Here's a really, really great video on Richard Manuel (and oh yeah, The Band).

Musselwhite was wiser than his contemporary, Paul Butterfield. Paul got in tight with the Woodstock guys, doing a lot of playing with Levon Helm and Rick Danko in particular. He died of an overdose at age 44.

The debut Paul Butterfield Blues Band album was the first "real" Blues music I heard. It opened the eyes of my teenage suburban bandmates and I as to how bad most of the British bands performed the music (the exceptions being John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac).

It’s definitely a crazy world and a shame that drugs are such an integral part of the music business. I’m glad that you (and a lot of other people) managed to not fall into the trap.

I think it was Charlie Musselwhite who had a similar experience to yours. I read an interview where he said he tried heroin once and it was so good that he knew that there would be a heavy price to pay for using it, so he never did it again.

The only drugs we had in San Jose in the 60’s and 70’s (at least that I knew of) were weed, LSD, and amphetamine (speed). When I moved to L.A. in 1979, cocaine was everywhere. Every party I went to had mirrors with lines of coke floating around the room, like joints were in San Jose. I tried it a few times, and wondered what all the fuss was about. That was until one night, when I finally got enough of the stuff to really get off. It was so much fun that I decided right then and there to never do it again. Haven’t touched the stuff since.

Meanwhile, my sister (in Portland, Oregon) and my girlfriend’s sister and her husband (in.L.A.) got themselves addicted to heroin, the girlfriend’s sister and her husband doing a coupla stretches in prison for armed robbery. The husband died of an overdose (heroin laced with fentanyl) a few years ago, and the sister has been on all kinds of pills (including oxycodone) for years. My sister got clean, and remains so.

That longtime girlfriend of mine had been a productive, high-income (an assistant to a lawyer who represented big-time musical artists), level-headed kind of person, but in the first decade of the 2000’s got into weed on a deep level, and it completely changed her personality. That lead to our breakup in 2008, and her mental breakdown and firing resulted in her going on Social Security Disability, where she remains.

What a world!

The problem with heroin (now fentanyl) is that it’s such a good high that once you try it, it makes you want to dabble in it. Dabbling becomes addiction before you know it. Rick Danko remained addicted to the end of his life.

@wharfy: Evan was in a band with the genius guitar player Danny Gatton, who like Richard committed suicide. Evan told me it was Danny’s wife who drove him to it. He also told me Danny was the best musician he ever played with. I wasn’t insulted; not everyone can be a genius. Just like I wasn’t insulted when Emitt Rhodes told me the best musician he ever worked with was the genius drummer Jim Gordon (though he did praise my playing on the song he was producing in his nice converted-garage recording studio. The bassist on the date wasn’t so fortunate; Emitt’s brutal critique of his playing had him in tears). Emitt himself was a big pothead, as well as a very unhappy, bitter man (he got royally screwed by the contract he signed with Lou Adler/Dunhill Records. Plus he had two ex-wives who caused him a lot of grief, and three daughters who caused him a lot of pain.).​​​​​​

@bdp24

So many musicians used heroin. Both Stan Getz and Philly Jo Jones said they used heroin because it gave them the energy they needed to cope with the demands of playing.

Robbie Robertson says Richard, Rick and Levon’s heroin use is one of the reasons The Band’s music suffered and contributed to his decision to leave. Of course, RR had his own drug use problems. Seems to go with the territory.

This is how Jerry Garcia described heroin and drugs in general- “It’s one of those places you turn with your problems, and pretty soon all your problems have become that one problem. Then it’s just you and the drugs."

I haven’t heard of Evan Johns and looked him up--a musician’s musician, who has played with many good musicians.

@wharfy: It was only recently that I learned of Richard's (and Levon's) dabbling with heroin. Coincidentally, I believe that was also when Clapton was using, locked inside his house for a coupla years. And the same time John and Yoko were doing the same in The Dakoda. I remember hearing about Jerry Garcia's heroin addiction, and being surprised that a guy so associated with LSD and higher consciousness would be interested in a "body" drug.

I've known and made music with a couple of guys who drank themselves to death, including Evan Johns. During the recording of his Moontan album, he was drinking beer in quantities I had never before witnessed (about an 18-pk. a day). He told me "You're okay as long as you stay away from the hard stuff" (presumably whiskey, gin, and vodka). But as the album was being mixed and a tour set up to support the release of the album, Evan lapsed into a coma. The doctors told his woman to start making funeral arrangements, that he was in the final stage of liver failure. A coupla weeks later Evan suddenly sat up, asking about his Telecaster. Turns out that was the third time that had happened, but not the last. He somehow made it to the age of 60, dying in Austin, Texas back in 2017. The other guy made it to only 39.

Richard Manuel was only 42 when he committed suicide.

@bdp24 

Thanks for posting the video. The Band will always be one of my favorites. Every week I listen to one of their first two records.

In the book about The Band, "Across the Great Divide," Robbie Robertson says when he wrote "The Shape I'm In," he was witnessing Richard Manuel's descent into alcoholism and heroin addiction. 

I had no idea up until seeing/hearing the above videos how brilliant The Band was, now I do, thanks for posting. Quite simply, as good as rock music can be, definitely going to look at The Last Waltz again.

Here's Richard leading The Band in "The Shape I'm In" at The Last Waltz. My God, just awesome!

https://youtu.be/aHMp_HV6a4s?si=VYptz9gaLsZzH3EW