Peter Doherty at the height of his addiction in 2006
Photo: Getty Images, Bruno Vincent. All rights reserved.
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In the recent ME talk, Peter Doherty announced that he had been living drug-free for more than two years. In a new interview he has now reported on his decades-long addiction – apparently a cliff dance to death: “There were really a few tight decisions. I almost lost my feet and other terrible things. It was very close, if only because of the injections. This is what happens when you run out of veins. It all seems so long ago now, but it was a hell of a ride,” he told British tabloid The Mirror.
“There are no drugs here”
In an interview with MUSIKEXPRESS, Doherty gave a conglomeration of reasons that made it possible for him to live without heroin, cocaine and crack: On the one hand, in the course of preparing for a tour of the Libertines at the end of 2019, there was a conversation with his intimate Carl Barât – he missed it with the request to stay clean at least during the tour. Then came the lockdown, which the musician spent on the French north coast in Étretat. “There are no drugs here,” says Doherty. Furthermore, the love for his wife Katia de Vidas saved his life – and the fact that he has had neither a mobile phone nor the Internet since the beginning of his withdrawal.
land in sight
Then there is the collaboration with arranger Frédéric Lo, from which the recently released record THE FANTASY LIFE OF POETRY & CRIME emerged. Originally, Lo only asked the former enfant terrible of British guitar music for a cover: “I found out this guy wanted me to cover a song by French singer Daniel Darc. It was called ‘Inutile et hors d’usage’, which means ‘useless and used up,'” Doherty told The Mirror, adding, “I got really emotional when (Lo) played it to me, it did really hit me. I was quitting hard drugs and I felt really shitty. The best way I can describe it is like I was hit by a bus.” He still describes the addiction as “quite a struggle” – but the obsession wears off and it gets easier.
Four-page conversation to read in the Musikexpress
A four-page interview with the 43-year-old can be read in the current issue of MUSIKEXPRESS. In it, Doherty talks about working with the French arranger Frédéric Lo, he pathologizes his psyche and compares his current self with the self he was 20 years ago, when the Libertines debut UP THE BRACKET was released. At the end of the interview, Doherty also reveals what the band’s new music is like.
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