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1970 marked an interesting period for rock music; it was the noticeable beginning of musical divergence, as well as the fusion of other music styles, such as jazz, with rock. While the 60s primarily established rock as a popular and distinguished music, the 70s started to evolve rock beyond this tradition, and the rock star image became prominent. Heroin use among rock stars increased during the 70s, providing a means for rock stars to rationalize ongoing changes in the genre and to cope with the “larger than life" lifestyle frequently tied to it – it provided an anticipated emotional response (euphoria and relaxation) and an ironic sense of stability. Heroin, unlike drugs like cocaine, acts as a relaxant that numbs the senses [1]. In a lifestyle, such as rock stardom, that advocates sensory overload and commercial aspiration over artistic freedom it becomes impossible to have both. Heroin was capable of alleviating the dissatisfaction that came with pursuing commercialism by sacrificing artistic ingenuity. As such, use during this time seemingly corresponded to a loss of personal identity in favor of commercial success. Artists that lost themselves in the concept of consumerism as an end point struggled with heroin abuse, frequently overlooking their artistic ambitions, and falling into the paranoia and “not caring" aspects of the drug.

“Heroin, be the death of me," Lou Reed asks in his 1967 song “Heroin." Although Lou Reed is still alive today, his career through the 70s was well marked by heroin abuse and addiction. With the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison in 1970 and 1971, and both deaths having been attributed to heroin [2, 3], lists of rock stars most likely to die began to appear in magazines. At the top of every list remained two rock stars competing for the number one spot: Keith Richards, and Lou Reed [4]. Lou Reed’s band, the Velvet Underground, redefined expectations of rock, contributing to the “music as art" phenomenon. Reed’s innovative, iconoclastic style captured the eye of postmodern artist Andy Warhol. Warhol fully exposed Reed and the rest of the Velvet Underground to a style of life and society of which the mainstream audience was unaware. It was in this society of transvestites and drug addicts (Warhol was one) that Reed found the sort of realism and impending doom of which he sang. “Heroin," at the time, was not a song explicitly about Reed – he was then only an infrequent user – but it was rather about the sorts of people he had encounters with, courtesy of Warhol. While Warhol readily exposed him to junkies, prostitutes, dealers, and a whole slew of “underground" cultures during the 60s, it was only in the 70s during his solo career that Reed’s own heroin addiction took off, supplanting his frequent amphetamine use [5]. With “Walk on the Wild Side" from Reed’s 1972 Transformer album making top 10 on UK charts, and top 20 on US charts, Lou Reed’s career entered a stage of popularity he could not have envisioned. Like many stars struggling with identity issues, Reed found the success to be too much, and deteriorated into a depressed, self-conscience state in which heroin abuse was his means of coping with reality. Reed felt the pressure to cater to rock star expectations, but also had his own desire for artistic freedom. This led to the release of Reed’s fairly biographical album, Berlin, themed with depressing messages of suicide, drug abuse, fame, and fortune – seemingly detailing his thoughts as a rock star. Berlin contains the song “Men of Good Fortune" in which Reed states, “I just don’t care at all," referring to the forces contributing to the lifestyle changes brought on by fortune. This sort of apathy also coincides perfectly with the “I just don’t care" mentality associated with heroin, of which Reed had become a regular user. Berlin fully embodies Reed’s conflicted state of commercial success and also expresses his desires for true artistic individuality. Due to his ability to maintain a sense of self-identity (artistic expression) during this time, Reed was able to prevent himself from fully deteriorating into a sort of heroin oblivion. However, the album was considerably unsuccessful during its release, and Reed apparently did care about commercial success, indicated by the release of his next album. Determined, Reed created an album intended specifically for the consumer audience, Sally Can’t Dance, an upbeat pop-oriented album in which live performances met the audience’s expectation of Reed as the caricatured junkie [6]. The rest of Reed’s 70s releases embodied the ongoing battle between consumerism and artistic freedom of expression, mirroring the ups and downs of his heroin addiction. Eventually, in the 80s, Reed managed to overcome his heroin affliction along with the seemingly connected conflict of consumerism (and commercial success) versus artistic freedom, releasing a number of artistic and commercially unsuccessful albums.

A similar battle with heroin and other drugs affected David Bowie throughout his career. Struggling to make his mark in the late 60s, Bowie finally achieved some success in 1969 with his top 5 hit, “Space Oddity." With this first encounter with stardom, Bowie was greeted with the image of success, and immediately acquired a heroin habit, later referring to himself (Major Tom) as a heroin junkie in his 1980 Scary Monsters release “Ashes to Ashes." Heroin, unlike other drugs, allowed Bowie to relax and experience relief from the demands of commercial success. Bowie attempted to follow up this success with his hard rock album The Man Who Sold the World released in 1970. The album was laced with paranoia and depression, which can readily be attributed to heroin side-effects, and an overall bleak outlook for the future. Due primarily to poor production, however, the album was a complete failure. While these previous releases showcased some of Bowie’s creativity and extravagance, as far as modeling a character after himself (Major Tom) and being comfortable with wearing a dress (The cover of The Man Who Sold the World), his true breakthrough with commercial success began after the release of Hunky Dory. Hunky Dory represents a seemingly optimistic, more stable kind of life; one free of drug abuse. This change was primarily brought on by the failure of The Man Who Sold the World, the birth of his son, and a conscious decision to not cater specifically to the consumer market. Songs like “Kooks" detail his hopes of a mellow life with his new born son, and his cover of the Paul Williams song “Fill Your Heart" shows his desire for happier times. Additionally, the album has a strong motif of artistic creativity, with statements like, “look out you rock’n’rollers," and an avant-garde song honoring Andy Warhol. Hunky Dory signifies Bowie’s desire to diverge from the mainstream commercially successful rock that he experienced with “Space oddity" and do something new. The album, upon initial release, was met with good reviews, but limited success. His manager at the time, Tony Defries, recommended using the press to his advantage to help sell the album. In January of 1972 during an interview with Melody Maker magazine, acting on the advice from his manager, Bowie publically announced that he was gay [7]. The immediate response was overwhelming – Bowie went from being a commercial nobody to playing sold-out venues. Following the aftermath of the press release, Bowie released his best known album, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, guaranteeing his rock and roll stardom. Ziggy, almost single handedly, created the entire glam rock movement. Bowie became a sort of spectacle for the audience, more of a theatre man than a musician, and, like Lou Reed, lost track of his identity. The Ziggy days showed a relapse into excessive drug and heroin use, once again to mitigate the negative aspects of commercial sucess. Bowie desired more than being a simple strung-out showman, and made the active decision to reinvent himself, killing off the Ziggy personality in July of ’73. Bowie, with new artistic vision, attempted to secure the musical rights to George Orwell’s 1984, but was unable to do so. With the failure of achieving this artistic endeavor, but still having recorded numerous songs for this purpose, Bowie released his 1984-themed Diamond Dogs album in 1974 [8]. The album encompasses the ever-present duality in Bowie’s life – artistic freedom versus commercial success. Many tracks, like ”Big Brother," contain the avant-garde, artistic ingenuity of the 1984 concept album, yet the album quickly deteriorates. Diamond Dogs is full of songs about death and depression, “We are the Dead," as well as upbeat pop songs, like “Rebel Rebel," specifically made with the consumer in mind. Diamond Dogs was marked with considerable success (number 1 on UK charts, and number 5 on US charts), which fueled an additional wave of drug excess and abuse in Bowie’s career. Seemingly unable to break free from the rock star “live fast, die young" life style, Bowie decided to fully accept it after the release of Diamond Dogs. “Lost in the wilderness with only his drugs for companionship," Bowie recorded his “last great personality" album, Station to Station in 1976 [9]. The recording session was marked by a heavily drug-dependent Bowie, unable to differentiate between reality and drug-induced delusions. With two top 10 hits resulting from the album, and Bowie remembering little of how the album came into existence, he felt that he needed help [10]. Determined, Bowie contacted Brian Eno, and traveled to Berlin to work on an artistic endeavor free of the commercial environment that made his out-of-control heroin and cocaine abuse necessary. Bowie’s Berlin Triology (Low, Heroes, and Lodger) was successful on an artistic level, but did not achieve the same level of success that his glam rock work did. This sort of success Bowie seemed to be able to cope with, that of personal rather than commercial, and he was able to significantly curtail his drug use. A relapse into cocaine addiction occurred during his most successful 1980s Let’s Dance era, finally ending in divorce and yet another artistic reinvention of his music. The sporadic heroin and drug abuse phases in Bowie’s career directly correlate to his commercial success. The fact that Bowie has been able to make active endeavors to overcome his addictions signifies just how out of control the commercial environment can be. Unable to cope with success and seeking a “real," rather than “commercial" environment, Bowie would lapse into extreme heroin abuse – an activity that provided him with a reliable and well-known emotional response, and a means to “just not care" about the dichotomy between commercial success and artistic freedom. The fact that Bowie was able to experience periods of artistic freedom without heavy dependence on drugs allowed for him to be actively aware of the monster brought on by success, and eventually rationalize his career.

While both Bowie and Reed had significant artistic vision to face the reality of commercialism and success, being able to overcome the expectations of the rock star and the discontent that was connected, many rock stars of the 1970s were unable to retain self-identity and lapsed into a delusional drug-based reality from which they were unable to recover. John Simon Ritchie, better known as Sid Vicious, became a member of the Sex Pistol when John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) brought him in to replace Glen Matlock. Vicious had no musical talent or ability, which mis-manager Malcolm McLaren thought fit perfectly with the rest of the band, and instead based his career solely on his image – something that is hard to control when it comes to rock stardom. Promoting the “punk" image over the actual concept of music, Vicious’s career soon began to embody the commercial interpretation of punk. He represented the “no future" and “live fast, die young" images almost perfectly – cutting himself on stage, and getting into fights with audience members [11]. The career, for Vicious, became all about projecting the consumer image; he became an actor of himself, rather than just being himself. As such, his onstage antics became increasingly overwhelming. At the forefront of this “act" was the excessive use of heroin, supported by his girlfriend (who also acted as his dealer), Nancy Spungen. Heroin made Vicious feel like he was the star of the show, and thus larger than life. He would be euphoric during performances, deluded by the notion that he was the only “star," and that Lydon, as well as the other Sex Pistols, were hampering his ability to “shine." With the heroin came the heroin chic and New York subculture (Andy Warhol-styled extravagances), which is a powerful force much greater than an individual. For Vicious, the commercial demands overcame him, and his lost track of his true identity, slipping into complete heroin dependence and delusion – the only reality that remained for Vicious, having not been brought into the scene with any notion of true self-identity. With no artistic or musical undercurrent to allow him to resurface as himself, Vicious eventually succumbed to the influence of heroin, and unsurprisingly overdosed in 1979.

While it may seem ironic today that rockers like David Bowie, Lou Reed, Keith Richards, and others outlived many of the journalists prophesying their deaths, their careers embody the impact and effect that heroin had during this period – a means of coping with, and “toning down," the demands of rock stardom. Heroin, unlike hallucinogens, or stimulants, acts as a relaxant – providing a mellow, happy contrast to the huge image of rock stardom. For Bowie and Reed, heroin and drug abuse marked a transition from their own creative endeavors, to being a product of the commercial environment – it allowed them to repress the negatives that went along with success. Heroin, to them, was a medium used to cope with the larger than life image that rock stardom created. Bowie and Reed were able to eventually overcome this aspect of the rock star image and rationalize their existence in its creative form. For other rock stars, like Sid Vicious, the image was all that existed. When the artistic endeavor that led to this point eventually ceased to exist, all that was left for these individuals was heroin and the lifestyle that went along with it – rather than using it to merely cope with success, it became their identity (heroin being used to become a rock star, rather than being used to deal with rock stardom). This lack of identity led to increased heroin use which, in many cases, led to eventual overdose. The 70s represented a time of larger than life rock stardom, and heroin readily surfaced amongst these larger than life rockers, either as a means to endure commercial success, or to perpetuate an identity.