I was addicted to heroin, meth and crack cocaine. Now I’m hooked on cycling and Corrie, says Gogglebox star Shaun Ryder
HAPPY Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder has revealed his wildest moments – including snorting cocaine from inside a COFFIN and a wild bender at the home of an Eighties pop legend.
The star, who has been drug-free for 20 years, revealed he fled the house of Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan after “making himself acquainted” with his drugs stash.
He also credits Maggie Thatcher for making his music career and Britpop possible and revealed he takes more legal, prescription pills now than illicit narcotics when he was an addict.
And he wants a new career as a cycling influencer — after getting hooked on going out on his bike — alongside his music and appearing on TV’s Gogglebox.
In an exclusive interview launching his book Happy Mondays And Fridays, And Saturdays, And Sundays, Shaun, 61, revealed: “I’ve had a few mad moments.
“I was sat in Dave Gahan’s house [in Los Angeles].
“We’d been out partying all night and we go back to his gaff — don’t forget, this is 30 years ago — and Dave pulls out this massive big pot of coke and heroin.
“There was all sorts there.
They say I jumped into a coffin, lay down and started snorting coke. But I don’t remember it
“It was the early hours and he said, ‘I’m going out. I’ll be back in a bit’.
“By this time it’s only me sat in his house. He’s gone for a few hours.
“I’m getting well acquainted with his drugs.
“Then I turned the telly on — there’s Dave on Sunset Boulevard being chased by police.
‘Drug dealer fixed it for us to bypass customs’
“The helicopters are following him. And I’m watching him on CNN and thinking, ‘They’re going to be round here in five minutes when they get hold of him, and I’m sat in his gaff doing all this’.
“You can’t get taxis in LA so I had to wait for someone to come and pick me up and I got out of there.”
Gahan, like Shaun, went on to get clean after a dark period — but back then, Shaun had one regret.
He joked: “I should have took his gear with me.
“I didn’t because I’m a dick.
“I have never seen him or spoke to him since, as I got banned from America.”
As well as the book, Shaun has also announced a live Q&A tour, where he is going to talk about “anything and everything”, including snorting coke inside a coffin at a funeral in Brazil, where he’d flown for the Rock In Rio festival.
He said: “Our trip to Brazil in early 1991 was wild . . . even before we got off the plane.
“I’d done an interview for the Brazilian equivalent of The Sun before we left and the reporters were asking about our reputation for drugs.
“‘Are you going to be bringing ecstasy to Brazil?’, they asked me.
“I laughed and said, ‘Oh yeah, you just wait and see. I’m gonna bring thousands of ’em’.
“I was clearly taking the p***.
“That’s not the sort of thing I’m gonna shout about in the most popular newspaper in the land, is it?
“The result was that when our plane landed, the police were waiting for us.
“An announcement went up on the Tannoy, ‘Happy Mondays, stand up!’.
“‘F***in’ hell’, I thought. ‘We’re in for it here.
“It’s gonna be Midnight Express all over again.
“This is where they just throw us in a cell and chuck away the key’.
“What happened? They opened the door and we could see f***ing daylight on the other side.
“Somehow we’d bypassed customs altogether and we were through.
“It turned out that a mate of ours, who was basically a big-time drug importer, had used his contacts and fixed it for us.”
Maggie Thatcher is responsible for Britpop. Those bands were all on the Enterprise Allowance
It was in Brazil that he ended up inside a coffin in a drug-fuelled haze.
Shaun said: “I only know this as I was told about it.
“Apparently there was a funeral there and I got in a coffin, but I don’t remember that.
“They say that I jumped into it, lay down and started snorting coke.
“I don’t remember that.”
Shaun’s wild days are today firmly behind him, thanks to his wife Joanne and six children.
The couple share a home in Salford with daughters Lulu, 15, and Pearl, 16, along with son Oliver, 30.
He said: “My teenage girls have ADHD and autism.
“There was a reason I got into drugs, ADHD.
“I have pretty bad learning difficulties and I’ve hid them all my life.
“It’s only since I got to my late fifties and sixties where I’ve thought, ‘I’m not hiding it any more’.”
On his decision to get clean, he said: “I wanted to do it as I’d got to 40 and my kids were getting older and I didn’t want them to think I’m this f***ed-up old dude.”
He says bike riding was key to breaking his addiction — and he still enjoys it so much, he would love to be a cycling influencer.
Shaun explained: “I used to be addicted to heroin, methamphetamine, crack cocaine — you name it.
“Now I’m addicted to cycling and Coronation Street.
“Have I had any moments of weakness since then? No, I haven’t, really.
“My youngest girls, who are teenagers now, are at home with us and have never seen me like that.
“I’ve not tried to hide it, it’s my story, but they don’t recognise that person today.
“I’m a big believer in the saying that whatever you get through makes you stronger.”
As well as his music, he loves being on Celebrity Gogglebox with Bez, 60, his old pal from the Mondays.
Shaun said: “Gogglebox is great. I get paid to sit there with my mate and drink beer and they bring us ice cream and chocolate. For some reason they like filming us when we’re eating.”
Shaun says he is now a “bionic man”, as well as a clean-living one.
He added: “Teeth, hair, eyebrows, hips — there’s less and less of the original Shaun Ryder left these days.
“The Bionic Man had fewer replacement parts than me.
“My teeth were basically f***ed by the amount of crack cocaine and crystal meth I was taking.
“As for my hair, the shadow you see now isn’t hair, it’s like a tattoo.
“It’s called micropigmentation, which I had done by a company called Skalp, which specialises in non-surgical treatment for people with hair loss.
“The reason I needed it is that I suddenly came down with full body alopecia, where you lose all your hair, not just off your head, but eyebrows and eyelashes as well.
‘My greatest achievement is my children’
“Rounding off my medical bulletin, I’ve got one hip replacement, but when they replaced it they told me that the other one was also on its way out.
“I’m actually on more drugs than I’ve ever been in my life — prescription ones.
“I’m on stuff for all sorts.
“I have to take four thyroid pills, two for my dust allergies, some for arthritis, some more for my prostate. F***ing loads of them.
“I’m having problems with some of my prescription drugs as they are harder to get since we have left the EU.”
Yet he’s never been happier.
Shaun said: “There used to be a time when I was just the mad rocker who went on to TV shows off my t*ts on heroin.
“I’m still having great fun in the spotlight, whether that’s with the Happy Mondays, Black Grape or as a solo performer.
“But these days you’re just as likely to find me blowing off the cobwebs on a bike ride, watching telly with my best mate Bez or catching up on Corrie in my slippers.
“I’ve been off the illegal street drugs for more than 20 years now and I’ve never been happier.
“I’ve told my girls ‘don’t do drugs’.
“None of my kids have turned out to be idiots.”
He said people still shout Mondays lyrics, “You’re twisting my melon, man” or “Call the cops” at him.
I told a paper I was bringing thousands of ecstasy pills to Brazil. When we landed the police were waiting for us
He said: “Builders will yell them at me from across the street.
“It’s the same when I’m out on my bike.
“I’m not sure what they expect me to say back, to be honest, so I just f***ing wave, smile and shout ‘Alriiiight’ at them.
“Love it. It’s great fun.”
Of the Iron Lady playing a role in his career, he explained: “Maggie Thatcher is responsible for Britpop.
“She’s responsible for all the music in the Eighties and all the bands that were formed. They were all on the Enterprise Allowance.”
Shaun has no plans to retire.
He said: “My greatest achievement is my children and still being around making music, still being allowed to make albums and go on tour.
“I can’t retire.
“Look at the Rolling Bones.
“You just don’t retire.
“As long as you’re still enjoying what you’re doing, why would you not want to keep doing it?
“Look at people like Tom Jones, Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger, still doing their thing into their 80s, trying new things and finding new audiences.
“No one’s telling them it’s time for them to retire.”
And Shaun reckons Bez’s 60th birthday celebrations last month prove his partying days are well and truly behind him.
He said: “We were in Brighton.
“Someone had organised a party for Bez in the afternoon, but we’d done a show the night before, then done this massive drive.
“I needed to sleep.
The Bionic Man had fewer replacement parts than me. Teeth, hair, eyebrows, hips – there’s less and less of the original Shaun Ryder left
“He didn’t even want to go to his own party as he was knackered.
“Instead of partying hard, I had an afternoon kip.”
Shaun’s Q&A tour will travel the country from September.
He added: “Because I do TV and was in the I’m A Celeb jungle, our audience goes from eight years old to 80 now.
“I saw myself doing this for as long as I could — into my eighties.
“I always thought I was in for the long run.
“I feel really, really lucky.”
Happy Mondays And Fridays, And Saturdays, And Sundays is available to pre-order, along with Q&A tickets, at awaywithmedia.com.