It has been my personal observation that drugs-legal or illegal-catch up with and burn a person out years before they would have checked out otherwise-two of my relatives were addicted to prescription drugs-both OD’d in their 60’s-in a family in which living into the 90’s is common. Small wonder the rest of us regard drugs as poison to be avoided.
Nilsson, Johnny Cash, Reed, one of the Gibb brothers, and most of the other musicians who died untimely had used drugs for some years in the past-besides the aforementioned relatives, several friends of mine who’d been users have died in their early 50’s to mid 60’s. Most of them had quit all drugs years before, but their bodies were already trashed.
I predict that very few of the baby boomer-era musicians will make it to 80. (This includes those born before the baby boomer era but influenced the baby boomer generation.)
That Reed even made it to 71 was amazing. You're right -- that whole lifestyle.