I personally don’t believe for a minute that Bird’s addiction to heroine or his use of benzedrine fueled his creativity at all. If anything it got quite in the way. In Sonny’s own words: Bird scolded him when he heard he had been using.
I believe that if Charlie Parker was an exercise and health nut the chances are quite high that we would still be hearing him play today and a lot of other great musicians would have gotten on that kick as well.
The New York Post is just guessing...
That's the delusion - that a little of this or a little of that can make things "better".
Singers who drink to "relax". Guitar players who take little white pills to speed things up. Opiates to make the pain of the resulting mess disappear for a little while.
And predators in the bidness who are all too happy to profit from it.
A band doesn't have a bar tab so the players can drink - but so they can get "friends" (paid to be) in the crowd to take their first one.
Take a little care when you put your lips
To her long cool neck
One kiss will be too much, a hundred not enough...--Devil In The Eye, Big Country
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtqDL11Maxc
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=big+country+lead+singer+found+dead
The Music Bidness... isn't always about music.