The 15 Most Drug-Fueled Albums Ever Made
[ranking: 4]
Gorillaz - 'Gorillaz'
[ranking: 15]
Damon Albarn admitted years after the release of the debut Gorillaz album in 2001 that he and his partner Jamie Hewlett were often under the influence of H while creating the songs and cartoons for the groundbreaking project.
"I used to go to work and take [H] in the studio and then stop when I came home. That's why I say it's five days a week and two days off, and that's how I existed for several years," Albarn told British GQ, adding that he doesn't believe he would've been able to create something like Gorillaz unless he and Hewlett were in their "own worlds."
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Fleetwood Mac - 'Rumours'
[ranking: 6]
Fleetwood Mac's reputation for dysfunction was almost as big as their reputation for indulging heavily in controlled substances and alcohol. Their massive album Rumours, the second to feature Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, was quite accomplished with the help of coke - which the band allegedly took to stay awake and alert during marathon recording sessions.
It also masked the emotional problems happening between band members at the time, which included the divorce of Christine and John McVie, as well as the breakup of Nicks and Buckingham.
"You felt so bad about what was happening that you did a line to cheer yourself up," Nicks told Mojo. The substance was such a big part of the album that the band debated thanking their dealer in the liner notes.
"I don't know if I would have written 'Songbird' had I not had a couple of toots of [coke] and a half-bottle of champagne and I just couldn't sleep, or written any of the songs that were on that album because I think we were all pretty loaded," Christine McVie recalled during an interview the BBC.
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Black Sabbath - 'Vol. 4'
[ranking: 1]
Black Sabbath spent so much time and money on coke during the recording of 1972's Vol. 4 that they originally planned to title the album Snowblind. In fact, the band's habit cost more than the recording of the album.
According to bassist Geezer Butler, the record came with a price tag of $60,000, while the snowstorm in which the band recorded cost $75,000. As Ozzy explained:
For me, Snowblind was one of Black Sabbath's best-ever albums - although, the record company wouldn't let us keep the title, 'cos in those days [coke] was a big deal, and they didn't want the hassle of a controversy.
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Harry Nilsson And John Lennon - 'Pussy Cats'
[ranking: 9]
The story of Harry Nilsson and John Lennon's Pussy Cats is one of wild partying and excess. It was Nilsson's 10th album, and Lennon stepped in to produce it after the pair began hanging out around Los Angeles and getting into trouble. It was a difficult album to complete, as Nilsson's voice was beginning to deteriorate - so much so that Lennon paused sessions at one point to help Nilsson heal.
Things never quite got better, however, and his bad habits and heavy drinking didn't help. At one point during recording, Nilsson hemorrhaged his vocal cords and tried to pass it off as nothing more than a sore throat. Lennon's assistant, May Pang, recalled:
John had suggested - because he was in such bad shape - you gotta get your throat taken care of. At night he'd be snorting and drinking, so what good would that be? He didn't tell John he was losing his voice. He didn't tell him he was hemorrhaging in his throat, he didn't say it was bleeding. He'd say it was just sore.
The album was released to divided response, and controlled substance use played a major role in making it such a problematic project. Lennon and Nilsson did try and find some humor in it, however - subtly including a hidden message that read "drugs" on the album cover.
The Beach Boys - 'Smile'
[ranking: 10]
By the time Brian Wilson began work on Smile, he was already deep into his usage, and his behavior had started to become extremely questionable. He created Smile in an effort to make an album of songs that fit the mold of his magnum opus "Good Vibrations," enlisting lyricist Van Dyke Parks to help create a collection of suites and intricate musical compositions. Wilson proclaimed the album would be "a teenage symphony to God" but the musician's erratic behavior derailed the sessions and the band abandoned the project.
The Beach Boys released Smiley Smile, a stripped-down version of the sessions, in 1967 but the original recordings remained unreleased for years until ultimately it emerged in 2011 as The Smile Sessions.
Wilson's habit and worsening mental illness led to both the creation of the album and the collapse of it - with Parks later telling The Guardian that he was "victimized by Brian Wilson's buffoonery." He added:
It just got too much for me. It was an expensive decision for me not to continue my association with the most powerful artist in the music business at the time, but I made the only decision I could. I walked away from that funhouse.
Wilson himself later recalled being so out of his mind during sessions for the album's "Elements" suite that he believed he was the cause of several fires in Los Angeles that broke out during the same time they were recording the suite's "fire" section.
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