“
I wouldn’t recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”
Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson.
A new documentary series called
Final 24 starts on Discovery Channel this evening (Monday, 6 November at 21h00) and looks at the final 24 hours in the lives of six different pop culture icons who died suddenly and dramatically.
The people the show’s featuring are Sid Vicious, John Belushi, River Phoenix, Marvin Gaye, Hunter S. Thompson and John Kennedy Jr. and out of the six of them five were riddled with drugs when they died.
Checking out their bio’s has gotten me thinking about legendary types in general and how drugs have been such a big part of the lives of so many of them.
Elvis, John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain and our own Brenda Fassie, to name only a few, were all major druggies. They not only battled them but also seemed to be inspired by them to the extent that they ended up being part of who they were.
Popular opinion argues that successful rehabilitation, gymning, eating healthily and living the cleanest life you possibly can is what makes you the ultimate of what you can be - but how true is this for everybody?
Take Elvis for instance, if he’d lived a Virgin Active lifestyle that’s such a socially acceptable way to be he might be a healthy 71 year old with years left in him right now but there’s just no ways he’d be the Elvis that he is. To me there is no question that the legacy he left that’s steeped in drugs is way more inspiring than if he was currently a healthy, fit pensioner.
It’s the same thing with every great type there’s been whose life’s been a love/ hate relationship with drugs - except Robert Downey Junior who’s managed to kick them of course.
He’s an interesting example because of how he's been used to make a point about them. I’ve always had the impression that his many very public arrests and rehab stories were to send a social message about how bad drugs are.
Yes it's cool that he's happy and has a good family life now that he’s clean but it’s sad that this is what’s made him acceptable enough to be on TV. Now he can go onto to talk shows and chat about who he is because he’s the cardboard cutout of what everyone thinks he should be. I don’t for a moment believe he’d ever have been invited onto Ellen if he was still who he was previously.
What frustrates me about this is how so many people refuse to mind their own business by only accepting those who live the types of lifestyle they see as being right for everyone. Also, how it’s assumed that people are too thick to think for themselves.
If The Doors were to arrive on the scene right now I’m fully convinced a recording studio wouldn’t sign them for fear of them being seen as bad role models.
Do these clinical expectations of people mean we’re gonna run out of the hectically wow legends in the future? I think it does.
As for why so many of them have taken drugs and ended up killing themselves as a result - why? Did the drugs create them or were they a way for them to deal with who they were? I reckon it’s a complex mix of both and that the part of their personality that needed them was also the part responsible for their talents. I'm quizzy to see if Final 24 comes to any conclusions about this and if so what.
I suspect that one thing it's gonna reveal is that Sid Vicious was different from the rest of them and that none of the above applies to him. From the sounds of it he was just a Norman Bates Psycho Boy who happened to turn his serial killer inner nature into noise before becoming a murderer.