“…and I’ll probably end with that platitude.”
Interviewer (starting at 3:28): “If drug addiction is that stultifying, why does it take such a grip on people for so long orm, indeedm, until they die?”
Taylor: “The key for an addict is how much of a relief [he/she may] feel when they first discover their drug of choice.” [HE: In Taylor’s case it was horse.] “When that really works for them, watch out for the back end. Because you’ll hold on to the very end. You’ll be the last person to admit that [your drug of choice has] gotta go.”
HE confession: “Recreational drugs didn’t exactly ‘run the show’ when I was 22 or 23, but they sure were my friends. I saw my life as a series of necessary survival moves, spiritual door-openings, comic exploits, adventures, erotic intrigues — everything and anything that didn’t involve duty, drudgery, having a career and mowing the lawn on weekends. Pot, hashish, mescaline, opiates, peyote buttons, Jack Daniels and beer were my comrades in crime.”
For all of my insane drug experimenting in my early 20s, I never got stuck in an addiction pit. Okay, I got into trouble with vodka-and-lemonade in the mid ’90s, but I put that puppy to bed also. I just have this resistance to self-destruction…an ability to shrug it off and walk away.