Drugs can be good and drugs can be bad. If you have high blood pressure a drug can protect you from an earlier cardiovascular death. But if you are into recreational drugs that set your troubled mind to a different place you might get some enjoyment from the experience and have no further problems or you might set yourself up for a ton of problems.
I ain’t slept in seven days, I haven’t ate in three
This methamphetamine has got a damn good hold of me
My tweaker friends have got me to the point of no return
So I just put my lighter to the bulb and watch it burn,
Amphetamine can be a very dangerous drug. There’s a good reason why it’s illegal. But it is also a drug that could be performance enhancing. Our military knows that when they send pilots into battle. And some parents who want to kick their kid’s school performance up a notch know that when they try to convince their doctor that their special kid has ADHD. Josh Williams was a meth head while winning a few IBMA guitar player of the year awards. But drug use can lead to a spiral of decline like Billy Strings’s lyrics above describe. Josh Williams lost jobs as a result of his drug use and ended up in rehab.
Some of our best music has either been written about or inspired by recreational drugs, alcohol being the most prominent among them.
Don’t sell daddy anymore whiskey
I know it will take him away
We are all hungry and mamma is weeping
Don’t sell him no whiskey today
When Keith Whitley died in 1989 due to alcohol poisoning, the bluegrass world took a big hit. Drugs can heal. Drugs can cure. And drugs can entice with euphoria that leads to destruction.
I called my Cora, hey hey
She come on sniffin’ with her nose all sore,
Doctor swore (she’s) gonna smell no more
Sayin’ coke’s for horses, not women nor men
The doctor said it will kill you, but he didn’t say when
I’m simply wild about my good cocaine
The following was copied from Wikipedia about William Apostol, AKA Billy Strings, the author of the first song quoted above:
“While he was still a pre-teen his parents became addicted to methamphetamine. He left the family home at the age of thirteen and himself went through a period of hard-drug usage. His family eventually achieved sobriety; Billy stopped using hard drugs and drinking alcohol”.
Man! Have you ever listened to this guy play? Billy Strings is phenomenal! We need this guy to come to our Grass Valley Festival pro bono because we could never afford him. Maybe we can persuade Molly Tuttle to work on him about how great the weather is here in sunny California. That’s my fervent hope at least.
But seriously, where do we draw the line between drugs that improve our physical health, drugs that improve our mental health, and drugs that just make us “feel better”?Finding an answer to that question is a perilous journey that we all must take. At least it’s a question that has inspired some truly great music we can all enjoy.
