David Bowie’s Cocaine Addiction
At the height of his career, David Bowie, whose given name at birth was David Robert Jones, and cited to be one of the most influential writers of the pop age was hiding a secret that few knew. A secret that many hide, he was addicted to cocaine.
David Bowie's Cocaine Addiction
While David Bowie was on his “Diamond Dog” tour, he was cited as living on a diet of milk, hot peppers, and yes, cocaine. During the height of his drug addiction, videos and interviews show him sniffling almost constantly, and responding to the questions with answers that only David Bowie could understand.
His appearance was almost ghostly, with his thin pale structure and gaunt face. It doesn’t seem ironic that one of his more well know alter egos was known as ‘The Thin White Duke’, in which the title alone seemed to personify his very appearance. It has even been reported that during the height of his drug addiction that he weighed a meager 95 pounds.
Eventually David Bowie was able to kick his cocaine addiction and used his celebrity rock-star status as a way to reach others who were also struggling with cocaine and other addictions. He became an advocate for anti-drug usage and reaches out to children and adults alike warning them of the lingering affects after drug use is discontinued, sometime enduring for the rest of a persons life. David Bowie has been quoted in the past as saying that “He has unbelievable holes in his memory, along with his mind being like Swiss cheese, and suffering emotional damage.”
Like David Bowie, there are many celebrities and musicians who also suffer from cocaine addiction and other substance addiction. It shows that cocaine and drug addiction can strike anywhere, any place, anytime, and doesn’t care who you are, or whether you’re a celebrity or rock-star.
The fact that so many celebrities, such as David Bowie, have made the decision to use their life experience to share with others and possibly touch the life of another and keep them from walking down the same path is inspirational and encouraging.
It humanizes them, and allows people to relate to them, when generally people tend to put celebrities on a pedestal and exempt from the everyday life struggles and choices that we all face. The truth is, they’re people just like we are, with a gift and an opportunity to share their story, which could make all the difference in the life of another
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Well I am sure we all figured David Bowie had his battle with substances. It is great to read that he was able to kick his habit and move on with his life, making music and movies that always bring up great memories. Labrinth still rates as one of my all time faves
There is a great substance abuse facility called Narconon Vista Bay that helps with all sorts of drug addictions. If you cant help yourself, then get help through some place you know has a wonderful track record and treats you right. Good luck to all 
just like David Bowie there are other celebrities in (like drew barrymore)whop suffered from drug addiction.good for him he was able to quit this addiction & using his life experience to influence others(drug addict people)to quit this dangerous path.it is really important for all of us to learn that certain thing in life shouldn’t be kept in hiding inside & it should be dealt with before things goes out of control.but thankfully there are some program likeNarconon Vista Bay which are helping people to quit this dangerous path to leave a normal life without drug.
being under the yoke of addiction destroy’s one’s self. like David, drug addiction can strike anywhere, any place, anytime, and doesn’t care who you are. But there are institutions offering best services to treat this addiction like Vista bay rehab which serve people for the benefit of their health
I thought I was going to read some interesting personal stories about all of the really stupid things that Bowie did on coke. The kind of stuff that scares you away form doing drugs. Instead I got a lame write up by someone who is obviously doesn’t know anything about David Bowie, or his music, or history, and some ads for some rehab center. Lame.
Well i have in mind that David Bowie’s life has been a mirror to those who have in that path also and i hope whoever can read his life and who are still in the pit of his addiction may realize there’s still hope and a life so good without drugs. David Bowie’s life will be a concrete example for those who are and are not in that hell.
am in my 50s and i’ve known Ziggy stardust – Alias David Bowie in the early 80s and later… For sure, i still can’t distinguish between Mr Bowie, The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan (Maybe u can help). nevertheless I can say this guy is a genius, like a rainbow, metamorphosing himself in different colours (Maybe Karma camaleon reminds u of something). So, it’s not strange that he got hooked, who else didn’t at that time? Mr. Dave Bowie is a real professional – and he knows when to start and when tyo stop, but getting the stuff at one time in one’s life can be for the records, and even more, for prestige. Good luck, guy!
cool.
@hedi boughanmi
Well said, Hedi
I too am a 50 year old…. in our ‘youth’ (and just as in the current culture of ‘youths’ today,)there was a certain ‘fashion’ or prediliction for taking cocaine.
Times change of course, people don’t….. but just as in fashions of attire, so there is in particular drugs, which is usually exacerbated by ones’ environment of that era.
It’s no surprise that ‘creative’ people use cocaine: MANY have (Sigmund Freud being one) as it boosts the serotonin & dopamine levels in the brain. No wonder.
He did his best work while coked up. Station to Station, which allegedly he does not remember recording, is his peak IMO.