Bob Dylan admits heroin addiction
The singer-songwriter was addicted to heroin and contemplated suicide in the 60s, it was revealed in a newly discovered interview.
The Hot Press Newsdesk, 23 May 2011
"I kicked a heroin habit in New York City", Dylan confessed to critic Robert Shelton in March 1966, in a two-hour interview unearthed by the BBC.
"I got very, very strung out for a while, I mean really, very strung out. And I kicked the habit. I had about a $25-a-day habit and I kicked it."
The interview which took place on Dylan's private jet, flying from Nebraska to Denver, lasted two hours.
He also admitted that he was less than happy with his work "You can't be happy by doing something groovy".
"I'll admit to having this suicidal thing... but I came through this time."
The tapes were discovered during research for Shelton's revised biography, which is on sale tomorrow on Dylan's 70th birthday.
The Hot Press Newsdesk
Latest Related Articles For This Artist
And the master songwriter remembers the Titanic too...
News: 2012-08-17
Suede will also play this year's festival.
News: 2012-04-05
Latest Related Videos For This Artist
Bristol University to host one-of-a-kind conference on May 24
2011-04-07 - News
The festival of Irish music returns after 7 years
2011-03-09 - News
An animated performance, from a voice that can still mesmerise like no other voice in the universe..
2010-07-16 - REVIEW
Pádraig Hanratty is the winner of our recent Bob Dylan competition - his live review is published in our new issue
2010-07-16 - News
OK, so let’s get all this out of the way at the start.
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
For the thirteenth time in the last decade, Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour landed at Irish shores
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
The art of storytelling and the home of the quintessential Limerick storyteller, Michael Hogan - The Bard of Thomond, were in safe hands on July 4 when Bob Dylan and his band performed at Thomond Park Stadium.
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
How ironic that Bob Dylan, on the final date of his current tour, should blow into the newly refurbished Thomond Park Stadium on one of the windiest days this year.
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
As the low lull of the final soundchecks finished, Limericks Last Days of Death Country confidently delivered their set to the assembling crowd in Thomond Park and were met with vigorous applause at the end of memorable favourites like ‘Words’ and ‘Strung Out’.
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
After the crowd was adequately warmed up by a blistering 45 minute set by Seasick Steve and his assortment of homemade guitars...
2010-07-08 - REVIEW
The fight to the rock 'n' roll death is taking place this Friday in Dolan's!
2010-06-22 - News
In addition to our original prize - your chance to review Dylan's Thomond Park gig for Hot Press - we've now added a whopping 45 albums from the singer's back catalogue to the first prize winnings!
2010-05-28 - News
YOU could be reviewing the legendary singer's Thomond Park gig in July for Hot Press
2010-05-07 - News
David Gray and Seasick Steve will be joining him in Limerick.
2010-03-11 - News
Tickets for the Thomond Park bash will be available next Monday.
2010-03-10 - News
Columbia Records have announced details of a Bob Dylan album of Christmas songs due for release on October 13.
2009-08-27 - News
As Bob Dylan's new album Together Through Life goes No.1 in the UK, we have a look HMV's top 5-selling Dylan catalogue recordings...
2009-05-05 - News
Fans can see iconic images from the Rolling Thunder Tour.
2009-04-27 - News
Folk fans who are too purist about the genre forget that it’s the flaws that make traditional music so wonderfully distinctive in the first place.
2009-04-24 - Reports
The legendary Bob Dylan has just announced that he will perform a second gig in the 02 Arena in May
2008-12-09 - News
The legendary performer makes his first trip to the new newly revamped Dublin venue on May 5th
2008-12-03 - News
The Bobfather’s more recent back pages yield a wealth of riches
2008-11-04 - REVIEW
Bob Dylan bands and fans will decend on Moville this week for DylanFest
2008-07-01 - News
Six Dylans for the price of one is the deal as maverick filmmaker Todd Haynes zooms in on the big Zim.
2007-12-20 - Interview
A new Bob Dylan Facebook application is among the smartest pieces of viral advertising yet. That's the view of influential e-media commentators at Techcrunch (who described it as "the coolest Facebook application yet"), Face Reviews and PSFKT – as well as the Sun newspaper.
2007-11-12 - News
Bob Dylan has been revealed as the artist who will present a new Sunday night show on Dublin's Phantom 105.2
2007-10-31 - News
Bob Dylan may not have won the Nobel Prize for Literature just yet, but with this year's Spanish Asturias Arts Award, he's definitely getting closer.
2007-06-13 - News
Dylan fans wishing to pay homage to their idol might not consider Donegal their first port of call, but DylanFest 2007 is set to change that.
2007-05-22 - News
Annual article: Bright young things like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen captured the HP critics’ hearts this year, though they somehow neglected Johnny Cash and Mark Lanegan...
2007-01-03 - Interview
Semi-officially, Modern Times is being touted as the third in a trilogy that began with 1997’s Time Out Of Mind and the follow up Love and Theft. Recorded with his current touring band and produced by Dylan himself, it treads very similar territory sonically with that raw, live feel and no-nonsense, almost 1950’s production that made his last two albums so compelling.
2006-09-06 - REVIEW
The Source Festival in Kilkenny kicked off the first two Dylan dates in Ireland this weekend - though he faced tough competition from support act The Flaming Lips.
2006-06-26 - News
If you're off to see the legend that is Bob Dylan play at the Source Festival in Kilkenny this weekend, we've got the full line up and stage times.
2006-06-20 - News
He may have been making music for over 40 years, but Bob Dylan remains as vital a force as ever.
2006-06-07 - Interview
Bob Dylan and the Flaming Lips will perform in a double bill spectacular.
2006-03-13 - News
Lest we forget, for a long time there most of us Dylan-ites were glad just to see the man could get his boots on of a morning, but post Chronicles, the stakes have been upped.
2005-12-07 - REVIEW
An extraordinary letter, written by Bob Dylan, offers a remarkable insight into the greatest songwriter of his generation. It also offers a hugely challenging perspective on the role of the artist.
2005-11-11 - Interview
With his first show there completely sold-out, Bob Dylan plays a second consecutive night at Dublin’s Point Theatre.
2005-08-04 - News
Bob Dylan’s Never Ending Tour rolls into Dublin again for a by his standards intimate gig in The Point.
2005-07-22 - News
The sound of history in the making, here’s a warts, gags and all document of young Bobby Dylan, folk hero, in the process of creating a rock revolution.
2004-05-12 - REVIEW
According to our political correspondent, Bob Dylan’s upcoming gig in Stormont marks a diefinitive end to the war. Hurray!
2004-03-31 - Interview
As revealed exclusively on hotpress.com Bob Dylan has revealed plans to play Galway.
2004-03-16 - News
hotpress.com understands that Bob Dylan is being lined-up for a show in Galway's Pearse Stadium
2004-03-15 - News
Fab Moretti, drummer with The Strokes, tells us how Dylan has inspired him.
2004-01-12 - Interview
Having been lucky enough to have witnessed Mr. Zimmerman’s legendary gig in Vicar St. a few years back, it seemed almost inevitable that a trip to this East Wall arena would prove anti-climactic. And so it proved to be.
2003-12-05 - REVIEW
There will be major disappointment for the Bob Dylan fans of Cork tonight, with doctors advising him against performing
2003-11-18 - News
Bob the Great will tour Dublin and Cork this November
2003-08-01 - News
Rolling Thunder finds Dylan and his travelling minstrel band reveling in novelty, comradeship, a sense of the mischievous and, most tellingly, the freshness of the then newly released Desire album.
2003-01-24 - REVIEW
For the most part, Love and Theft is made up of two distinct musical strands, blues-based floor-shakers and romantic, ragtimey ballads.
2001-09-13 - REVIEW
Those more familiar with Dylan’s modus operandi know that he has latterly treated the recorded versions of his songs as mere rough demos and starting points from which he walks a tightrope of adventurous reinvention from which he sometimes topples off.
2001-07-19 - REVIEW
Five albums, fifty-eight songs, sixty-eight pages of liner notes, one large container, and a title that's as bone-dry academic as anything you'll find sitting atop a legal document - against that backdrop, perhaps the first and most useful thing to say about Bob in the box is: don't be intimidated!
1991-05-02 - REVIEW
Bob Dylan at Slane - The music, the magic, the mayhem and so much more...
1984-07-27 - Interview
hotpress.com
Blogs on hotpress.com
Additional Sites on hotpress.com
- The Music Show
- The Jagermeister Freezer Sessions
- Hot Press Rock Photo
- The Philip Lynott Exhibition
- The INEC Homegrown Sessions
- HTC One Hotpress Photojournalist
- Genre Free Compilation
- MIX 13: Music Industry Xplained
- Shoot To Thrill: Make a Hot Press Cinema Ad
- Other Voices
- Best of Ireland
- The Big Break
- Hot for 2013
- Josh Ritter
- Eoin Glackin
- Bitter Rocc
Contact Us
Hot Press,
13 Trinity Street,
Dublin 2.
Rep. Of Ireland
Tel: +353 (1) 241 1500
Email:info@hotpress.ie
Click here for more contact information.
Click here to find out more about Hot Press
Hot Press always welcomes feed back so if you've got something to tell us click here.
Advertise With Us
For more detail on how to advertise with Hot Press click here or call us on +353 (1) 241 1540
©Hot Press 2012. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | About Us Jobs @ Hot Press