DURAN DURAN star John Taylor turned to drugs and alcohol at the height of the band's fame in an effort to cope with the demands of meeting fans and life on the road.

The bass player has opened up about his highs and lows in his upcoming memoirs, In the Pleasure Groove: Love, Death and Duran Duran, and he admits his problems started spiralling out of control when he found himself with too much time on his hands while the band was recording their smash-hit Rio album in the early 1980s.

He tells Spinner.com, "I realised the role of the bass player was not the role of the guitar player. My recording was over so quickly. On the Rio album, I probably spent five to six days in the studio, whereas guitar overdubs would take three, four times that, as would keyboards. I started to realise, 'F**k, I had a lot of time on my hands'. And I'm never good with time on my hands, not even now."

The drugs and alcohol also helped Taylor cope with loneliness and gave him the persona he needed as a pop superstar.

He adds, "I really f**king missed it (home life) when I got out on the road. I really suffered from incredible loneliness. And I was also shy. So the drugs and the alcohol really enabled me to be that guy. That guy that I was in 1981 wouldn't have made it through what's required to being a pop star.

"It was quite destructive. I didn't have the off switch that my bandmates did. Even if it was five o'clock in the morning, everybody would be saying, 'I think I'm gonna go to bed now,' because we got to travel to New York tomorrow. I'd still be going. I just didn't have the off switch. But I only came to terms with that much, much later."

Taylor checked in to an Arizona rehab facility in the early 1990s when he hit rock bottom - and he has been in recovery ever since.

He reveals he felt compelled to write about his rehab experience in detail because it was such a profound time for him.

The rocker states, "I know so many people who are struggling with addiction and I just wanted to let the common reader know that I had an extraordinary experience and there are extraordinary experiences out there for the taking. I've had a lot of experience in recovery since then.

"I wanted to demystify it and say it's not rocket science, but you do have to be committed to recovery. There are a lot of people out there that need it but just can't get it... I also wanted to relate that experience of getting that recovery and getting exposed to just an extraordinary level of treatment. I was so fortunate."