Billy Joel, the Piano Man, may just have his fear to thank for not becoming the Heroin Man.
In an interview with shock jock Howard Stern, the music legend admitted he tried heroin decades ago, but became so “scared” he never touched it again, the New York Post reported.
“That was back in the late ’70s, I think,” he said during the interview. “We were in Amsterdam, and there was all this stuff going on, so I said, ’Let me see what this is like.’ It got me so high, I didn’t know how to deal with it.”
He explained the feeling, as reported by Rolling Stone: “You just get way out, just go to another place, and you’re into the blues. All you want to hear is the blues. You start drooling, and you get sick.”
Mr. Joel — who’s won awards for his music, including a Grammy — said the drug trip was the inspiration behind his 1982 “Scandinavian Skies,” which contain the lyrics about the “sins of Amsterdam” that left him “paralyzed.”
Mr. Joel spoke of his past heroin experience at a “Billy Joel Town Hall” event hosted by Mr. Stern, the New York Post said.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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