During a recent interview on the WTF Podcast, Marc Maron asked former Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan if doing heroin helped him creatively when he used it in the past.
“That’s so hard to say really.”
“I have, and I’ve done records that I thought were really good on, and I’ve done records that I thought were really good off, and I’ve done records that couldn’t come out because they were so bad when I was on. Ultimately, it’s a gamble, and my experience with that stuff is ultimately not a positive one, because the of the damage it has done to my existence.”
“Really, to be honest about drugs, the only drugs I ever did that sort of enhanced my abilities I thought, wasn’t really dope, but weed at one time made me do stuff that I never would have done otherwise. I quit smoking weed for about 5 years, then around the time I made my second solo record Whisky, I decided to smoke weed, and it made me do some stuff that I had never thought about doing. Of course it turned on my quickly, like all drugs.”
“Anything I ever did, that’s all I ever did. After the first time it wore off, I was doing it again. But then there was a brief period of time when; I shouldn’t even say this, because I don’t in any way advocate it, because ultimately it was really damaging as well.”
He then sarcastically added, “But there was a period of time where I thought this meth thing is really working for me artistically. I’m really getting a lot done.”
“But those are really the only two.”
