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Originally Posted by Captain_jovi
If we're talking "noticeable" as far as drinking goes I will never forget him slurring "Words can't say what love me do" in Montreal summer of 2006. But that could have also been a mix of the painkillers too…
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Nah. That was just his Dean Martin persona colliding with his Beatles influences.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Captain_jovi
But like everyone is saying if he's been drinking since the 80's something would have changed, he was competent and pretty eloquent in interviews until the last decade or so. I just don't think it's booze and booze alone.
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Well, that could be explained by the snowball effect that addictions can have over the years, where things get steadily worse. But that’s another easy jump to make. I agree that if the explanation was that simple, we would probably have seen a more consistent downward spiral since 2005-ish; and that hasn’t been the case. He was obviously struggling during HAND and LH; then seemed ok for a while; but suddenly went into rehab in April 2011. Then from the time he returned in June, he seemed back on his game for the rest of the GH tour and while he was writing and recording AOTL, including those performances. Even throughout the first leg of the BWC tour he seemed fine and, according to some people, actually carried those shows. Unless you consider the occasional “lip-licking” that some people assumed was coke-related, there was no real appearance of substance abuse through the rest of 2013 and most of 2014, iirc. Then his performances and behavior in interviews became more erratic again during late 2016 and 2017.
So, instead of a steady decline, there’s been an up/down or on/off pattern. The timing of the “off” behaviors seems to parallel major upheavals in his personal and professional lives, which leads me to believe there are mitigating circumstances, or it's something else that we don't know about. People have suggested things like illness, anti-depressants, or a lack of confidence coupled with over-compensation.
That’s not to say that his addictions haven’t played a part, especially with the painkiller component. Richie wrote, “…you cure your problems with a bottle of instant forget” but I know too many people who started out taking painkillers for physical pain, then found that it helped them “forget” a lot of emotional pain as well. Maybe the “personal demons” that Jon and David keep referring to aren’t Richie’s addictions, per se, but whatever it is that he may be trying to bury under them.