Albert Hammond, Jr., the Strokes' guitarist and solo artist extraordinaire, recently revealed that he wasn’t just a garden variety drug addict back in the day—he was a fucking drug addict. In a new interview with NME, the 33-year-old talks music as well as the extent of his drug use in his twenties.
Hammond told the music outlet that there were moments when he seemed totally fine and felt like he came across as if he had his act together, when in actuality he was doing a lot of different sorts of drugs. He even told the outlet a story about why he learned to hide his habit.
"I mean, you have moments when you're fine. And if someone meets you, you seem fine. But I remember when I was showing someone music and I was wearing a short shirt and…there were just purple [track marks] all the way down. And then they would call someone - 'Did you see Albert, he looks crazy?' That's where I learned to wear long sleeves."
Hammond also says he did drugs throughout his twenties, noting that he was into oxycontin and cocaine between the ages of 24 and 26. By the time he hit 27, he had moved on to heroin. And the doses he was taking seem astronomical.
"I used to shoot cocaine, heroin and ketamine. All together. Morning, night, 20 times a day. You know, I was a mess. I look back and I don't even recognize myself. I did my own thing."
If that number is less of a generalization and more of an actual number, Hammond is super lucky to still be functioning. The man has spent the last four years sober and he seems to have put his drug addiction into perspective. It’s a good thing, too. Plenty of people in artistic fields have let drugs get the best of them, recently evidenced by the tragic death this summer of Glee actor Cory Monteith, who passed away with a cocktail of drugs in his system. The list of musicians who have died due to drug or alcohol problems is also long. Fortunately, Hammond isn't a part of it.
In addition to staying sober and awesome, the man’s also busy putting out new music, with the EP called AHJ hitting outlets on October 8.
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