple Pilots talks about the much publicized heroin problem of Scott Weiland, and concludes that Rock n Roll is married to Drug Abuse. Chris Jones, manager of Blind Melon expressed his feelings towards drug abuse, and told of the total learning experience he went through dealing with an abuser and helping them deal with their problems. Jason Westfall spoke about a band that he was working with and one of the members drug problem. Jason says that once it came down to actually beating up a band member in order to stop him from getting high, unfortunately in this case it wasnt enough, and the musician ended up overdosing. He also tells of his own previous drug use and abuse, which started at a young age. One of the lucky ones, Jason worked through his problem and now feels really prepared to deal with substance abuse. The final speaker Kathleen Austin is a drug abuse counsellor. She had lost her daughter to heroin. Her daughter was hanging out with a band and soon fell in love with one of the members. This band got a record deal and went on tour, and her daughter was left at home with a newly acquired heroin problem. Kathleen tried everything in her power to help her daughter, but lost that battle. She has dealt with many famous musicians and sees heroin as the number one drug of choice in the music industry. The message sent from all panel members is that there isnt much we can do to stop people from using drugs but we can try to educate them, so they avoid making the wrong choices. Chris Jones concludes that "Shannon Hoon was a much cooler person when he was sober." |
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