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Recovery in the News
There Is Hope
Karen Springen
Newsweek
Updated October 16, 2007
Alcohol and drugs killed icons like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe. But some strong-willed addicts get help in time. In "The Harder They Fall: Celebrities Tell Their Real-Life Stories of Addiction and Recovery" ( Hazelden), former rock 'n roll publicist Gary Stromberg and his partner, Jane Merrill, tell some of the famous folks' stories of redemption. Stromberg also weaves in tales of his own abuse. In the 1970s, he built a public-relations firm that represented a range of stars--from Muhammad Ali to Barbra Streisand, the Rolling Stones and Elton John--and produced a hit movie, "Car Wash." But he says his addiction to alcohol and drugs cost him his career and his long-time girlfriend in 1980. Today Stromberg runs a small PR company in Westport, Conn., where he lives with his two children who, he notes, have never seen him drunk or stoned. At 63, he eats only vegetarian food, runs regularly and works out on an elliptical trainer. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Karen Springen about his life and his book. Excerpts:
NEWSWEEK: You talked to 21 famous former addicts, including Alice Cooper, Grace Slick, writers like Pete Hamill and Anne Lamott and U.S. Congressman Jim Ramstad. How hard was it to get them to open up?
Gary Stromberg: I liken recovery to being rescued from the Titanic. These are people, all of whom have at least 10 years in recovery, and who have never forgotten how grateful they are to have been spared the ravages of addiction. In that regard, it wasn't difficult at all to get them to talk.
Did anyone turn you down?
A few people turned me down, like Elton John and Ringo Starr. Mainly because they wanted to tell their own stories in their own books.
Beside their fame, are there commonalities between the former addicts you interviewed?
Certainly alcoholism is a family disease, and there is a genetic component. That's a thread for some of them, perhaps most of them, but not all. These are people of high accomplishment in every case. To [achieve] the kind of success these people did requires going out on a limb, out on the edge, and pushing it. Oftentimes people, because of self doubt, needed to prop themselves up with substances, liquid courage. The character of Alice Cooper was a creation. Alice had never performed that character sober. The first time that he faced that daunting task was terrifying for him because he never had done it before. As it turned out, he created a character while sober that was much different than the intoxicated Alice. The new Alice worked out better.
Did you have a favorite interview?
All of them I really enjoyed doing. I think in particular Dr. John's interview because he [jazz musician Mac Rebennack, who created the "Night Tripper"] speaks in the language of New Orleans. When you read it, you wind up feeling like you're speaking with a New Orleans accent. I read his interview out loud when I do book readings.
A lot of these folks got into recovery when they were relatively young. Does that matter?
Most of them were in their 40s. They got into recovery when they were still productive. They weren't at the end of their careers. These people had long careers with substance abuse. It's very difficult for a young person to quit, from my experience. Drugs and alcohol often seem to be working for them, and they have tremendous resilience and drive. It takes someone who's been doing this for awhile to start getting beaten down to recognize where the addiction is heading. Seasoning is what it is.
Dock Ellis, in your book, pitched a no-hitter on acid. In his memoir, "On Writing," Stephen King writes that he wrote many of his best sellers under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Hunter S. Thompson famously wrote his pieces while stoned. How did these guys function so well on drugs?
There are many writers who function well on drugs. Dock Ellis's is truly one of the most amazing feats. He's hallucinating. Sometimes the ball was big, sometimes the ball was small. That's truly an astounding feat. Here's a man throwing fastballs at 90 miles an hour at targets he can't see. In terms of these writers who were able to function, it affects people differently. I guess they were able to create under the influence. But it certainly took a toll on their lives ... The writer may have been better and more creative at times, but there's a price to pay. It's exacting a tremendous price on you physically and emotionally. It may have made them more creative, but at what price?
What's the moral of the story? Is that it?
I don't think there's a single moral to my story, but that's one of them. The most important one is that there's hope. The most difficult consequence of alcoholism and drug addiction is the feeling of being trapped, being strangled, and hopefully my book will show that there's a way out.
Your book notes that Aerosmith's members have been sober for nearly two decades. I remember interviewing them backstage many years ago, and they were eating watermelon. Do many of these celebrities go from one extreme to another--addict to health nut?
There's a book I read when I first got sober called "Positive Addictions." The book suggests that if you are an addictive personality--that is, being obsessive and compulsive--you better find something positive to get addicted to. I got addicted to running. That's my nature, to be addicted to something. I wish I were more moderate in my life, but that's not my nature. It's difficult for me to eat in moderation, to do all kinds of things in moderation. Knowing that about myself, I focused on doing things that were beneficial to me.
As your book points out, 12-step programs weren't cool in the '60s, and places like the Betty Ford Center didn't exist. How would Elvis, Janis Joplin and Marilyn Monroe have handled a 30-day program?
Well, I don't think those people had surrendered, so I don't know if they would have handled it very well. One element that's required for sobriety is a willingness to stop drinking, to get sober. I don't know if those people had that willingness. If they had that, they would have had a chance. To get to the willingness takes surrender, and that's a difficult thing for most people, to admit that you're beaten.
How big a role do you think illegal drugs played in the sexual revolution and in the civil-rights and anti-Vietnam War movements?
From my experience, an enormous amount. They were pervasive in the '60s when my generation came of age ... They went hand-in-hand with sex and politics and revolution. It was all part of the psyche of that era. We wouldn't have had as much of any of what occurred in the '60s without drugs.
That makes it sound like they were positive.
Drugs and alcohol to some degree are positive, when you first start taking them. People take them because they work. But eventually they turn on you. They stop being fun and creative. And then it eventually takes you down.
Hazelden, which runs one of the nation's top "30-day" programs, published your book. How many of the people in your book completed similar residential programs?
I don't know the answer to that. I would imagine a good number. I never went through a 30-day program. I'm still involved in 12-step recovery.
Are you afraid of relapsing?
I have a healthy respect for drugs and alcohol. I have been sober a very long time. I'm clean and sober a little over 22 years. But I recognize there are many people who've been sober as long as I have who've gone back to using. I maintain certain things I need to maintain--running, a spiritual connection, and a new kind of consciousness that I acquired since I stopped using.
Did you start your new PR firm in Connecticut to be far away from Hollywood and its lifestyle and temptations?
Not so much temptations. I moved to Connecticut in 1994 because I didn't want to raise my children [David, now 17, and Emily, now 14] in Hollywood. I just didn't think it was a healthy environment to raise a family. Neither of my children has ever seen me loaded or drunk.
When you were indulging in alcohol and drugs, you hit bottom. You lost your business, your house and your girlfriend of five years. How is life now?
I'm living much more contentedly than I was in those days. I don't think the happily-ever-after applies. I have more quality problems today. It's not looking for money to find my next fix or paying back the drug dealer or where did I leave my car.
What's the goal of your book?
It's not to tell someone not to indulge. It's to show the people who may be having a problem that there is hope and the possibility of recovery ... My book will show you there are other people who went down the same road, who got into recovery and built wonderful lives back again.
© 2005 Newsweek