Albarn sets about clarifying his comments on drug abuse, but still insists it wasn't a mistake
Damon Albarn has already told us that heroin was a great source of creativity, for him anyway. And now he’s opened up on his days of drug addiction in a new interview with Time Out Magazine, in which he admits he found the drug “very agreeable” to begin with.
Damon Albarn, Looking Pensive
The former Blur frontman has recently embarked on a solo career having collaborated with different musicians following his departure from the 90s Britpop legends. The subject of drug abuse has been a perennial talking point for Albarn of late, and in his latest public chat, he says he didn’t “totally see” his drug use as “a mistake”.
“I wanted to say it. I wanted to explain something that was really profound for me and had a massive effect on my life 15 years ago,” said Damon, perhaps alluding to the controversial admittance that Heroin made him very creative.”
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“It was a long time ago. I'm not touchy. I'm just aware there's an ambiguity and that my explanation can get lost in the sensational amplification of things,” he added. “So, I'm left with two options: I either become really guarded and aloof, and return to this reputation I've had over the years of being a difficult b*****d, or I just don't talk at all. It's really frustrating... you must understand that?”
Albarn’s new album, Everyday Robots, has received glowing reviews from the press, putting his remarks that he was at his ‘creative best’ when using heroin under further scrutiny. But perhaps the years of sobriety have channelled something new and exciting in the prolific musician. Whatever mindset he’s in now, though, he insists he doesn’t see using heroin as an error.
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“But I don't totally see it as a mistake. That's the point. It was part of me growing up. Look, I didn't go out and look for it,” he said. “I turned up at my house and there it was, made on the table. What should I have done? Leave my life and reject it or stay in my own house with my girlfriend and somehow assimilate it into my life? Once I'd tried it, I found it initially very agreeable, and very creative.”
Damon Albarn insists taking heroin wasn't a mistake