History Main / ArtisticStimulation

* The author in ''StrangerThanFiction'' is addicted to cigarettes.

* Children's book author Robert Munsch was addicted to cocaine and alcohol.

* Resident Intellectual Paul Kinsey on ''MadMen'' claims to get most of his ideas from "Mary Jane." The one time we actually get to see this in action, Peggy is the only one who actually comes up with anything.

* [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers John Frusciante's]] heroin use during the 90s led to all his teeth falling out, voices in his head, and the album ''Smile From The Streets You Hold'' which is considered his CreatorBreakdown. Luckily, [[ItGotBetter He Got Better]].

* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'' has the arm-less artist Rin Tezuka, who is smoking with her boyfriend (and PlayerCharacter) Hisao in an attempt to get enough inspiration for her art. It's seen as a bad thing from the start, however, since she's getting increasingly stressed and her mental state starts deteriorating soon...

* Charlie Pace from ''Series/{{Lost}}'' is addicted to something that is most likely cocaine but for some reason the drug is called heroin.

* Isaac Brock of Music/ModestMouse. To say nothing of the rest of the band, he definitely used various drugs. And then they all sobered up and made ''Good News For People Who Love Bad News'' and WeWereDeadBeforeTheShipEvenSank. The former is generally considered excellent (and quite bizarre), while the latter is generally considered merely very good and less bizarre (although some blame it on the change in drummer). Their earlier work is much different from those two releases, the influence of drugs is very clear on ''The Moon & Antarctica''. Incidentally, ''Good News'' contained a song about...

* Jude in ''Across the Universe'' smokes marijuana, but it doesn't seem to be a huge conflict.

* Creator/HunterSThompson made overindulgence in drugs--''many'' drugs--a large part of his public image, and by all accounts required amphetamines and alcohol to write in his [[GonzoJournalism trademark style]] (see, e.g., "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," written while constantly soused on bourbon and other booze). While the frequency is much debated, he definitely played with other substances, and was fond of marijuana in his more relaxed moments.

--->--Li Bai, "Drinking alone by moonlight"

* Dave Brock of space-rock band Hawkwind once claimed that he always mixed the band's albums while he was stoned. Given the results, it's entirely plausible.

* Music/SydBarrett.
** Though according to [[WordOfGod Roger Waters]], Syd was the only band member who was on anything harder than caffeine.

* The Korean painter Ohwon, whose life was the topic of ''DrunkOnWomenAndPoetry'', was a notorious drunk. Much of his oeuvre was allegedly done while under the influence of alcohol.

* Music/Ray Charles was addicted to heroin.

* Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas de Quincey, and most of the Romantic poets were known for their indulgence of the "hip" drugs of the day, from brandy and port to opium to laudanum (opium dissolved in liquor) to nitric oxide (laughing gas). Coleridge wrote "Kubla Khan", after an opium trip and De Quincey wrote ''Confessions of an English Opium Eater'' as an anti-drug PSA after he finally sobered up. Unfortunately, the [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing beatific descriptions]] of the visions and sensations produced by opium found in the book was responsible for attracting a huge number of people to try the drug.

* Charlie Pace from ''{{Lost}}'' is addicted to something that is most likely cocaine but for some reason the drug is called heroin.

* Ray Charles was addicted to heroin.
* Jack London was an alcoholic and eventually committed suicide.

* Music/TheBeatles were often high during or in the near vicinity of creative endeavors. They used stimulants while they were in Hamburg so they could stay awake during ridiculously long sets, and occasionally dabbled in other substances (including a couple of brushes with pot). After BobDylan offered the four of them pot under the mistaken notion that they were regular users (due to a {{Mondegreen}} of all things...), they started smoking it incessantly. By all accounts they were constantly stoned while filming ''Help!''. In the spring of 1965 John and George were introduced to acid by their dentist, who [[IntoxicationEnsues spiked their coffee with the stuff one night]], an incident memorialized in the song "Doctor Robert"; Ringo followed shortly thereafter. By their second trip to America, they were fairly regular trippers (there's a famous story about how Peter Fonda ruined their trip at a party they were throwing at their rental house in LA, which got turned into "She Said She Said" on ''Revolver''). Paul also took it up, but not until around "Sgt. Pepper," and he gave it up ''right'' before telling the press he ''used'' to take it... <sigh> John in particular loved LSD (he admitted to having written "I Am The Walrus" at least partially on two separate acid trips). At least two of Paul's songs ("Got To Get You Into My Life" and "Fixing a Hole") are most definitely about pot -- the former by [[WordOfGod Paul's admission,]] the latter because it's obvious; and odds are, any song from that era by Paul that looks like it's about pot is.
** JohnLennon was addicted to heroin for a while; he wrote the song "Cold Turkey" about his withdrawal symptoms. It was released as a solo work because PaulMcCartney didn't want to touch or get credit for it. (Pity, it's one of John's better works.)
* Having mentioned BobDylan, we would be remiss not to mention that when he wrote "[[EverybodyMustGetStoned Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35]]," he was ''not'' talking about an ancient form of capital punishment.

* Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse. To say nothing of the rest of the band, he definitely used various drugs. And then they all sobered up and made ''Good News For People Who Love Bad News'' and WeWereDeadBeforeTheShipEvenSank. The former is generally considered excellent (and quite bizarre), while the latter is generally considered merely very good and less bizarre (although some blame it on the change in drummer). Their earlier work is much different from those two releases, the influence of drugs is very clear on ''The Moon & Antarctica''. Incidentally, ''Good News'' contained a song about...

* Charlie Parker, probably the biggest name to EVER appear in jazz, took more drugs than Keith Richards. When he died, the coroner estimated him, on the degradation of his body, to be in his sixties. He was thirty four.
* Subverted by [[Music/VelvetUnderground Lou Reed]]: Although he certainly took lots of drugs, heroin was not one of them. However, he wrote and sung several ''songs'' about heroin (including [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one titled "Heroin"]]), and [[MisaimedFandom apparently some fans started using after hearing these songs]], much to his disgust.

* Author and counterculture figure Ken Kesey was a typical clean-cut, all-American jock... until he discovered LSD as a paid test subject in college. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]]. His first book, ''Literature/OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', was written while he worked night shifts at the local VA hospital's psych ward (a job he first took so he could access more LSD and other drugs), stoned out of his mind. His second novel, ''Sometimes A Great Notion'', was written on acid/pot/speed binges that would last thirty hours at a time. And then there was the bus...
* [[PinkFloyd Syd Barrett]].

* KurtCobain of Music/{{Nirvana}} used heroin a lot. It was at least partially self medication for an unspecified stomach condition.

* [[RedHotChiliPeppers John Frusciante's]] heroin use during the 90s led to all his teeth falling out, voices in his head, and the album ''Smile From The Streets You Hold'' which is considered his CreatorBreakdown. Luckily, [[ItGotBetter He Got Better]].

* [[TheBeachBoys Brian Wilson]] first took LSD with a friend in 1964 - after some initial anxiety, he sat down and played what would eventually become ''California Girls'' - call it coincidence, but the BeachBoys music started to get more interesting and complex around this time.

* HunterSThompson made overindulgence in drugs--''many'' drugs--a large part of his public image, and by all accounts required amphetamines and alcohol to write in his [[GonzoJournalism trademark style]] (see, e.g., "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," written while constantly soused on bourbon and other booze). While the frequency is much debated, he definitely played with other substances, and was fond of marijuana in his more relaxed moments.

* Music/EricClapton was becoming addicted to heroin when he recorded what is generally regarded as his best album, Derek & the Dominos' ''Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs''. However, this is also something of a subversion as he wasted the next couple of years until he cleaned up.
* MilesDavis was addicted to drugs at several points of his career. This was also a large part of the reason that he didn't release anything in the late '70s.

* EltonJohn was addicted to cocaine, marijuana and alcohol (along with suffering through bulimia and sex addiction) from 1975 through entering a Chicago rehabilitation center (the only one he found that specialized in conquering all of his addictions at once) in 1990 to seek treatment. [[WordOfGod He claims]] that working on his first post-rehab album ''The One'' [[TroubledProduction was difficult at first]] as he was without the crutch of chemical dependency for the first time in ages.

* PhilipKDick wrote most of his fiction under the influence of drugs, though, despite how often hallucinogens appear in his work, he made little if any use of LSD or other psychedelic drugs. He mostly took amphetamines, and it wasn't for inspiration so much as energy: he was paid so little for each novel that he sometimes had to write as many as five or six a year, as well as numerous short stories, just to pay his bills, a schedule he couldn't keep up without powerful stimulants.

* Subverted by Robert Lewis Stevenson- he happened to have been given drugs when suffering with a severe chest infection which simply had the side-effect of inducing hallucinations and convulsions; this inspired him to write JekyllAndHyde- not that he hallucinated the story as such, but he was fascinated later by how the drugs had made him feel like a separate personality.

** Though according to [[WordOfGod Roger Waters]], Syd was the only band member who was on anything harder than alcohol, nicotine or caffeine.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "The Lure Of The Orb" has a [[AddictiveMagic magic orb]] that's supposed to give heightened inspiration to whoever touches it, but in reality only gives a temporary boost of energy that leaves the user drained and addicted to its power. Poet was the first to use the orb in order to complete his spring pageant poem, from which he was able to write pages of verses, but after he was freed from the effects of the orb, Poet read what he wrote and was astonished with how the quality of his writing had suffered because of the orb. (Other users of the orb -- Painter, Harmony, Farmer, and Handy -- also realized that the quality of their work had suffered because of their addiction to the orb's magic.) He ends up scrapping the overly-long drug-created poem and writes a very short poem about how to deal with his problems taking no more than an hour before the pageant starts.

* Subverted by [[VelvetUnderground Lou Reed]]: Although he certainly took lots of drugs, heroin was not one of them. However, he wrote and sung several ''songs'' about heroin (including [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin one titled "Heroin"]]), and [[MisaimedFandom apparently some fans started using after hearing these songs]], much to his disgust.

* Author and counterculture figure Ken Kesey was a typical clean-cut, all-American jock... until he discovered LSD as a paid test subject in college. [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity ensued]]. His first book, ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', was written while he worked night shifts at the local VA hospital's psych ward (a job he first took so he could access more LSD and other drugs), stoned out of his mind. His second novel, ''Sometimes A Great Notion'', was written on acid/pot/speed binges that would last thirty hours at a time. And then there was the bus...

* Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas de Quincey, and most of the Romantic poets were known for their indulgence of the "hip" drugs of the day, from brandy and port to opium to laudanum (opium dissolved in liquor) to nitric oxide (laughing gas). Coleridge wrote "Kubla Khan", after an opium trip and De Quincey wrote ''Confessions of an English Opium Eater'' as an anti-drug PSA after he finally sobered up. Unfortunately, the beatific descriptions of the visions and sensations produced by opium found in the book was responsible for attracting a huge number of people to try the drug.

* HunterSThompson made overindulgence in drugs--''many'' drugs--a large part of his public image, and by all accounts required amphetamines and alcohol to write in his [[GonzoJournalism trademark style]] (see, e.g., "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," written while constantly soused on bourbon and other booze. While the frequency is much debated, he definitely played with other substances, and was fond of marijuana in his more relaxed moments.

* OlderThanPrint: The Tang Dynasty-era (8th century) Chinese poet Li Bai (perhaps better known as Li Po in the West) was famous for his alcoholism, to the point where many if not most of his poems are in some way about drinking and drunkenness. He supposedly died during a drinking session in a rowboat on a lake, where he became enamored of the reflection of the moon on the water and drowned trying to hug it. He is considered to be one of the finest poets (if not ''the'' finest) in the history of Chinese literature, which is saying something (considering how much literature China has produced in its 3,500+ years of existence as a civilization).

** Dylan has always been a bit cagey about his intoxicant use. As one writer put it, his main drug of choice has always been alcohol. He claimed in an interview that he briefly was addicted to heroin after arriving in New York, but he may have been making that up (in the same interview he claimed he also worked as a hustler in that period). We know he was an enthusiastic pot smoker during his folk years, and one reporter has claimed that Dylan once barged into Music/WillieNelson's tour bus with a gigantic blunt while the reporter was interviewing Nelson sometime in the 1990s or early 2000s. Reliable reports have him trying LSD a few times when it was still legal (around 1964), but comments he's made over the years indicate he wasn't all that impressed with it. He used amphetamines a lot in the 1965-66 period. Beyond that it's all conjecture.

** Dylan has always been a bit cagey about his intoxicant use. As one writer put it, his main drug of choice has always been alcohol. He claimed in an interview that he briefly was addicted to heroin after arriving in New York, but he may have been making that up (in the same interview he claimed he also worked as a hustler in that period). We know he was an enthusiastic pot smoker during his folk years. Reliable reports have him trying LSD a few times when it was still legal (around 1964), but comments he's made over the years indicate he wasn't all that impressed with it. He used amphetamines a lot in the 1965-66 period. Beyond that it's all conjecture.