The Us Festival - Woz Should Do It Again!

[Scott Bails]

To hear Chris Squire tell it, the guys in Yes were practically homebodies — until the Eagles showed up with all of the coke. “We were strictly a pot and hash band at the beginning,” Squire says, in a talk with Prog, at least once he swore off acid after a scary incident involving a homemade batch that led to a hospital stay.

Then, Yes toured the U.S. in 1973 with the Eagles as their opening act. He says one of the members of the group, led by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, took him aside and said, “Try this.” Squire had discovered something new: “Cocaine,” he says, smiling.

“I got involved in cocaine,” he admits now. “Blame the Eagles. But that was it. As far as I know, no one in Yes ever did heroin.” Well, other than that one time at a party hosted by the late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy fame. “Phil was a naughty boy,” Squire adds. “He said: ‘Do you want a line of coke?’ And there was smack in it.”

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[dropforge]

To hear Chris Squire tell it, the guys in Yes were practically homebodies — until the Eagles showed up with all of the coke. “We were strictly a pot and hash band at the beginning,” Squire says, in a talk with Prog, at least once he swore off acid after a scary incident involving a homemade batch that led to a hospital stay.

Then, Yes toured the U.S. in 1973 with the Eagles as their opening act. He says one of the members of the group, led by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, took him aside and said, “Try this.” Squire had discovered something new: “Cocaine,” he says, smiling.

“I got involved in cocaine,” he admits now. “Blame the Eagles. But that was it. As far as I know, no one in Yes ever did heroin.” Well, other than that one time at a party hosted by the late Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy fame. “Phil was a naughty boy,” Squire adds. “He said: ‘Do you want a line of coke?’ And there was smack in it.”

Yeah, that was Phil's poison of choice. Sad to read how his mom Philomena learned he was injecting it between his toes. He was gone not long after that.

[GuitarGeek]

Not surprised. Every Eagle was bad into it for a while. IIRC, it was Geezer (Butler) who said while Sabbath was in North Miami recording Technical Ecstasy at Criteria, and splitting the shift with the Eagles (who were recording Hotel California), they had to "scrape the cocaine off the mixing console" every day before they started working.

Reminds me of the story Gene Simmons told about recording Hotter Than Hell in LA. They visited the studio before recording actually started, and apparently there was a mirror built into the desk or whatever you want to call it, next to the mixing console. He thought "WTF?! Why would you fiddle with your hair there?". Then the first day of recording, he walks into the control room, and sees this big pile of what he initially thought was creamer sitting on the mirror. He was about to scrape some into his cup of coffee when the recording engineer walked in and screamed, "NO! DON'T!".

From what I gather, it was common place for record companies to figure bands' cocaine use into the recording budget..."Let's, see you used an 80 piece orchestra on one song, a bagpiper on another, a church organ on a third, and you also consumed $10,000 of Lima, Peru's finest! That's why you haven't seen any royalties on your record that failed to top the charts!"

I always liked Stephen Tyler's comment on his drug use: "I must have snorted up half of Peru!"

[GuitarGeek]

Yeah, that was Phil's poison of choice. Sad to read how his mom Philomena learned he was injecting it between his toes. He was gone not long after that.

I gathered that "nobody" knew that he was doing heroin, because of that, i.e. there were no obvious needle marks on his arms or other areas that would tip others off that he was using.

But if he was doing speedballs, he's probably lucky he lived as long as he did.

[progmatist]

Loved his cameos on The Drew Carey Show.

I loved the guitarist auditions which led up to Joe joining the band. One of them was Dave Mustaine shredding. Drew told him to slow down, to which Dave replied, "It's supposed to sound like that."

[Jerjo]

This video kinda went viral among guitar folks - Joe Walsh setting up a Les Paul and joking all the way

[dropforge]

I loved the guitarist auditions which led up to Joe joining the band. One of them was Dave Mustaine shredding. Drew told him to slow down, to which Dave replied, "It's supposed to sound like that."

Yeah, I remember that! And then there was the one ("Drewstock") with the house party where Little Richard and Joe were holed up upstairs playing chess; "Richard, you always were the best at Stratego!" Then the episode ended with the two jamming.



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