Rocker Myles Kennedy felt compelled to lose himself in a drug haze in a bid to boost his songwriting skills.
The Alter Bridge frontman and Slash collaborator steered clear of narcotics until his twenties when he started to dabble with drugs as part of his life in the band.
The star insists he went "off the deep end" for several years as his addiction got out of control, but admits he felt he needed to get high to come up with new songs.
He tells Kerrang!, "Part of the reason I got into drugs was that I felt my well was dry as a writer. As silly as it sounds, they helped me creatively and gave me something to write about. The problem was, once I dipped my toe in, I discovered that they were fun. It was a weird, dark and strange period.
"That's a long way behind me now. But now that I'm working on the Slash record, a lot of the lyrics are about those days. It's still quite fresh in my mind, but I wouldn't let myself get into a situation where there's temptation. I have a wife who would never put up with me going there."