STAN GETZ ON HIS DRUG ADDICTION AND ALCOHOLISM
STAN GETZ ON HIS DRUG ADDICTION AND ALCOHOLISM
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“Going into this drugstore, I demanded more narcotics. I said I had a gun” – Getz recalling what happened in Seattle in 1954 while addicted to heroin.
Stan Getz started using heroin at 16, he remembers, "because some older, decadent jazz musicians wanted to turn a nice kid on. I didn't even know that smack was habit-forming. In two weeks I was hooked and I spent 10 years trying to get off."
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STAN GETZ TALKING ABOUT HIS LIFELONG DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE IN A 1986 INTERVIEW WITH MUSIC EXECUTIVE AND AUTHOR JOE SMITH.
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I think what we did was in spite of the drugs. The drugs were in the culture long before they reached the public. The jazz musician’s been in the forefront of the language that’s used now, the drugs that’s used now. The whole attitude of the ‘80’s comes from the ‘40’s. It started to manifest itself in the ‘60’s.
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Even when you were so much involved with both drugs and alcohol, you played well.
We played well all the time. You can do anything with practice. I’m sure we could’ve played better if we weren’t.
I’m a recovered alcoholic. I don’t do anything anymore, but those things, those things take away … You’re a different personality completely when you take those. For those who are really chemically dependent on anything, it’s not you. Of course, I’ve done some dastardly things, but what can I do except make amends and apologize? Since I stopped drinking, which is almost a year ago, I’ve started to feel like I’m a member of the world. I never was. I was so fucked up all my life.
I had a 10-year heroin habit and kicked that. Then I became an alcoholic. I drank two fifth’s a day.
It’s just like they say at Alcoholics Anonymous. I was either and/or going insane or I was going to die. I was one of those guys who was in constant denial. Look, I work. I do my job. I support my family, boom. I do everything I was supposed to do. If I want a drink, f*ck you, I’ll drink.
It’s a disease and it took me that long. It took me 45 years from the time I was 15 until I was now and I just wouldn’t believe it. I could drink. I’d get up there and play and I don’t remember. Most of my records I don’t remember making…
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