It’s a pretty classic story. You come off a show and you’re too keyed up to sleep, so you take some sleeping pills. You have to get up early the next morning, but the pills have wiped you out, so you take something to get you going. You know it’s a dangerous thing to do, but it becomes so easy. “Just one more night, I’m going to take something to get some rest.”
Elvis abhorred illegal drugs. He got hooked on prescriptions, which he probably started out thinking were okay since they were prescriptions. He had to know he was doing wrong when he started doctor shopping, but it’s hard to pull yourself out and there weren’t too many around him who would help him do it.
I guess the bottom line for me is that, yes, he was an addict, but the way he got hooked into it is much more understandable to me than someone doing lines of coke just for recreation. Kind of like Rush falling into it when he wanted to stop his back pain. I wish the big E had found the help that Rush had.
And now, one of my favorite Elvis related clips:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkQcW4L3Wic
“I guess the bottom line for me is that, yes, he was an addict, but the way he got hooked into it is much more understandable to me than someone doing lines of coke just for recreation.”
In the life of a junkie, in rehab or in the morgue there is no difference between the junkie who is hooked on prescription drugs or the junkie that is shooting H in a back alley.