He was an alcoholic, but his wife stood by him and saw him through it- He does preach to his music friends about God and about gettign sober and staying off drugs- He’s pretty solid in his beleif i guess-
but yeah, in his early years- He went pretty wild- He was one of the first ‘shock artists’ and sang about some pretty nasty things- he later regretted it though- He was also one of the first ‘theatrical artists’ who put on a heck of a show- He’s credited with being one of the early innovators of certain music genres- He even had songs that were kinda rap-like
He and Groucho Marx were good friends. Groucho said his show was the best since Vaudeville.